2008 Woodie Awards
Fort Wayne's All Nite Skate releases dynamic final album
Grant Smith
Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: Entertainment
Fort Wayne's All Nite Skate is the kind of band that seems out of place in the void of Northeastern Indiana. Their music seems bigger and more elaborate than something most Indiana musicians would bother to come up with. But this is exactly what makes them sound like a Midwest band.
Let me explain. We Hoosiers are a lazy bunch. We are more apt to watch something happen rather than do it ourselves. This is probably why we ranked eighth in a 2006 survey from calorielab.com of the states with the highest percent of obese adults. The Onion is right.
This is not an admonition. I am one of you.
When my friends come over to "help" me work on my motorcycle, I mainly watch them work. I watch them intently, "learning" how to take off my carburetors. I'm not that inept, motorcycles for the most part, are simple machines, and I could do it. I am just too lazy.
Musically however, we can be innovative. Due to our innate desire to watch stuff, and because we are so far from either coast, we don't get to see our favorite bands with the same frequency they do. We have actually worked to make more stuff to watch on a Friday night.
Amazingly, the Midwest has developed its own sound, characterized by huge guitar sounds, massive drums, and vocals mixed a little lower than your average costal band - think Nirvana's "In Utero." No, Nirvana is not a Midwest band, but the dude that mixed that record is from Chicago.
In January, All Nite Skate released their second self-titled album, which will also be their last album. It is an amazingly detailed topography of the best parts of the Fort Wayne music scene. There are elements of the uber-hip indie rock bands, the sludgy metal, a little math rock and not a single lyric.
Before All Nite Skate released this record, while musically they seemed like they were getting a little too big for shoes, they still seemed to fit as Douglas Adams puts it, "in the whole general mish-mash." They were a better than average band from a medium-sized city.
Let me explain. We Hoosiers are a lazy bunch. We are more apt to watch something happen rather than do it ourselves. This is probably why we ranked eighth in a 2006 survey from calorielab.com of the states with the highest percent of obese adults. The Onion is right.
This is not an admonition. I am one of you.
When my friends come over to "help" me work on my motorcycle, I mainly watch them work. I watch them intently, "learning" how to take off my carburetors. I'm not that inept, motorcycles for the most part, are simple machines, and I could do it. I am just too lazy.
Musically however, we can be innovative. Due to our innate desire to watch stuff, and because we are so far from either coast, we don't get to see our favorite bands with the same frequency they do. We have actually worked to make more stuff to watch on a Friday night.
Amazingly, the Midwest has developed its own sound, characterized by huge guitar sounds, massive drums, and vocals mixed a little lower than your average costal band - think Nirvana's "In Utero." No, Nirvana is not a Midwest band, but the dude that mixed that record is from Chicago.
In January, All Nite Skate released their second self-titled album, which will also be their last album. It is an amazingly detailed topography of the best parts of the Fort Wayne music scene. There are elements of the uber-hip indie rock bands, the sludgy metal, a little math rock and not a single lyric.
Before All Nite Skate released this record, while musically they seemed like they were getting a little too big for shoes, they still seemed to fit as Douglas Adams puts it, "in the whole general mish-mash." They were a better than average band from a medium-sized city.
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