Four overrated bands whose current tours would be a waste of your money
By Lee Vowell
Yay! It is almost summer in the northern hemisphere. That means more music festivals which means more bands are hitting the road.
In many cases, live shows are worth checking out. They might be costly, but a musical artist will make the gig worth your while. Other artists, though, are just taking your money and turning that into expensive new homes for themselves.
Four of those bands follow. All of these groups are on tour at some point in the spring or summer. You might be better off spending your money on something more worthwhile than tickets to their concerts.
Four fantastically overrated bands whose current tours you should skip
Twenty One Pilots
Twenty One Pilots has a loyal following and they will keep drinking the Kool-Aid and there will be no arguing with them that their favorite band is the equivalent of emo ABBA. They make shiny songs and try to blur the lines between Christian rock and pop-punk but they don't have the bravery to choose either one in full.
That could be because they would lose some of their fanbase. Lord forbid they do that! These guys need to make their money so they can one day stop making music and say they regret some of the themes they used. That will happen; just wait.
Blink-182
Pop-punk never sounded so bad. Is this Sum 41 or Blink-182 and what is up with the need to have random numbers in the names of the band? (OK, I am sure there is a good reason for the numbers but one likely needs to know the secret handshake and the band is not worth the time spent to learn that.) Blink-182 is not the worst band ever; they just want to try too hard to show how unique they are. A group that is truly unique doesn't need to work so hard to prove they are unlike others.
For some time, the band did the world a favor and did not make new music. For most of those years you might have asked someone, "Name one Blink-182 song," and the answer would have been "All the Small Things." Ask the average person to name a second song and you might get a lot of blank stares.
The band reunited recently and made new music. Yet, most people can still only name just one song. Maybe the group should go back into its hole. "Growth" is clearly not a word they know.
Five Finger Death Punch
If you are a fan of Five Finger Death Punch, you would be able to tell their songs apart from anything else one might hear from most modern hard rock bands. The problem is that 99 percent of the population of the rest of the world might not be able to answer the question "Whose song is this?" when a Five Finger Death Punch tune is on the radio. The band has no relation to talent other than maybe the lack of talent it takes to sound like everything else.
Live, the band is just as bland. At least groups like Ice Nine Kills have a schtick and stick with that. Five Finger Death Punch simply shows up, plays their melodically-challenged tunes, and goes home. They steal your money in the process.
dark. Next. Overlooked 1980s. Overlooked albums from the 1980s
Halestorm
Female rock singers can be amazing. If you have never seen In This Moment, for instance, you should. They put on a theatrical show and Maria Brink has a ridiculously good voice. Halestorm's Lzzy Hale can sing well, too. That is not the group's issue. Instead, they make power chord-heavy songs with no imagination. They seem to want to strive to sound like Carrie Underwood does on Sunday Night Football's theme song.
The group's tracks are so slick they come across as heartless and as if they are the idea of what some record company exec believes a rock band should be. Hale's vocal talent is wasted. Maybe Halestorm should make a wretched country record. Take away the electric guitars and all they are is a bad version of a country band.
More music news and analysis:
manual