Front 242 7.25.1998
Bauhaus 9.25.1998
Frontline Assembly 5.22.1999
Switchblade Symphony, Sunshine Blind, Trance to the Sun, Desmo Dante, Willow Wisp
May 4th, 1997
Roxy Theater
This was the first small concert I’ve ever attended.
The only concerts I’ve ever been to were big stadium concerts,
so I didn’t know what to expect. We waited around outside the
theater until they let us in at 8:00. The first thing that struck
me was the size of the theater: it was barely larger than my
grandma’s house. When the bands were playing we were no more
than 15 feet from the stage. And it reeked of smoke and pot.
So my friends and I wandered around and checked out the
merchandise table until the opening bands started.
Willow Wisp played first. The first thing I noticed
was the drum setup: the big bass drums were behind the drummer,
so for parts of the songs he played with his back to us.
Willow Wisp had a sad, brooding feel, and the singer had a
deep voice that was sort of menacing. He looked sort of like
one of the guys from KISS too. Their songs were pretty good,
heavy on guitar but the keyboards had a few dominant parts.
The rhythm varied from slow and sad to fast and, well, sad.
One of their songs sounded like speed metal, with fast, heavy
guitar playing. The highlight of their set was at the very end
when the drummer ran off the stage and returned a few seconds
later with a metal trash can. He then climbed off the stage and
went into the audience. At first I thought he was going to
say something like "Please don’t litter." But then he set
the trash can down and started banging out a rhythm on it
with drumsticks, and then his hands. It had an industrial,
factory-like feel. Then he trashed it with his hands and kicked
it around, the audience backing up and making room. I wonder
how many trash cans they’ve wasted.
Desmo Dante played next. These guys sucked.
They just ruined the night. I don’t know why they even
bothered to come. They started with a cover of the
Garbage song from the Romeo+Juliet soundtrack. It sounded
okay, but it felt more aggressive than the original version.
The rest of their set sucked. There wasn’t anything special
about their mostly forgettable songs. They sounded like a
mainstream rock band. Each song sounded the same. During
their set we moved to the side, next to the speakers, cause
my friend wanted to sit down. That was stupid. All I could
hear was bass. While we were waiting for Desmo Dante to get
off the stage we noticed a short girl at the front with
Tank Girl type hair. We made fun of her for a while. At
the end the lead singer threw some stickers at us. I
could’ve used them for toilet paper.
It turns out the girl with the Tank Girl hair
was the singer for Trance to the Sun. Then we felt
sort of bad. Trance to the Sun must’ve been using a
backing tape because I didn’t see the drummer anywhere.
They were great. The drum programming was really cool
because there was a lot of variety in its beats. Their
songs had a melancholy, wandering feel accented with
vocals that added to that feel. The songs were very
emotional too. For a few songs the singer had a snarling,
screaming thing with cool manipulation going on. The
drums and the electronics really added a lot of energy.
I didn’t get bored watching.
When the next band was taking the stage they
put up a big banner that said "Sunshine Blind" on it.
Gee, I wonder who’s next. The singer was the lady who
was selling stuff at the merchandise table. I was glad
I didn’t say anything like "I bet Sunshine Blind sucks"
while I was there. Sunshine Blind had a cool light
show with these rotating green lights like the rays
from a child’s drawing of the sun. They played an
excellent set. Guitars dominated their
sound. Unfortunately the vocals weren’t loud enough
so I couldn’t hear what Caroline Blind was singing.
They performed an excellent cover of I Ran. The
drummer looked like Nosferatu, or Uncle Fester. I
think the light show really added to the feel, making
it seem more dramatic.
Finally Switchblade Symphony took the stage.
This was the first time I saw them live and I was not
disappointed. They sound just like they do on their
albums. There was a bubble machine spewing out bubbles,
and they had glittery cardboard cutouts of cats
around the stage, creating a playful, child-like
atmosphere. Switchblade Symphony played mostly new
songs, but their old ones actually sounded better live
than on the CD. Their songs are sad and haunting melodies,
and the vocals were almost spell-binding, taking me to
another place. I love Tina’s voice. Her range is
very impressive, sounding low and angry and then high
and melancholy. She talked to the audience in between
the songs too. They finished playing, then came back
for a two song encore. Then the bouncers kicked us out.
I didn’t notice this when we got to the theater,
but there was a Cinco de Mayo party going on next
door, so when we were going out I could hear Mexican
music with the heavy bass lines. I bet they weren’t
too happy about goth music drowning out their own.
When I got in the car I smelled like smoke. My clothes
still smelled like smoke the next day too. I must’ve
second hand smoked two packs. My ears were ringing
too, and everything sounded muted. It was an awesome
experience.
