Mid-Point Band/Musician

[QuikSand]

Eels

[Mota]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

They are considered the forerunner of the Dream Theater era of bands. Operation Mindcrime was a prog masterpiece. Even Rage, which had hair metal elements, was extremely experimental (and my personal favorite) - but yes, back then they certainly had the look, not so much the sound.

This thread seems to be a summary of many of my favorite bands!

Queensryche would be considered one of the creators of the Progressive Metal genre, they had a #1 hit (Silent Lucidity). They have also released 15 studio albums and are going to release a new one later this year! Definitely not a mid-point band.

Saigon Kick and Mr. Big are probably good examples of the mid-point. Saigon Kick in particular is one of my favorite bands, and I still regret not travelling to Toronto to see them and Extreme in concert. Mr. Big also had their moments, some good hits, but I don't think they ever were the main act on bigger tours, I may be mistaken though. I also loved Extreme, but after Pornograffitti, I think their popularity dropped, even though III Sides was one of the great albums of that period IMO. My band played Decadence Dance in a battle of the bands back in 1991, and Richie Kotzen was guest judge. My guitar string broke 10 seconds into the song, I literally ran to the back and grabbed someone's guitar while the band kept playing (imagine playing an Extreme song without the guitar). Thankfully the guitar I borrowed just happened to be in the same tuning, it could have been a disaster!

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

This is a tough topic to judge, since if you've heard of the Spin Doctors for example, and can even name one or two of their songs, that by default places them in the top 25% of all bands, since a massive majority of bands you'd never heard of.

However, I'll nominate Silverchair and Seven Mary Three as 2 mid-level alt bands for the sake of argument.

Little Miss Candy Frog was one of Spin Doctors big hits, right?

Silverchair... ah, Silverchair. I completely wrote them off as a grunge wanna-be, and then Daniel Johns somehow got hooked up with Van Dyke Parks, who is an amazing and legendary songwriter/producer/arranger who worked with the Beach Boys and Harry Nilsson, among others, and released the incredible Diorama album in the early 2000s. If all you remember of Silverchair is whatever big hit came from Frogstomp, check out Across the Night on YouTube. Parks' orchestrations are all over it. Love that album (oddly they added one grungy song in middle of the album that is completely out of place but I'm guessing was an attempt to placate older fans who probably hated the new direction).

But yeah, for 90s rock, Silverchair is a good answer.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Mota

This thread seems to be a summary of many of my favorite bands!

Queensryche would be considered one of the creators of the Progressive Metal genre, they had a #1 hit (Silent Lucidity). They have also released 15 studio albums and are going to release a new one later this year! Definitely not a mid-point band.

Saigon Kick and Mr. Big are probably good examples of the mid-point. Saigon Kick in particular is one of my favorite bands, and I still regret not travelling to Toronto to see them and Extreme in concert. Mr. Big also had their moments, some good hits, but I don't think they ever were the main act on bigger tours, I may be mistaken though. I also loved Extreme, but after Pornograffitti, I think their popularity dropped, even though III Sides was one of the great albums of that period IMO. My band played Decadence Dance in a battle of the bands back in 1991, and Richie Kotzen was guest judge. My guitar string broke 10 seconds into the song, I literally ran to the back and grabbed someone's guitar while the band kept playing (imagine playing an Extreme song without the guitar). Thankfully the guitar I borrowed just happened to be in the same tuning, it could have been a disaster!

Same here. Saigon Kick hits too close to home (literally - I used to work in a grocery store where a couple of the guys regularly shopped) for me to rank, but to the world, they were a one-hit wonder and it was a hair metal ballad, to boot. But Jason Bieler is a great musician and continues to put out great music to this day.

[Ksyrup]

I might also add, if we're talking mid-point a-hole personalities, Geoff Tate (formerly) of Queensryche, is also near the top of whatever genre you want to put him in.

[Kodos]

Maybe Don Dokken too?

[Toddzilla]

I'm still blown away that the creators of "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" and "Nothing's Shocking" are considered in someway mid.

On a scale of 0 to Nevermind, these are way way the fuck up there.

Rock and roll had become hair metal trash - She's my cherry pie! Unskinny Bop! - and then out of the radio came "Coming down the mountain..." and all the trash disappeared.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

I'm still blown away that the creators of "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" and "Nothing's Shocking" are considered in someway mid.

On a scale of 0 to Nevermind, these are way way the fuck up there.

Rock and roll had become hair metal trash - She's my cherry pie! Unskinny Bop! - and then out of the radio came "Coming down the mountain..." and all the trash disappeared.

True, but the hair metal trash is currently touring to full stadiums in 2022, so somehow it has survived after crawling out of the wreckage.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Mota

True, but the hair metal trash is currently touring to full stadiums in 2022, so somehow it has survived after crawling out of the wreckage.

Hair Metal is better than anything Janes Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins, etc...ever put out.

I'll relent to the argument about Pearl Jam, Chili Peppers, and Nirvana for the historical significance, but so many of the grunge bands are just boring.