Goth Rage at Rebel
For better or for worse, I’ll admit that I enjoyed the occasional outing to the the Batcave/Albion on the Goth/Industrial nights. Just wear something black, get a mildly overpriced Redbull and Coke in ya and then stomp around while punching at shit that isn’t there to fast remixes of your favorite songs by Rob Zombie, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. And then they closed it.
It was a slow progression from moving the Goth night to a crappier day in favor of Hip Hop, to eventually canceling the whole thing. I lost track of it then, but last night I attended a show at some exciting “new” venue called Rebel. And seriously, up to the very moment I finally walked in to be confronted by chandeliers and cathedral ceilings, I had no idea where I was. And then it hit me! Oh crap, they just renamed the friggin Batcave again!
This is the place where I once fell in love with Combichrist (just to quickly fall out of love upon listening to ther actual albums–live performances can be deceiving) and this was the place I was hoping to reexperience Hanzel und Gretyl whom I saw a few years ago when they were touring with Ministry.
The place looked a bit less shabby, with maybe even newly reupholstered leather couches in the performance hall. The same loungy feel prevailed and really, the same exact crowd remained: effeminate goth boys in corsets, burly goth guys in black t-shirts and shorts, combat boots and cowboy hats, catty cybergoth girls with mounds of multicolored falls and short pleather skirts, as well as the heavy-set mountains that needed careful examination of facial features before a gender could be established.
The show did not start at 7 30, but I was generally happy sitting around and people watching. Especially watching people who obeyed the sign “step on the carpet” taped to the bar under which a carpeted shape lay. We arrived there obscenely early and so watched as this guy got comfy in his rug-bag and awaited girls with high heels to walk over his scrotum. I tentatively balanced on him with my completely not-goth-like sneaker (feet still recovering from the previous night’s show at B.B.’s) and after feeling the intake of breath beneath my weight quickly got off, hoping he didn’t just do the same.
The Performance Hall was a spacious enough place, in length, and adequate for the costumed people lounging about. Huge speakers were attached absolutely everywhere as is fitting in a place that means to host industrial bands. In actual width though, it was little larger than a hall-way which negatively impacted the size of the stage.
The stage was minuscule and members of each band were pretty much on top of each other (check out the comments at the end of the article for why the stage situation sucked). This was the case with End of an Era, who were pretty decent even though they sounded like punk rockers dabbling in the industrial genre. More so, this was the case with The Living Dead, as the frontman was actually wearing what was in effect a metal mumu he was so immense.
My favorite live act of the night was Dark Eden. The guitarist was apparently studying for his bar exam (as we overheard later), and due to this unforgivable betrayal, the fragile frontman was forced to both sing and and play in between apologies for the overall suckiness of the performance. The bass player stuck to the one string she knew best, the drummer concentrated on her drums and somewhere in the back a pink-haired keyboardist hid behind his or her locks. Whatever the circumstances, no amount of black-lipsticked grins could hide that the singer couldn’t really sing, or wail or even growl and rage without sending people into apoplectic fits of giggling. OK, maybe it was just us, but seriously, Dark Eden was hilariously bad.
This article was supposed to be a review of last night’s show, but for whatever reason, the tuning of instruments that should have occurred sometime during the day instead took place in between each act, as well as in the middle of some sets (again, check the comments for why that happened). This meant that by 11 30 only the 3rd of possible six bands (the running order was not exactly stuck to since End of an Era wasn’t even on the flier) was in the midst of doing their thing. End result: we left the second we realized that Saints of Pain couldn’t figure out if they were going to give us powerful metal or whiney goth lyrics.
I’ll be back to this venue despite its shortcomings. We weren’t hassled at the door, the reentry policy was great and whoever was on security detail didn’t seem too concerned with getting in the way of a good time. Though, of course, it’s not like anyone was going to do anything more damaging than wiggle and hop about. It is, after all, a place where only the goth rages.
Let your angsty inner goth run free:
Disclaimer: this article was composed and posted purely on my eeepc, and we’re all about to find out what the combination of a tiny screen, really close-set keys and my no skill with Linux can accomplish. It’s too nice outside guys, I’m not going back to my PC if I can help it.
After reading what was “supposed” to be a review of an all live, all original, night of music it is clear that the reviewer was either; to drunk to appreciate the the work that went into pulling off a night of live music, or so bitter about being unable to contribute any thing more than vitriol, that he (or she) just sounds like a fifth grader whose not accomplished in any thing more than talking trash about real people doing a real job. Normally I could care less what some talentless fop has to say about what we do but this person had to stoop to calling someone fat (and the wrong person to boot) as if they were some kind of Adonis them selves. Weather you believe it or not I could care less that this person didn’t like our music (my mom doesn’t like it but I still love her) but to resort to name calling proves that he (or she) is simply a loud mouth with not a shred of talent (to be honest I’ve read better reviews, positive and negative, in an in office review of the new copier)
What was supposed to be a review of live music ended up being more of a review of the venue because live music took too long to happen. Please let me know who was wearing the Satanic Santa Suit (It might actually have been Living Dead frontman. I can’t help it if the man were a mumu, I just reported that he did) and being generally creepy before actually getting on stage and I’ll change the names. I tried to get the info off myspace, but not all the bands from that night were represented.
I’ll tell you that whatever the performance was actually like, I still enjoyed myself. I’ve been back stage and I know that it takes pretty much all day to get ready for a show, do sound checks, tune instruments etc, which is why it was such a shame that these things weren’t done in advance. Despite that, it was a fun show, just in an amateurish way. Don’t take this personally. I do apologize if I got the wrong band name.
You are correct, it was the front man for The Living Dead that wore the santa suit and no slight to him for his stage garb choices (hell have you seen what the CHILI PEPPERS wear from time to time). As for the time it took to get the “under bands” on and off stage (and having to do some last second tuning), none of us were permitted to use ANY of the THREE dressing rooms, nor allowed any access to the back stage area. (Hanzle and Gretle had them for them selves and flat refused to share). H&G also refused to relinquish ANY of the stage after they had set up thus causing the crowded situation that made ALL the under bands cramped and unable to give their all. (the drummer for H&G even came out during End of an Era’s set, GOT ON THE STAGE, and told their guitar player to get off the drum riser.) We (The Saints) have worked with bands such as CARVIVORE, TYPE O, and SUICIDE CITY and not only did they allow the clearing of the stage to make room for the opening acts, they even allowed the use of THEIR gear (Pete Steele and Joey Z allowed us to use their cabinets at L’Amoures). Thats how the REAL pros do it.
We still look forward to playing at REBEL and as you stated the staff was great and the sound system is second to none. Hopefully the next time you come out and see us you’ll get to see what we really do when we have the room and access to ALL the amenities that make a band able to give you everything that they have to offer.
VIVA LA DARKSIDE!
SYXX
oh CRAP! That is FUCKED UP! sucks when a band you like (well, I LIKE) ends up being a bunch of asses like that… Thanks for all the info, man. I checked the Rebel schedule and I’ll probably go to another show in August and hopefully the headliners won’t be dicks this time, screwing themselves in the process since some of their fans (myself) didn’t even get to see them as they made it so difficult to organize the night. I will definitely look out for your shows in the future and hopefully get to hear more than half a song this time. Thanks for the comments and the correction!