By Jase Walker
In a bit of a departure from my usual slew of metalcore/tech death/synthwave shows, I’ve made my way to Rebellion to catch Canadian goth rockers, The Birthday Massacre. Out on the road in support of their latest album, ‘Fascination’, they have brought along Vanilla Sugar and Witch Of The Vale along with them and tonight’s sold out show on a Tuesday promises that Rebellion is going to be bloody heaving!
A bit of a chunk later than what’s on the stage times, Witch Of The Vale take the stage, just two people, one of which is in an outfit that resembles a druid complete with horns and the other in what appears to be a plain black dress and I think some shadowing across the eyes, can’t quite make the details out. The music reminds me quite heavily of the music from Hellblade: Senuva’s Sacrifice with its subtle hushed voices in the background. It’s all very atmospheric, slow, pulsing music along with sweet, haunting vocals. The audience is almost deadly quiet during all this as well, which is a remarkable sign of respect to the initial openers.
Despite not really being at my usual pace of music (I definitely prefer faster bpm), it’s wonderfully pleasant to listen to and a pretty engrossing show overall. The musical elements done by one on their station of various gadgets and the like sound great and are balanced well enough to not overshadow the tender and ethereal vocals of their singer. One part that stood out to me and took me by surprise was a cover of NIN’s ‘Hurt’, hauntingly beautiful. Quite an interesting opener to say the least, a very interesting show and another good example of the varied and incentive approaches that many musical acts are able to create and perform with so few people.
Vanilla Sugar is absolutely not what I was expecting on this sort of show, a single woman with a backing track doing sort of alt-pop which reminds me a bit of Scene Queen who I saw the other week with Wargasm although a bit more pop. There’s elements of the likes of Lady Gaga in here too, big thumpy bass, harsh synths mixed with EDM strings. It’s got me a bit lost for words honestly because it’s certainly come from the leftfield a bit in terms of what I was sort of prepared for tonight!
I think the crowd’s a bit bemused by this too, I mean it’s still very much along the lines of Goth music still though! The pastel goth aesthetic singer jumps around the stage getting the crowd to dance along with her, pulling double duty between singing and being her own hype-guy/lady. Each song is definitely laced with brash feminine energy, unafraid of being aggressive about sex, emotional trauma and the like. It’s not particularly my sort of thing admittedly but exposure to a massive breadth of music is what I’m all about, never knowing when something might break through! Gotta hand it to her though, top class performance and really enjoyed it nonetheless, it’s certainly been a bit of a ride so far!
Finally tonight is The Birthday Massacre, and I’ve had to get myself a spot a bit closer to the door because Rebellion is absolutely rammed by this point! Just as they get on stage there’s now so much smoke I can barely make out anything other than silhouettes, well other than the massive keytar! Considering there’s six of them on stage, the sound is remarkably well balanced, the synths are extremely apparent through it all too which is fantastic.
There’s so many influences on full display with their live show too: bits of NIN, Killing Joke, Sisters of Mercy, all that good stuff. Heavy yet Melancholy is The Birthday Massacre in a nutshell, each song swells slowly at first but builds into a huge euphoric peak.
The bands clearly thriving off the crowd’s energy too, the singer is rarely leaving any gestures of enjoyment or love unreciprocated. We’re barely past the halfway point and I’m already thinking to myself that this is much, much more than I could have anticipated. Not only is their stage presence and performance a real treat to watch but being exposed to much more of their music than I had been previously is compelling me to have their entire backlog on repeat for the next few weeks! I’m completely enamoured with this show, thanks to both the great music that’s got me completely sucked into the show and the on stage shenanigans. For the past few songs she’s been messing with various members of the band either by ruffling their hair or hiding behind them during their key spots or generally just skylarking across the stage.
Don’t get me wrong, I love real professional performances with real tight, choreographed actions and stuff due its own level of skill to execute, but I really really love bands being so comfortable to just faff about on stage and having a great time. This even ends up with her putting on some heart shaped sunglasses someone from the audience handed over which eventually made their way onto one of the guitarists, and she’s grabbed them back for the next song, it’s a look!
The Birthday Massacre have put on a real outstanding show and somehow managed to sell out the venue on a Tuesday which is pretty damn impressive as well! Hopefully it won’t be long before they make a return, especially now it seems a bit easier for bands to get around. What a brilliant way to spend a Tuesday night eh?
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