subsdance

Substance is the Tuesday night dance party at New Belmont. It is a night full of open deck half-hour sets by genuine music fans that provides an admirably eclectic journey as the night gets darker and drunker and dancier. I used to hear that it was infested with "hipsters" and was happy to believe that when I was struggling to keep a comedy shoe going on the same night. Having now spent some time and played some music there, I'm skeptical of this whole "hipster" critique. Maybe, like any other place, you might run into some people you don't agree with. Well cry into one of those fountain frames and create an estuary. I don't really want to hear it from anybody who cannot give me a good, useful definition of the word "hipster" and an explanation of why it does not apply to anybody with the energy to worry about them. Its one of those words like "indie" that is nearly entirely useless but still gets people all worked up. If we're going to go into broad stereotyping, I don't find "hipsters" being any more insufferable or intolerant than anybody else I could slap an arbitrary label on like "brah" or "geek" or "freemason". The only difference I can perceive is that "hipsters" tend to dress better and listen to better music. Don't hate them because they're beautiful.

Anyhwah, I'll be playing music at Substance tonight, going track for track with Madman Mike from 10:30-11:30. I hope to see some friendly, music-loving faces out there. Here is a nifty video Craig Kimberly put together for hamptonroads.tv: