Reviews for Amp'd: A Fathers Backstage Pass

The average rating for Amp'd: A Fathers Backstage Pass based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-11-11 00:00:00 Abrar Khan Being a Breaking Benjamin fan, I've always wanted to read stuff about my favorite band. I once skimmed through a copy of My Chemical Romance's biography, but I didn't care much about MCR, so I never bought it. Then, one day, I was strolling through my local library's biography section, (looking for a different section that had recently been moved,) when I came upon a book sticking halfway out of the shelf. I noted the title, and thought: "Oh hey, it's a book about a band. Wonder which one?" I flipped the book over, read the back cover and squealed like a Twilight fangirl at the sight of Robert Pattinson: It was about Breaking Benjamin. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and am now searching for a copy of my own. This is a must-read for any fan of Breaking Benjamin.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-01-03 00:00:00 Richard Jones So this book is a 2.5. A few negative observations: The writer's strength seems to be in short story and poetry. He needed more of a hand helping him keep this longer work cohesive; parts of it are really solid and complete and parts are just... wandering. I kept getting bored and wanting to put it down, but since I was reading it for research, I kept on. Let me be clear: the stories are interesting, BUT they are constantly interrupted or styled in a way that makes you say "can we get to the point now?" This happened to me several times. There's also a redundancy in the moments; we get that he feels awkward backstage amongst the youth population by the fourth time he mentions it, no need for the eighth. Look, it's a biography, so I'm all for being honest, but... there is not a single description of a female's FACE in this book. I'm all for commenting on the sexual games that go on in musician life (that was part of my research), but if a female is mentioned, she's either drunk and angry or taking her clothes off or both (or a girlfriend). Mr. Band Dad here seemed to very much enjoy the peering-at-young-girls part of his lifestyle, and he enjoys writing about it even more. I felt bad for his wife while reading a few sections of the book. Here, a comparison: I liked the part where he talks about the sexual imagery in the music video, because his analysis and personal anecdotes on the erotic images chosen were insightful and personal. I didn't like the imagery that every time some chick walked by, her pants were slung so low you could see her sunshine, her shirt was pulling up so high you could see her tracts of land, etc. It's not that he experienced it, but the way he wrote about it that was annoying to me. A few positive observations: It was honest, frank, and didn't over-romanticize his son. In fact, the dad's infatuation with the band's life, especially their online life, more than his son's was intriguing. I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of other "stage parents" who do the same, stalking their child's online presence, etc. Not all of them are writing a book, so the fact that he could justify it to himself as "research" and then eventually realized he got way too into "researching" (the voyeur strikes again!) was important to note. If you're a fan of Breaking Benjamin or from the music scene where the book was written, you'll find quite a few interesting stories, anecdotes, and a lot of history that you probably don't know otherwise. The way that he was dedicated to showing how Ben started early, left, came back, humbled himself to play under the band members that he had "left behind", and then eventually rose above them due to their conflicts and lack of label support is not an overplayed story here, it progresses itself. The actual writing about BB is the best in the text. The insights on the music industry, how the lack of radio play isn't by popularity but by "list" and label encouragement, is what I was looking for in my research. These parts were valuable and definitely will give a fan the insight on how things REALLY work as opposed to "well, of course they're popular, they're awesome!" Maybe because I've been a musician and seen fellow musicians struggle for a long time, but I had a lot of sympathy for Strangers with Candy/Driver/Lifer and how they got put down by label and circumstance, so the rise of BB was heartening after being dragged through SwC's muddy career. The way that the author kept coming back to Lifer's progress in comparison to BB, despite his son's involvement in the latter, was the most personal and interesting part of the book. Over time, he had come to care for the other band, and many of the other music scene guys, and could have a strong sympathy for them as an "outside observer" as well as psuedo-family. Overall, I thought the book had a lot of very interesting history, and the insight into the Wilkes-Barre music industry that raises and drops so many bands is priceless. It wasn't the content but the writing style that got the lowered rating. But I'm strict; if you're just looking for a quick read about one of your favorite bands, then you won't even notice half of the stuff that I did.