Bauhaus: 19 May 2022, Seattle

Last night, Seattle - Bauhaus in concert at the majestic, opulent Paramount Theater in downtown Seattle.

 

Soriah was the opening act. We missed most of their set because we were in the merch line for quite awhile, but what we witnessed was incredibly powerful, setting the vibe for the rest of the evening.

The Paramount is one of the most ornate venues I've ever seen. Perfect setting. The scent of clove cigarettes, patchouli, weed, and booze hung in the hazy air. Literally perfect.

 

Then the house lights went down and the stage lights flashed on. Strobe lights and fog machine. Then the music began and it felt like a sacred ritual had begun. The gods were summoned.

 

 

 

SET LIST:

1. Rosegarden Funeral of Sores (John Cale cover)
2. Double Dare
3. In the Flat Field
4. A God in an Alcove
5. In Fear of Fear
6. Spy in the Cab
7. She's in Parties
8. Kick in the Eye
9. Bela Lugosi's Dead
10. Silent Hedges
11. The Passion of Lovers
12. Stigmata Martyr
13. Dark Entries

Encore:

1. Sister Midnight (Iggy Pop cover)
2. Telegram Sam (T. Rex cover)
3. Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie cover) (!!!!)

 

Bonus content:
Beautiful details throughout this golden palace. It was a evening of wonder. Total experience. 

View from the merch line - which went all the way up to the second floor and wrapped around. Worth it.

 

Now playing: Gamardah Fungus

 A friend of mine recommended this one and I've listened to it a few times already. I've been in the mood for some dark ambient music lately, and this fits the bill quite nicely.

Now Playing: BLOOD INCANTATION

This band is new to me, but I've been hearing some hype over their latest release, Timewave Zero, which is reportedly a departure from their usual death metal sound. It's a dark ambient album and I am really enjoying it so far.

Now playing (on repeat) - new Bauhaus track (!!!)

Legendary goth rock band Bauhaus has released a brand new single, "Drink the New Wine," and I can't fucking stop listening to it. 🦇 The creative process behind the track is fascinating, too:

// "Drink The New Wine" was recorded last year during lockdown with the four members sharing audio files. The track employs the Surrealists' 'Exquisite Corpse' device whereby each artist adds to the piece without seeing what the others have done. Bauhaus have used this technique in the past to great effect. The title refers to the very first Cadavre exquis' drawing rendered by André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prévert and Yves Tanguy which included words which when strung together made up the sentence, 'Le cadavre exquis boiara le vin nouveau' ('The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.") For the recording, the four musicians each had one minute and eight tracks at their disposal plus a shared sixty seconds plus four tracks for a composite at the end. All done without hearing what the others had laid down. The only common link being a prerecorded beat courtesy of Kevin. The final playback came as synchronistic revelation. //

  

I recently scored tickets to see them in Seattle!* I haven't ever seen them in concert before, so I am really looking forward to this.

(*Concert date has been changed to 19th May as of this posting)

When all the leaves have fallen

At long last - it's time for me to show off my new tattoo! After 2 sessions, this piece is finally complete.

(Photo courtesy of @vining_tattoos)

This piece has been years in the making -- a tribute to the incomparable group Dead Can Dance, who are among my top 5 absolute favorite bands of all time. I was introduced to them by a friend in the early/mid 1990s, and I've been completely captivated by their music ever since.

Also sometime in the 90s, I found this Dead Can Dance poster at a (now long-gone) gift shop in York, Maine (whose name I can't remember now), along a beach-town strip of tourist-trap spots, tucked in between a fortune-teller's parlor and a pizza place. The shop specialized in hard-to-find rock band & novelty t-shirts, posters, buttons & pins, band patches, postcards, celebrity 8x10 photographs, pipes & bongs ("for tobacco use only"), and other cool miscellaneous stuff. 

That poster stayed plastered to my bedroom wall til I moved to WA state in 2015.

The imagery of the dancing skeletons in the poster/tattoo is from a 1493 woodcut, Danse Macabre ("the dance of death"), by German artist Michael Wolgemut, symbolizing the concept of memento mori, a reminder of death's inevitability. 

For my tattoo, a border of tangled vines and leaves was added to the design to represent the cycle of life, death, and renewal/rebirth, as is visible every day in the changing seasons; a reminder that change is unavoidable, that death is merely a part of that rhythm. We cannot resist change, so we might as well accept it and dance our way through the process.

One of my favorite Dead Can Dance songs, "Severance," addresses the fears we face when confronting these difficult realities, calling upon the season of Autumn as a metaphor for imminent change: 

Severance
The birds of leaving call to us
Yet here we stand endowed with the fear of flight
Over land the winds of change consume the land
While we remain in the shadow of summers now past

When all the leaves have fallen and turned to dust
Will we remain entrenched within our ways?
Indifference, the plague that moves throughout this land
Omen signs in the shapes of things to come

Tomorrow's child is the only child
Tomorrow's child is the only child  

 

I'm very happy with how my tattoo turned out, and I'm grateful to Ariel at Primeval Ink in Olympia, WA for her amazing work and talent!

Now Playing: Stalker (film and score)

What would you do if you were given the opportunity to fulfill your heart's wish?

The 1979 film Stalker (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky) is generally regarded as science fiction, but there is enough anticipation and visceral tension that I would consider it a psychological thriller as well, deeply philosophical and full of symbolic imagery and dialog, and overall very unsettling on multiple levels.  

The "stalker" in this story makes a living as a guide of sorts, hired by individuals to navigate them through The Zone, a dangerous forbidden place, to a mysterious room that grants the visitor his or her deepest desire. The landscape seems devoid of human life, overgrown, only crumbling ruins remain.

This film is a masterpiece, visually breathtaking despite its vivid imagery of filth, pollution, desolation, and decay in a seemingly post-apocalyptic society. The sound design and score are equally as incredible, haunting.

Stalker has quite a long running time at nearly three hours. Despite its slow, ponderous pace, it's never dull, it's full of beautifully composed & surreal imagery. This is one to watch and discuss with deep-thinking friends. This is one that's going to stick with me for a long time.

 Rating: 9/10 Jackos [🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃_ ]

Now playing: Ah-Cama Sotz - Burning Souls. Brandende Zielen

If you enjoy dark ambient/dark techno stuff, listen up.

If you're 'tired' of all the usual horror films...

...then check out this batshit crazy movie about a sentient tire that goes on a killing spree. Absolutely fun to watch with friends.
 

 

Bonus: This hot track from the film's score. 

Fun fact: the director and the composer are the same person.

 I rate it 7/10 Jackos! 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃_ _ _

Flashback Friday

Me, sometime in the early 90s, standing outside at the high school dance that me & some other of the metalhead kids crashed, I was wearing my favorite Slayer "Root of All Evil" tee that I got from a poster-and-memoribilia shop in York, ME (which is sadly no longer there), much to the disappointment of my parents (who later made me get rid of the shirt, worrying that heavy metal music would corrupt my soul.**

**[Spoiler alert: it did.]

The photo was damaged in a flooded basement a long time ago, but if anything, the weird water marks enhanced it.

I still miss that shirt.

 

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 27

ONE MORE DAY! Hope your Christmas Eve is divine.
Click the pic below -

(Image source)

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 26

 Will it snow for Christmas this year? Only time will tell! Click the pic below -

 

(Image source)

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 24

 You done decorating your house with festive shit yet? Christmas isn't very far away - 

Click the pic below for a handy reminder.

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 22

 Attention, K-Mart shoppers!

It's Day 22 of Bad-vent, less than a week to go before Xmas, and at this point every trip to any store probably feels like you're trapped in there for eternity.
Click the pic below for some appropriate music.

 

(While you're on the website, please consider making a donation! Internet Archive helps to preserve free and open access to culture, including movies, books, and audio files.)

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 20

He is the Reason for the Solstice Season 🐙🎅
Click the jolly Cthulhu for an inspiring Holiday tune.

 (photo by Maika on Flickr)

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 18

Only 10 days left til XMAS - Let's rock! Click the pic below to reveal your Holiday madness fight song.

 

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 17

This is it - this is the song that started my obsession with collecting weird Xmas music. Years ago when I worked retail during the holidays, this song came on frequently over the store's holiday satellite radio and it always made me question "WTF am I listening to??" It's no less bizarre now, and a must-play each season! Click the pic below for this classic Xmas memory!

  

(Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr)

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 16

It's less than 2 weeks before Xmas!! Click on Eric Idle for a festive carol to fit your current holiday mood.

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 14

It's Xmas - time to head to the malls! Click the pic below for a seasonally appropriate playlist.

 

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 13

The snow is falling, so you know what to do - Click the pic below to listen to everyone's third-favorite song about snowmen!

Bad-vent Calendar - Day 12

If the usual holiday music is too merry & bright for you, today's entry might be more appealing - click the pic below to tune in:

(image source)