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Children at War
September 01, 2009 | 01:12 PM

I feel really badly for all the people on here who have been so depressingly hostile towards a group of really talented musicians who are just trying to be the best at what they do.

I don't know anything about this battle of the bands that people are griping about, but every person complaining about it being rigged and slamming the Throwdowns just come off as petty and bitter and, frankly, like children who lost a game of dodgeball. You sound like a 4 year old having a tantrum.

Any of you who complain that they don't fit a genre are a little too conditioned by the record industry. The fact that they can play a variety of different song styles is NOT A BAD THING. It's called VERSATILITY. If I've heard one Red Hot Chili Peppers song (to use an incredibly successful band), I've heard them all, but the Throwdowns can switch it up and make each song solid. I LIKE playing an album and having a mix of styles. Some of their songs sound more "new punk", some of them with a reggae swing, some more pop, but they're all awesome. And that means they have the flexibility to play to a larger variety of audiences and be tapped by a lot of different radio stations. That, if I can make an assumption, most likely comes from a group with a lot of different musical tastes and who like to play around with what sounds good and suits each song for the sake of making GOOD MUSIC. Why stay in the "punk" or "reggae" box when they're so freakin' limiting? Especially when Erin's lyrics are so much more clever than 99% of anything you hear in either of those styles? Why not let a sound from the island scene add to the mix? Why not take advantage of the wide skills base that a well-educated, experienced, and talented band can bring in?

Judging from their fan page on Facebook, there's a hell of a lot of people from on and off the island who have heard about the music and are snapping up the album of iTunes from all across North America (and one chick from Ireland, apparently), and sorry, but I haven't heard of any other Maui band do that.

If people are coming away from the gigs, filled with hundreds of screaming and dancing fans, happy and excited, and the album's flying off the e-shelves, then maybe, just maybe, all you sour grapes are totally off the mark.

You don't have to like the band, but for them to cause some of you to react with such anger has much more to do with you than them. Judging by some of the "old" comments, part of the problem is that some of you must not be old enough to shave.

G McD