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Peter's Review: On July 19th, Vanessa (an attractive young anarchist) and I were standing in the back of Tramps to the side so that we could watch Oleander and review their performance. This is 1999, and a bunch of cowardly boys (too chicken to start a mosh pit in front where the men were) began pushing the girls and innocent music reviewers around in what seemed to me like a legally actionable manner. Since Vanessa was wearing prohibitively feminine clothing, I made myself a human shield to protect her from the smirking girly macho boys as they literally punched and kicked at people from behind to express their excitement over Oleander's music. I should explain at this point that I am from the old-fart Beastie Boys generation that never caught on to the sense or sensibility of "moshing," or even its predecessor, "slamming." We were too cool for that. "Moshing" seemed strictly bridge-and-tunnel. But that is who I was lost in a crowd of: suburban boys. Lead singer, Thomas Flowers was shouting typical "rock show" blather such as, "There ain't no place that rocks like New York!" and these boys were responding like Hitler Youth. "I want you to jump straight up and down for the beginning of this song," Flowers instructed the crowd, "but only during the beginning. Okay?" The music began, the audience pogoed. The music slowed down, the audience stopped. They're nothing if not obedient. But then the show bizzy frontman pointed to the crowd of violent boys near us and shouted, "Those are some bad-ass motha-fuckas over there!" Of course, the boys leaped in the air, screaming, fists raised in fascist salute. Within two songs, some of them were literally hanging from the rafters. In spite of the fact that Vanessa was enjoying the show far more than I was, she decided at this point that we should leave. I swear to God, I am not giving Oleander a bad review here. I think what I'm trying to communicate is that I'm not the target audience for this brand of music, which I believe is currently being called, "hard rock." It sounds a lot like "grunge," but it has been cleansed of the deep emotions and sincerity that ultimately ruined the commercial aspect of that sub-genre. No, this is music for the young people, and since Vanessa is 22, I figure that means her. Forget what I said – just read her review:
This show was the first time I had ever been to Tramps and so I didn't know exactly what to expect. The first K-Rock Low Dough show I went to was at Irving Plaza. The people at the door for this one seemed a little high strung, but it's to be expected when dealing with kids all night. As Oleander struck their first chord, a mosh pit broke out to our left. Had I not been wearing knee-high leather high-heeled boots that night I would've jumped right in. I can see Peter's point, however. He's right, but he's wrong. He's saying that they shouldn't have been doing that, but I say they just shouldn't have done it there at Tramps. There are poles in the floor so the place really wasn't meant for moshing, because there really wasn't room to accommodate the moshers. As for Oleander, they're a somewhat heavy brand of alternative pop rock. They didn't come out with a slow song, which I liked; they started with a decent one. Also, they didn't play their hit song first, which is always a good thing. I hate when bands do that. If the hit song is the best song, once it's over you end up listening to an hour of crap or wanting to leave. The last Low Dough show I went to, when the DJ announced that we were live on the air, he asked us to chant K-Rock. Instead I had started a WSOU chant. Even though Oleander put on a pretty good show, all I really wanted to do was wait for them to go off stage so I could start another WSOU chant. It's probably a good thing we left when we did... August 1999 
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