Given the audience's craving for big names and faces, the choice for host was appropriate: Dave Foley, omnipresent MTV host best-known for his runner-up status on the 1998 Wanna Be a VJ Contest. His notoriety certainly garnered him the job, as Dave seems to have no other connection to the Boston scene. It was entertaining to watch his attempts at playing down his MTV connections and establishing empathy with lesser known Bostonacts. Dave lauded the Boston Music Awards for "righting the wrongs of music awards," even going so far as to say that "in a perfect world, Christina Aguilera would be cleaning her pool" in reference to New England blues/rock fave (and Grammy nominee) Susan Tedeschi. Uh-huh. No-shows led to Foley's pronouncement that things were thankfully running ahead of schedule "for the first time in music award history."
Star absentia wasn't the only contributing factor to the general pathos of disorder that reigned at the awards. The show started with the seats less than half-filled, and late-comers only contributed to the rumbling murmur of voices that was a constant fixture throughout the award presentations. Most of the dissident noise was less subtle. The Goths across the aisle from me weren't the only ones carousing; one suspects several of the obstreperous performers and presenters imbibed before taking the stage as well. The Shods, presenting Best Country Act, came on stage eating and griping about being kept from their fair share of chocolate-covered strawberries (The award, by the way, went to the Dave Foley Band). The lead vocalist for Half Cocked, upon presentation of an award, queried the audience, "Is anybody drunk out there?" Select members of Tree, presenting Outstanding New Rock Band (won by Star Ghost Dog and Waltham) certainly appeared to be. Tree waltzed onto stage with plastic cups of beer in their hands, and one particularly rambunctious member leapt off the stage after slurringly (and accurately) accusing the audience of general ennui. The bloke proceeded to jump from chair back to chair back across the first 20 or so rows. Tree had won Outstanding Hardcore/Metal Band earlier in the evening, so they had a reasonably legitimate reason to celebrate. All I know is I still wasn't getting any free Kahlua.
A more somber mood pacified the pandemonium as respect was dutifully given to one of pop music's powerhouses, Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records in 1947, for whom the "Ertegun Impact Award" was inaugurated. The award was prefaced by Peter Wolf, who, as part of the producer's bio, read off a seemingly unending slew of well-known music acts that have released albums under the Atlantic label (from Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones to Kid Rock). Thus the crowd's eruption into madcap applause with Amhet's eventual appearance on stage was entirely appropriate. Ertegun quipped that Boston is the "source of some of the best fish I've ever tasted." Hmmm. Who needs good music when you've got fresh seafood!]
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