06.17.11

Dad Rock

Posted in Phlogiston, Rock 'n' Roll at 8:40 am by George Smith

Please don’t indulge the Dads. Dad rock needs to be discouraged.

If you’ve been to Guitar Center even semi-regularly on weekends you’ve suffered through some, if not many, of the annoying aspects of Dad rock.

There’s the Dad who’s buying his little American-branded made-in-China combo amp used in the soft-rock-at-worship on Sunday band.

There’s the Dad who has brought in his acoustic guitar with a couple broken strings because he’s too totally [deleted] to restring and tune it himself.

There’s the Dad at the Pasadena gig who tells you he plays guitar, too, and is now really getting back into it again because the kids are at school.

There are the Dads who want to play their old blues licks or stumble through a classic rock riff for everyone in the showroom.

Possibly the worst — the Dad rock politicians, now seemingly mostly Republicans — doing this gig for advertising.

Back when I ate shoe leather and liked it in Pennsy, the tradition was accordion and polka. If Dad had an old button box he often handed it down to his boy.

This was a big thing, particularly as the accordions were often ornate and beautiful instruments.

Polka is a family tradition, one you can do with your Dad and not be a source of mortification for everyone around you.

There is no rock with Dad. Going to see Kiss or any rock band with Dad may be fun but it’s always lame now, a sign you’ve given it up for the price of a ticket.

I can only imagine how hard it it must be for teenage children in the house when Dad attempts to rock on a newly bought guitar.

Begging to go to Dad rock camp, as in this now ubiquitous commercial for a credit card, is the most patience-trying thing you can do.

Nothing desperately signals “mid-life crisis” and “buyer’s remorse over family” quite like it:

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