(c) Dr Paul Kinsler. [Acknowledgements & Feedback]
Killing Miranda/ AngelWhore/ K-Nitrate; Apoptygma Berserk/ Inertia/ Carpe Diem; Queen Adreena/ Sahara Hotnights; Clan of Xymox/In the Nursery/ Diary of Dreams/ Killing Miranda/ Greenhaus/ Altered States/ Mechanical Cabaret/ Faces of Sarah; Sunshine Blind/ Complicity/ Psychophile; Freudstein; Waterglass/ Interlock/ AngelWhore; Ligature/ Dark Cell/ All Living Fear/ Drowned; Breath of Life/ Narcissus Pool/ Skinflowers; Descendants of Cain Queen Adreena/ Little Hell/ The Imps Leechwoman vs Hydra/ Chaos Engine vs Skinflowers/ Goteki vs Arkham Asylum/ Freudstein vs Tarantella Serpentine
Index; Last year: 1999; Next year: 2001
K-Nitrate -- well I just caught the end of their set at the beginning of Black Celebration last year, so didn't have much to say then. They didn't look at all familiar, which could be blamed on either their rather bland stage presence or my erratic memory -- your choice. So, anyway, from left to right across the stage: a drummer, possibly auditioning for Man(i)kin, but probably just being an energetic drummer type; a singer, who tries to look hard and military, but ends up being more like someone in the TA, or perhaps even a PE teacher. He is not helped by the boring combat pants+t-shirt outfit -- I'm not saying you _need_ a costume, but it helps at least to have an image if you aren't Mr Charisma (personally, I fail on both counts, but then I'm not fronting a band. If I was, then I'd make some sort of effort). Finally, an intermittently smouldering guitar woman, who seemed to be enjoying herself. Hmm, and I haven't mentioned their music yet, so here it is: sort of a driving shouty techno, but not all that shouty. Quite good in small doses, but their lack of range rather let them down, and I think in the end they were a bit dull, as to me nothing really stood out. I think perhaps they should have turned up the vocals a bit more.
AngelWhore -- tall scary singer bloke in platfrom boots, a bassist wearing masking tape on his face, and, er, a young thinnish gutarist with a cross-your-heart fetish harness. Sounded rather familiar -- MM was suggested to me, but that wasn't who I was thinking of, although that's a reasonable suggestion. They were probably the most focussed and professional of all the bands on the bill; although without much between-songs chat, so as a result came across as slightly distant, even though you could get within groping distance if you wanted to, and singer-bloke even came off stage and wandered amongst the thronging fans for one number. As a description, I'd say they were more of a metal band than a goth band, and at one point I thought they sounded a bit like Tool. They sounded good, but not really my cup of tea.
Killing Miranda -- these guys obviously make a fair bit of their money from t-shirts sales, going by the crowd ... rather like being at an Inky Suk gig. They made some "witty" comments about "upg" (i.e. uk.people.gothic), but these didn't really help them along, no doubt they were being fuck-you and sarcastic. I know they've been a bit controversial there, so as far as I'm concerned they're entitled to have a go, but I think they missed their mark a little. If I had to describe them, I'd do it as your average guitar-goth, which is a shame since to start with I'd quite fancied describing them as a cross between The Sisters of Mercy and Sneaky Bat Machine (The Sneakers of Mercy?). The line-up is singer, drummer, and two gutarists and a bassist. They dress the part, without looking as carefully arranged as Angelwhore; and they interact with the audience better. I'd been led to belived KM were pretty big, as UK goth bands go, but they didn't pack the venue. However, it was a Sunday and it had been moved at shortish notice from the (presumably smaller) Barfly so with hindsight it isn't surprising that there was a gap or four. I didn't think that musically they were that exciting. I wanted to like them more, and if I see them again (which I hope to) I think I would. I think more of a pit down the front of the crowd would have been a big help to the night out.
So, there I was, sitting on the Number 1 which was stuck for over 15 minutes on the road outside Waterloo Station. I looked anxiously at my watch. Would I make it to the dingy pub on Charing Cross Rd in time to meet my contact Steve, who had the merchandise? Well, yes I did, so I handed over the amount in used tenner (singular) and wandered off with the ticket.
Carpe Diem: I arrived after they'd started their set, during what seemed to be some patented ethereal-bollox(tm)... but in fact this wasn't the case at all. A singer-bloke, a keyboard-bloke, and a keyboard/ electric-violin/ vocals- sheila. The singer was wearing a dress, which may have been a mistake, but in general there was no doubt that they were a Band and they were here to Play for the Audience. I quite liked them, and thought they were the best of the bunch, although since they were the first band on I hadn't got time to get bored of all the bleeping bleeping. The occaisional use of the electric-violin made them the most interesting sound wise. I said at the start they seemed a bit ethereal-bollox(tm), but in fact they dont fall into the trap of just aimlessly noodling about -- their work gets punchy in enough places to keep things interesting and stop people falling asleep ... so perhaps you could liken them to a techno version of Sunshine Blind. They introduced their last track by telling us its title "Rainforest" -- and proceeded to play something rather unlike a rainforest at first listen -- although there were interesting rumblings and squeakings going on, and I did catch glimpses of the trees here and there. All in all, pretty good.
Inertia take no prisoners, and after a bit of intro music, they shamble on stage and go at it full speed. I was inexplicably reminded of millisecond pulsars, collapsed stars that have "spun-up" by falling debris so they rotate every few thousandsths of a second. They sweep a light-house beam of radio noise thorugh space, and their fantastically large angular momentum ensures that their rotation (and hence the period of the radio noise) never detectacbly changes. These are not objects that take ten minutes to bring you up to speed -- but then they dont need to bother. If massive enough they will twist spacetime itself until your future is physically located on an orbit around them. Inertia, however, are four sweaty humans with eight arms, one cleavage, and some machines that that go beep; and so they would have impressed me more had they worked themselves up to full speed, and pulling me and no doubt some fraction of the audience along with them rather better. Still, Inertia are damn good at what they do, and it seemed to me their music was the most complex of the evenings presentations, with a greater depth of different types of bleeping and other associated noises. In general their stage presence is quite good, although nothing remarkable, with the singer jumping about and shouting, the machinists staring intently at dials, and the the aforementioned cleavage hiding the percussion at the back. Complex, sure, but not a lot of real variety, and by this time the bleeping was getting to me a little... yawn. The crowed loved it though, and good luck to 'em.
Apoptygma Berserk: Well, in many ways a cross between Carpe Diem and Inertia, with a strong vocal element, and a very anthemic feel. They arrived on stage like Professionals. I think there were three of them, or maybe four, it was hard to tell with all the smoke and the impressive light show. A great show, and the crowd, who were largely in favour of this sort of thing were pretty enthusiastic by now. Songs were announced to cheering. People waved their arms. It took me a while but by about two thirds of the way through the set I was getting glimpses of what they were trying to achieve, so all in all I enjoyed it. Bleep. One encore, and a sniff of a chance at a second, but some lights came up and the crowd dispersed.
So I queue to get out of the venue. I sure hope the emergency exits are open during a fire. Then a sprint to catch the Number 1 bus. Made it. Band of the evening? Carpe Diem.
Sahara Hotnights are a four piece, 3 guitar, all female band from Sweden. Basically they produce a well practised and slightly shouty sort of indie rock. Although I was impressed by their sound and songs, they still left me rather disinterested... their flyer claims they produce a "quirky original sound", but I assume this is for small values of quirk. A hint of punk to start with, then flashes of guitar hero, then, well, indie rock. They made a reasonable stab at talking to the audience a bit, but didn't really have much non-musical presence. Great sounds, but... well, just a bit dull. Unless, perhaps, those lyrics speak directly to you, in which case you'd think they were the dogs bollocks. And fair enough.
The crowd seems mostly like a random bunch of guys. Some annoying vocal crap is played over the house speakers during the rather too long for no obviously good reason interval between bands. I get bored and mildly pissed off with it.
Queen Adreena eventually arrive, and are a different kettle of rattlesnakes from the support band. Waif singer with wild hair, sleazy spiv guitarist, dress-wearing peak capped guitarist (bassist?), and a muscular zombie-style drummer. They wail. They swagger. They sleaze. They make a big, visceral din. There are vocals, there are guitar bits, they pretty much cover the range. They are generally brilliant, and the crowd reacts accordingly, although it manages to restrain itself from forming a frenzied moshpit. Young people today, they aren't what they used to be ;-). So there Queen Adrena are, being everything you might have been led to believe by people who have seen them seven times already this year, and then suddenly it's five past eleven and they stop (after half an hour), leave the stage, and ... that's it. Not even the token encore. Hmm.
Faces of Sarah: I'd seen their name on flyers for a while and wanted to see what they were like. Effortless trad-goth by blokes with varying degrees of waistline, fronted by a beardy llama in platform boots[1]. Not bad at all really, in my opinion, as I'm rather more trad than bleepy. Quite a strong band to open with.
Mechanical Cabaret: Erm. In the words of one of their song: "I've seen it before, done better than you" ... a sort Soft Cell with flashes of punk shouting. Vocalist and beepmeister on stage. Good material, but the delivery was a bit shaky. Either more practise, or more talent needed, or perhaps I caught them on a bad day. And give the beepmeister a bigger machine (even a fake one), or give him more to do. He looked a bit lost. And what was the single little drum on that dinky little stand doing? Next time, replace it with a vase or something nice. Perhaps I'll try catching up with 'em in six months or so to see if they've settled in.
Altered States: More effortless trad-goth by blokes with guitars and stuff. That's about it. Seemed to have some sound problems, and probably damn good when seen headlining something smaller than LA2.
Greenhaus: "out here on the perimeter, there are no stars" -- and there weren't any on stage either, with three blokes bent intently over machines that went beep. Rather good, and even moderately complex, helped by their use of vocal samples. There seemed to be a 2001 theme towards the end, so several marks for interesting. I have to say though, I dont see why there's any point putting these guys on live. They don't have a show. They don't interact with the audience. They..., well, they don't. The audience may as well have not been there. I'm not saying dont play their tunes -- it's just there's no point in 'em live.
Killing Miranda: Well now I've reviewed these guys before, and thought they were sort of an OK goth-rock band. This time, they really went for it and generally blew the socks off everything in sight. Sounded great, performed great, all the songs. Not bad at all for fourth-on-the-bill (perhaps that helped them relax). Although not to the extent that the singer didn't need to slag off some tall guy in a white shirt standing seven rows back ;-). Performance of the Year! [2] Bosun! Reef the mainsail! Stormin'!
Diary of Dreams: A PVC Trenchcoat with short hair, and same with long hair fronted this bunch, with some sort of guitarist and keyboards, I think. I liked their set, I thought the two vocalists played off well against each other. It was pointed out to me afterwards that in fact their tracks were all rather similar, and this was certainly true. If you didn't like their sort of medium goth'ed 80's electro-pop, it might well have bored the tits off you. Good show though, lots of presence, but a little short on crowd interaction.
In the Nursery: the sort of band with an awesome reputation with those in the know, I suspect. They were certainly moderately diverse as musical styles go. I enjoyed it at the time, but I'm not rushing off to get the album.
Clam of Xynox: Yes, the famed mollusc superhero (wasn't there). Instead, we had Clan of Xymox. Now I could see that they would be good on album, or in a club -- in their cure-ish and bloke with silly hair[2] kind of way. There was a woman on guitar, and something(s) at the back mostly hidden by smoke. The audience, no doubt cunningly stacked with CoX fans certainly seemed to know the words and all and generally get carried away. They all thought it was stonking, and for them it undoubtedly was. But as someone who only knew them only by reputation, my impression was rather negative -- they had minimal stage presence and less than feeble interaction with the crowd. So they just bored the crap out of me for quite some time. Every now and then I could see where they were trying to be, but they weren't making it easy. Trad goth, pedestrian.
All up though, a great event[4]. Even the early bands on were well worth seeing. But, by Christ! The bar prices!
Band of the evening: Killing Mirandaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
[1] OK, I'm just being frivolous here. But the frontman did seem to have
trouble finding a spitoon.
[2] Well, perhaps a tie with Queen Adreena.
[3] I'm not knocking silly hair. I've got some myself, albiet not as
silly as his.
[4] But does the audience ever get moving at LA2? Or is it Flag Promotions
crowds that tend to be a bit static?
Psychophile: Female singer with long blue hair (a wig, I assume), guitar bloke, and some machine. Intermittently floaty and ethereal, with good vocals. I'm a bit disconcerted at times as good strong bits of their set suddenly waver and change tack for no apparent aesthetic reason -- is it just that I dont get what they are trying to do, or are they genuinely a bit dodgy? Hmm, reminds me a bit of Arkham Asylum then... although from memory I prefer AA. Still Psychophile got a good reaction from the audience, so they are doing some things right. Perhaps I'll get the hang of this newfangled Errati-Goth stuff eventually.
Complicity: Biker goths go guitar surfing -- two guitars, bass, singer, and a real drummer. They rocked, bordered on a metal band at times, with just enough variation on the full-on wall of sound to keep me from getting bored. Apparently there were some sound problems, although while I'd rate it as "too loud", the mix seemed OK -- although their style of music is probably quite tolerant of such things. Verdict: "straightforwardly entertaining". Interaction with audience... well, ok actually, we got to hear some song titles and stuff, and some bloke in the audience thought shouting "five pounds" at them was funny. Mystified me, but, well, obvously it worked for him. Of the stuff that I remember, "One Last Shot" seemed the top tune.
Sunshine Blind: The usual (well, I have seen them once before) top performance -- less of their slightly ethereal-bollox tendencies here though; with a mix of old & new stuff. Well, stuff on the album of theirs I've got, and some stuff I dont recall hearing before, which may or may not be the same thing. One thing I like about SB is that they dont do the full-monty ethereal thing ... they cut to rockier bits and back, so there's no mistaking it for music to relax to. The line-up? Er, singer, guitar, keyboards, unless my memory fails me. Actually the keyboardist has a good thing going -- spiked hair and white makeup around the eyes, which looks damn effective when the strobes go off behind him -- all that and he doesn't even have to play on every song! Still, he rocks the keyboard around and generally creates a diversion so you don't think he's just for decoration. The singer? Well, she's a singer alright, but for the life of me I cant think of any particlarly obvious defining trait -- except being the frontsperson for SB (which is sufficient in itself). Much the same for the guitarist. But Mr Keyboard compensates for that and in any case the music of SB is more than enough.
Two blokes and some electronics. I suspect they were "larging it in the air-ee-AH!" or somesuch, but I'm not really au-fait with the habits of these modern bleep combos. So, they go bleep bleep bleep... Ka-chickity chickity chickity... Zwoing zwoing zwoing... E-e-e-ee-e-e-ee-e-e-ee... Skitter skitter skitter wail. Mostly all at once. But not that many things at once.
There were maybe 20 people paying direct attention to them, as they gaze intently at components, grin, press things, and do that pointing rhythmically in the air thing that's so popular. About half the crowd think they're ace, and make enthusiastic noises, even when the curly haired one does his vague vocalist impressions; and more so when their guest vocalists were on: Liz Lowlife (Swarf), and Amon (Arkham Asylum). Guest vocalist are a good thing for Freudstein to have. Somewhere about the middle of the set, around about Amons walk-on part, Freudstein manage to walk that very Brighton line -- wedged hard up between brilliant and bollocks, and weaving erratically back and forth to boot.
The enthusiasts in the crowd were still enthusiastic. For a pair of electronica blokes whose natural state is peering intently at electronic machinery, Freudstein did have a stage presence; and grins flashed at the audience counts some for interaction with the punters. Not my cup of tea really, they seemed mostly ordinary to me, with the exception of that middle bit ... but if you like this sort of thing you might well think they're fab. I'd have been out voted if gigs were a democracy based on shouting.
Should I mention the bar prices? Perhaps it's safer to not do. The DJ noises before Freudstein were on were ok really as well. They were at least two New Zealanders in the place, not that that's necessarily a recommendation. And since I haven't mentioned transport for a while I'll say that the buses ran on time -- just as well given the 10pm door and late on-stage appearance... is there some reason for this, or are they trying to discourage people who work 9-5ish?
Some venues are quick off the mark in getting the first band on stage, and for all I know the RedEye might have been one. So, to make sure I get there by just after eight. Doors are closed. A random collection of the black clad are standing about, slowly growing in numbers, and unable to buy drinks. Passers-by look twice at the weirdos. A load of goths get off a bus. A man who'd picked several mismatched items out of his wardrobe and ended up dressed like a ... well, nothing you'd like to be called ... gets out of a taxi and disappears briefly inside, returns, and the taxi drives off. More passers by. A white stretch limo drives past, and some children lean out the window and give us the finger... and event which is, as far as I can tell, not even noticed by anyone but me. A man in black approaches and offers me a crisp new ten pound note... nope, it's better, it's a Nemesis flyer. More waiting. Waiting waiting waiting. When _are_ the f***in' doors going to open?
Eventually they do. It was less than an hour, although it seemed longer at the time. I get in cheap with the aid of an Interlock flyer (sorry guys). Inside the RedEye seems to be a dingy pub painted various shades of dark grey, wallpapered with photocopied gig posters, and turned into a dingy venue.
AngelWhore I've seen before. They've lost the guy holding his face together with masking tape, so there's drums, keyboards, bass bloke with long hair and headbanging tendencies, guitar... so, they've lost the fetish angle and turned mostly into a metal band. The tall rangy vocalist, Thingy, flounces on stage with glittery eye makeup and a feather boa, lisps "We are AngelPaw", blows a kiss, and launches into a jazz-metal, camped up version of Laurie Andersons "Oh Supermum" ... OK, so I'm lying. Actually, Thingy is a pretty straightforward rock-god impersonator; and the first song is their rather good "Superman"... and anyway, as I was saying, AW are a metal band. Except that the sometimes get a bit too slow to be a metal band, and pick up some goth atmosphere along the way. I'd have thought the spookies would have been out in droves for this one, but nevertheless AW put in a good set. The audience response was a bit light, even given that they were the first band on, I thought.
Interlock. Hmm. Interlock fans should find a hyperlink to click on right now. The guitar and bass are a tall female in a red hat, and a chunky guy in t-shirt -- I forget which way round they had the instruments, and they seemed competent enough. After about thirty seconds of their first song there's a request from the shortish, vaguely perky looking female singer for some male vocals, which one might have thought would be a welcome respite, and indeed his growling was not bad at all. Interlock's gimmick is competing male vs female vocals. Unfortunately, the band as a whole seem like four disconnected people on a stage; and despite the musical concept driving the vocals, there is no chemistry and no real interaction between thee vocalists. At all. Musically they are incoherent, mostly metal influenced, I guess, with a fair bit of either veering wildly all over the place, or running through some cliches. Some of their friends cheer wildly at the front, and some of the audience seem to like them too. They may have been having some problems with the sound mix, but for me it was about as engaging as a hologram. I leave the last song or two and hit the bar.
Waterglass have the full lineup -- drums, keyboards, guitar things, vocals; and are are a complete change in pace. The drums are a bit loud, and distract from their sort of vocally led folk-goth. I can pretty much make out every word the singer sings, something which is not so common. Anyway, the vocalist does her singing, the band plays Waltzing Matilda... oops, I mean the band plays along. It's alright, but not doing much for me, until I get into it a bit and start to enjoy their ambience. I am reminded rather vaguely of various Australian folk-rock bands, and in the end I decide they're quite good. There is some last minute confusion about whether they can do an encore, which they cant -- I assume because of the time. As in time to catch that tube home.
Band of the evening: AngelWhore. If I'm not careful, I might even start to really like them. ;-)
Well, I missed the first band (Drowned), even though I'd made it to the Hope & Anchor in time. Early, in fact, seeing as my recent house move now means I'm within a 5 minute walk of Canada Water Station; hence ambling out of the house at 7:15 easily gets me to (say) the Hope & Anchor by 7:45. I hear them though the floor though, and it seems to be quite a long set; which is strange since none of the others were very long. Anyway, it was soon time to head downstairs for ALF. It's a smallish venue, with a 2 inch high "stage" jammed into one corner. Something that is either hideously disorted or perfectly ordinary death metal plays loudly over the house speakers.
All Living Fear: it's the Goth-rock vocals + guitar + backing tape ALF. The sound seems unusually good -- the guitar seems turbocharged, something that is matched by the performance and stage-antics of the vocalist. I guess the fact that the following bands had guitars coming out of their ears probably mean that the general set-up was rather guitar friendly. So, here's a set list: "Shattered Fragments", "What If", "Game Show Host", "Armageddon in a Can", "Cold Blooded Martyr" (a new one, so we're told), "Tour de Force", and finishing the brief set on the short & sharp "Dead". They talk to the crowd. They dedicate "Game Show Host" to the guitarists dad (we're told it's the only song of theirs he likes), and even to me (curses, I need a new disguise) because I like it (and indeed I do). They put in an excellent performance all round, and even manange to get a good reaction from the (majority) non goths in the audience... and all without having to go "Huurgh" once.
In the gap betweens sets, a fair amount of equipment is moved around and set up and so forth. You get the impression that the next bit is going to be loud.
Dark Cell: Two guitars, a bass, drums, thrashing wildly away, and looking the part without having made a production of it. A chunky vocalist completes the picture, he's got all the right head movements, plus rolling eyes and grrrraaaaaaarggghh! Huurgh! vocals. Yep, this is Death Metal, albiet Death Metal that doesn't quite fit onto the small stage, but that fulfills all the genre requirements including speed changes and stuff. Various heads go up and down, some of them even in the audience. The vocalist was in fact pretty damn good at the headbanging, he must spend quite some time practising it all. I think at this point the goths start to drift off, and as Death Metal goes, this isn't quite the business. I am claiming no expertise, but Dark Cell sound just a tad pedestrian to me, except for one whole song ... "Disconnected Reality" (or something) and a few other brief flashes. The crowd seem to like them though, and the numbers probably peak during this set. There was a bit of talking to the crowd, and even thanked the other bands, which was nice. Yep, the lyrics are all "Grrargh! I'll make ice cream from your entrails", but the fact is you could introduce them to your gran, and she might even turn up at one of their gigs.
More equipment is moved to and fro. These Death Metal types sure aren't short of stuff.
Ligature: the same instruments as Dark Cell, but taken as individuals they have less stage presence. The vocalist is more of the "stand there looking solid" persuasion, he doesn't do the head tossing and eye rolling bit at all. Strangely, though, as a _group_ they look more coherent and impressive -- largely I think, because of the way they arrange themselves on stage. The bass player, a rather american looking bloke in a football shirt, stands centre stage with the overhead spots right on him. To the left and right are the guitars, behind are the drums; and in front, down a few inches because he's off the front of the stage is the vocalist. About half of the crowd have gone, I guess mostly because of the time, and at the beginning of the set Dark Cell wander backwards and forwards as they shift their equipment into a van, I suppose. So, more Death Metal... well, in this case Speed Death Metal ... an even more impenetrable genre. Oh dear, I think, I'll just listen to a couple of songs to be polite and then I'll sod off. But! Actually they're damn good; and that's something I'd never have thought I'd say about a Speed Death Metal band. They are better than Dark Cell, there's none of slightly plodding atmosphere, there is a bit more depth to them and they are capable of livening things up by letting the gutars rev up in the background occasionally. Sample song title: "Deity of Destruction", and they finish on "Empathy for the Devil" (Why not "Empathy for an Old Testament God" or something, just for a change, eh guys?). Anyway, easily good enough to keep me entertained until the venue ran out of time and they had to stop.
Skinflowers are two youngish guys, a guitarist-vocalist, and a bass player, with some machinery, perhaps an Atari :-), providing drum-like and other noises. They started off rather post-Nirvana to my ears, but wandered intermittently around the indie-wailing genre a fair bit as well. I was actually mucho impressed by them -- they're not really my cup of tea, but they sounded good and had good songs, they talked a little bit (and I hope the monkey-thing works itself out for the singer). They looked and acted pretty nondescript, it has to be said, but then that's quite an acceptable indie thing to do, so they wouldn't lose marks for that.
Narcissus Pool: I've seen them before, I think that somehow I just dont get NP in some way. They're your basic techno-goths really, vocalist and keyboards; and, oh, wait, there's a guitar too -- but mostly I struggled to hear it. Was the mix funny? Was I standing in just the wrong spot? Anyway, they bleep around with some lyrically strong stuff and the crowd generally think they're ace. "This ones for anyone with a modem, who thinks that makes them right" sez the vocalist. Ooh, does that mean me? Anyway they then produce probably their best track of the set, probably because they get a little less techno than usual. Whoever it was pissed 'em off, good on ya. They finish on a cover of something I should've remember but couldn't. I thought at the time they'd played with the lyrics, but apparently not, and the song turned out to be "Celebrity Skin", by Hole.
Breath of Life: Left to right they're a guitarist of rather indifferent appearance, a blond "little girly trapped in a box ad cant move her arms properly" singer, and a bearded bassist who appears to have lived a life of unbridled corruption. Hidden away at the back behind lashings of smoke is a bloke who swaps keyboards for violin at regular intervals, depending on the song. Their sound might be described as being a bit like Sunshine Blind but with Kate Bush-esque vocals -- they have a similar fullish sound with a strong guitar presence, but a rather more etherialised anthemic feel. So, we are safe inside this sound, and the crowd go wild and there's another song and the crowd go wild, and we hear some more sounds and warblings and... well, you get the picture. The fans were happy. Me? Well, I did like them but BoL seem basically a one-trick band, stuck mostly at one speed and one style -- and you all know by now my opinion on that. If they'd been less good, I'd have been typing "They bore the pants off me" right now, but instead I felt just a little disappointed. Anyway, so the set ends with the crowd shouting for MORE! They return (as headline bands are wont to do) and then suddenly they seemed to pull something out of the hat and I thought the second song of the encore was something really worth the price of admission. And from then, in the following encore, I thought they seem to have pulled themselves out the of floaty-warbly doldrums and produced the goods. Was this older material when their style was a little different? Or perhaps newer material and they've #got better? Damn good, all in all, but I'm not sure I'm going to be buying any CD's.
Band of the Evening? Skinflowers.
"Band on at 8:30" said the flyer... so naturally this was a load of nonsense to get you into the venue early so you could get screwed over at the bar. Still cheaper than Japan though, where it seemed typical to pay Y700 for anything to drink that might contain alcohol. So I sit around reading the newspaper, killing time until the band, while some moderately indistinct goth music plays in the backgound.
There's no indication when the band arrive on stage... no discernible change in volume or "We are Descendents of Caaaaaiiiinnnnn!!!" booming over the PA or whatever, I just notice people heading off in the stage direction, and think perhaps I ought to check. Yep, they're there and playing. "How much of this set have I missed then?" thinks I. Not very much, I guess, and after they finish the rest of the song the crowd claps appreciatively. When I saw DoC last year, I thought they were quite good but seemed a little shaky -- this has all been fixed, because they've discovered that if they hide behind fog, back-lighting, and a laser thingy, no-one can see them. I assume it's the same line-up: a growler-singer with guitar, bass, and almost impossible to see at the back the keyboardist hiding behind fog and, er, her keyboards, which have some bendy pipe attachments to add to the look. The whole band image has definately improved, even if the look is a little run of the mill. Theres no crowd interaction to speak of, and they didn't seem to want to let us know what the song titles were. Oh well. Anyway, the band do their cavernously gloomy thing with a grandiose we're all going to die atmospheric twist, and, and, and, who _are_ those two self-absorbed bints in the audience shrieking away with their inane conversation? Can they not they either shut up and listen, or sod off to some corner or other and stop irritating the audience? Well, irritating me at least, but I was standing over a meter away and I had no trouble being annoyed by them at all, so if it was only me I'd be surprised. A mobile phone rings. I seethe and wonder about retiring to the bar. Just over halfway through the set, to my great relief, the bints piss off somewhere, leaving me to appreciate DoC's generally impressive and polished performance. Every now and then DoC start threatening to become a bit rockier, but usually this fades away after a few bars; it does help to give them a bit more life, although not quite as much as I might like. I toy with the idea of buying the CD, but don't fancy carting it about much.
The set finishes, and after some rather belated calls for an encore the singer tells us "No", for reasons I don't quite catch -- they dont have any more songs??. There are loads more people here by this time. I hang around a bit, do a few crossword clues, have a drink or two, and have a spin on the dance floor. The posted DJ set list looks OK, in hindsight, but at the time it seemed to be pretty unremarkable. Hmm. Time to catch a bus.
The Imps: Pub rock, both in appearance and material. Singing female guitarist, and a bass plus drums if I remember right. They were OK, with well constructed if slightly pedestrian songs. They get a pretty good response from the crowd, given that I guess almost nobody knew who they were. Their name's a bit too innocuous though, and something about their stage presence needs livening up.
Little Hell: Female vocalist, two guitars, a bass, a drummer. They come on stage and storm into their first number. The crowd explodes into a frenzy of, er, foot tapping, head nodding and maybe even some gentle swaying. I bit low key a response for the perfornce. One bloke wants to mosh though, so off he goes pogo-ing madly over to the right. After a few songs he finds two friends and the move to the middle, and clear a space by barging people, stamping on their feet, and generally being crazed. Probably puts a fair few of the crowd off getting more enthusiastic I would think. The crowd do the clapping and cheering thing enthusiastically, but generally can't be arsed to turn into a seething mass... which is a shame, given the level of performance on stage, which although lacking in variety, being just the singer smouldering into the microphone, had a lot of energy and enough talent to keep people entertained.
Queen Adreena: Presumably QA have the advantage of being the band the audience was here to see, but they nevertheless show us how to construct a set. LH came on and did their thing with apparently little regard for the state of the audience, and thus failed to maximise their returns. In contrast, QA come onto their foliage festooned stage and start slowish, then crank it up, pulling the crowd response along with them. As with last time, they put in a storming performance, there was much crowd action and I generally had a fantastic time. No encore again, but apparently that's their standard behaviour. So, when's the next gig?
[Note added in 2002] I can't find a review for this gig. I remember bits of Chaos Engine vs Skinflowers, with Skinflowers being a duo of guiter playing indie types, the line-up of guitars across the stage was something to both see and hear; I remember a chaotic Goteki vs Arkham Asylum set, with a brain blastingly awful but great cover of Europe's "Final Countdown"; and Leechwoman vs Hydra being pointlessly loud and ear splitting. There are some ghosts of Freudstein vs Tarantella Serpentine, but nothing I can set to words. I can't believe I never wrote a review. I don't believe the impact of that Goteki/Arkham cover will ever fade. Astounding.
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Date=20020821 1112 0913 0816 0729 0623 0607 20000217 Author=P.Kinsler Created=20000217
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