Unfortunately due to the nature of Dark Jubilee, I can't do a complete review. As we were going in we found out that the running order had changed. This was a good thing, as we no longer had to choose from D.U.S.T. and Killing Miranda aside from some slight overlap. A celebratory drink was had.
We got armbands and headed in. The early time was spent talking to people and catching up. It was either that or go and see Revolution by Night, and a quick look into the room that they were playing in was enough to convince me that that was not the preferred option, so we resoluved to chat until D.U.S.T. arrived on stage 2.
When that happened the mood changed a lot. London woke up. Or at least the small section of London just in fornt of that stage work up. I had reports that there were not that many people bouncing at that stage, but I wouldn't know, I was much too caught up in the energy where I was. As usual Mikey through himself completely at the performance, and Xtian seems to be gaining a lot of stage presence as well. During the set I was also quite intrigued to find that the floor was vibrating. I'm fairly certain that I should be able to remember certain parts of the set, and things that were said to the crowd, but I am afraid that I was a little preoccupied with bouncing my little pointy boots off, along with Natasha and Mark, whom I always seem to find at the front of D.U.S.T. gigs. They ended to a great deal of cheering and after a very short break to get a pint of water into me, I moved toward stage 1 to catch Killing Miranda.
When I got there they had already started. So I slowly moved forward toward the front. The main stage was much larger than anything I've seen Killing Miranda on before. There seemed to be less energy in here than in the second stage, but I think that this was attributable to the different points of view I had in each place. Over the course of the next couple of songs I slowly crept forward, moving from dancable space to dancable space as I bounced around. I was suddenly taken by suprise by an explosion of sparks from the back of the stage, and realised that pyrotechnics were provided. This would be interesting! The usual songs were played by Rikky, but some of the stage presence that they have had before seemed to be lacking. I think that perhaps he doesn't move himself around enough, so he was having trouble with the bigger than usual stage. Was this made up for by the explosions and flames? I don't think so. Singing along with Teenage Vampire, that was the high point of the show. It will be interesting to see them pull themselves further into the view of mainstream music, as they have signed to a big label (Or so the rumourmill goes)
Next up were L'ame Immortelle. I had been looking forward to seeing this lot live since I got the tickets. I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy them or not. I've got their latest CD which has grown on me, but some of their earlier stuff I am not quite so keen on. They were a nice cyber three piece, a front man in a suit, a front woman stuffed into some well strained PVC, and someone at the back on a keyboard. The man covered a lot of the stage, and for what they were they had a lot of stage presence. I really enjoyed them, though there seemed to be a somewhat mixed opinion of them, some of the audience staying so that they could see wether or not she stayed in the dress. What they played seemed to come mostly from the latest CD, which I think was a good thing. Especially since it meant that I knew more of what they played. But I think that they were enjoyable bleep with some stage presence.
Final band that I was to see that night was VNV Nation. I was expecting a lot more than what was delivered. A slightly podgy bloke in shorts coming onto the stage wasn't a good start. The DVD player crashing wasn't helpful. I can cope with pauses whilst say a guitarist gets a string sorted, or the sound engineer does something. But we were stopping so that we could fix the slide show. Good whilst going, but definitely less than I was hoping for from VNV.
Perhaps Erik had the best plan by going to sleep before they started.
The early part of the next day was mostly missed due to talking to anyone and everyone who would stop for long enough for me to talk at them.
The first band that I saw was Theatre of Tradegy who were quite interesting, but as Zotz put it, I didn't realise that Denise Van Outen was in a goth band. I can't remember that much specific about their sound. It certainly wasn't offensive, and I quite enjoyed the set, but the jumpsuited blonde really didn't really seem to fit in. Still, I may go out and get a CD of theirs, as I found it quite fun. Just not sufficiently so that I have something stunning to write about them.
Das Ich were quite interesting to watch. The front man was looking quite worked up, with "666" written across his chest, and a wild look in his eyes. Keyboards were arrayed across a large mobile... thing, and I should really have enjoyed them a bit more but I was in a slightly odd mood and anyhow I was enjoying conversation. So I left slightly early from there to get to see the Cruxshadows.
The Cruxshadows were absolutely fantastic! At the start I was off to one side and leaning by the bar, but within a few songs I had moved forward and was dancing around like a dervish. Rogue has a massive amount of stage presence (and looks gorgeous), and the songs that he was delivering so wonderfully were themselves rather great. He had a radio mike on and was walking through the audience singing at people directly at times, climbing and jumping over the place. Rachel looked fantastic on the violin, and there was just a great overall effect. Having dancers on the stage is usually a bad sign, but the two that they had were quite good, danced well, and didn't do anything too silly. It was good to have something to focus attention on whilst the frontman goes for a walk around the audience. I think the number of encores was particularly telling, as the audience just didn't want to leave. To be honest, I can't remember if it was three or four encores. I think that the amount of Cruxshadows tracks played at goth nights around England will be going up over the next month or two.
Usually after a band plays a set up expect to see some activity around the merchandise stall. They were compelely inundated with crowds around theirs, with everyone wanting a T-shirt or CD. They have certainly got me as a fan now, and I'll be up at their Coventry gig even though its tricky to get too.
Finally Paradise Lost, the weekend's headliners, were on. Except I didn't bother going to see them since I was too blown away by The Cruxshadows to bother, and there was quite a stream of people leaving the stage mumbling about them destroying their old songs. I just enthused about what I had just seen instead!
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