The Avoided - Put Down That Pipe And Pick Up Some Hope

Reed from The Avoided passed away yesterday (2/5/09), and though I can't say I was any sort of close friend, I can say that it's sad to see someone with as much intensity and passion succumb to whatever personal demons he must have been dealing with. 

The Avoided was a band that kept barreling along, despite member changes, despite drug problems, despite being located in multiple states... they were the band that not only shouldn't exist but whose existence was a statistical anomaly. How many bands have a grad student working towards a Ph.D. and a bunch of alcoholic junkies and can keep it together? I have a soft spot in my heart for music created by bands that are living train wrecks, which this band most certainly was. When you see a band this close to exploding that exists solely on momentum, you can be sure there's something special going on.

My limited interaction with the band doesn't put me in any place to give a definitive assessment of where they should stand in the history of Milwaukee underground music, but I consider them one of the elite bands that this city has produced, a classic of their time period. They're a band that I would see on flyers and would make time to see. That hasn't happened for me in years. Now that I think about it, they were the only band I'd gone out of my way to see on a regular basis this year.

Most of the insulated metal/hardcore kids in this city have probably missed out on this band but this is the best band that you should have known about and more importantly should have seen in this city that you probably haven't if you weren't that there is still a very active and quality punk rock scene in this city. It's sad that they won't be around anymore.

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