you might start believing/you're immune to gravity and stuff

[rushthatspeaks]

eredien, every so often, actually reads the newspapers, and so found out on-- oh, Saturday?-- about the Halloween concert the Dresden Dolls were having at the Avalon, fairly close to us. So we got tickets (late Sunday) and then, sadly, eredien got sick and could not come with.

Therefore gaudior and weirdquark and I went. (syonakeleste, you were sorely missed!) It was one of those things that I knew was a bad idea going in for reasons of the timing of appointments and job stuff the next day, and Ruth having to get up at five o'clock in the morning to go to her internship, and sixteen other things I ought to have been doing and a long-distance friend I was quite worried about, but dammit, every so often one needs to stay out till all hours on a weeknight, and Halloween is a day for being gloriously stupid.

And it was indeed glorious. Best night out I've had in a long, long time.


I went straight from work, which necessitated some peculiar clothes-layering, since the dress I wanted to wear makes one statement to the world in general and that statement is *cleavage*. This might be a pleasant statement from one's local bakery clerk, but it isn't an appropriate one. Turns out a fully buttoned flannel shirt over a dress that breathes 'sex' does in fact then cause the dress to breathe 'sensible'. I threw on the rest of the outfit during the last of closing, and I am never, ever, ever again going to do anything at all involving a cash register, even moving it from one place to another, in opera gloves. Ghlk.

I am never running like hell in heels and opera gloves again either, but the actual posted concert start time and the closing time of the bakery happened to coincide, so I figured if I hustled I'd arrive around the time the opening act would be winding down. I was lucky and there was more than one opening act, and I got there about halfway through the last of them.

The Avalon is a wonderful, wonderful club, and I say this with love and adoration despite being a person who does not go clubbing and does not like nightclubs. Why? Because they were non-smoking and the bathrooms were spacious and clean and they had an ice cream vending machine in the lobby. With those really nice actual-fruit frozen-fruit bars. I proceeded to get an impressive sugar high, which takes some doing on me, and the three of us sat in our black cabaret-Goth improvised-yet-hopefully-cool-looking clothes and people-watched during the last of the opener.

Hundreds and hundreds of people, and it was an all-ages show which sold alcohol after carding at the door, a feat I've never seen managed before without something somewhere degenerating into utter chaos, but it worked. A lot of goths, of course, a lot of catgirls, a lot of people of various genders in French maid outfits and some in full leather. A very nice Louis XIV-era ballgown, with wig, and somebody in a full Imperial Stormtrooper's suit, and a lot of New Mod boys in their customized suit jackets and string ties and lip rings. It takes a self-confident man to really pull off mod these days, but there were a couple who were really impressive, especially one fellow who had a fedora, a gorgeously tailored three-piece suit, a white string tie, no shirt at all, waistcoat held to lapels by six-inch safety-pins, and a chain between nose ring and earring. If he'd been a girl, I'd have followed him home.

It was a relaxed crowd, too, happy and not too drunk and secure in its own fabulousity. Age range from about sixteen to at least sixty, which is always good to see. I saw somebody wander by in a perfectly respectable J. Crew sort of outfit, and no one was giving her any trouble; that kind of atmosphere.

I have no idea who the opening band were, but they were pretty good. They had a Russian or Romanian name with extraneous consonants, and they were wearing mariachi outfits and very good skull masks. The lead singer had one of those hats with the little red balls dangling from it, and alternated songs on the electric tuba. 'Venus in Furs' does not sound half bad as a mariachi number, or didn't once I recognized it, though the banjo may have been a little much.

The Dresden Dolls were frankly spectacular. I don't think I've ever seen a better live musical performance, and it was their fifth anniversary party: they were playing to a home crowd, with a lot of friends present, and it rocked. They did most of the stuff I'm told they usually do-- 'Missed Me', 'Gravity', 'Half Jack', and so on-- starting with 'Science Fiction, Double Feature' from Rocky Horror (apparently a traditional Halloween-concert thing) and ending on 'Girl Anachronism'. But we also got a cover of Joan Jett's 'I Love Rock and Roll' that I thought was going to bring down the ceiling (no one would have cared), a debut song called 'My Alcoholic Friends', and a live of 'Mandy Goes to Med School', which is one I hadn't actually heard because they just don't play it and so I haven't seen it round the Internet.

Highlights: definitely 'I Love Rock and Roll', which Amanda played drums for, and which has been stuck in my head ever since; 'Bad Habit', which is not one of my favorites in the album but which really took off, and 'Girl Anachronism', which, well, you know how when drums are really loud you can feel them in your chest vibrating? This is the first time I've ever had a vocalist cause that. The sheer amount of *energy* the two of them put out is absurd, especially Amanda. One five-foot-something woman in torn velvet and striped stockings should not be able to just *own* a room full of I-don't-know-how-many loud, carousing, slightly high revellers, but she did. Even when she wasn't singing. Brian inhaled an airborne shard of his drumstick halfway through 'Good Day', but he just shook it off and kept going, although he did take off his bowler hat and start looking a little tired.

I love that we get rock stars like this, nowadays. That you can be the Dresden Dolls and be rock stars.

And we got home before two in the morning.

It was a damn good night, even if I am still exhausted.

If you like Goth music, or indy-rock, or people who know how to play the piano, and haven't stumbled across the Dresden Dolls yet, you can find their official site here. It has a couple of free downloads and will certainly give you the general idea. They call themselves 'Brechtian punk cabaret', which about sums it up; musically accomplished, infernally catchy, and almost subliminally dysfunctional.

I think I need more sleep now.

Comments

[sovay]

I have two live versions of "Mandy Goes to Med School," if you would like either.

Brian inhaled an airborne shard of his drumstick halfway through 'Good Day'

Whoa.

I have been wanting to see the Dresden Dolls for Halloween ever since 2002: so if I can't, I'm glad my cool friends can. Deeply, deeply awesome.

[eredien]

The next time we find out they are playing I shall need to go. In appropriate attire.

Good thing I keep reading the paper.

Remind me to show you the restaurant section in this week's "Dig," by the way. The international reviews said, "this section is subtitled: where Ruth and Lila should try to go each Thursday for a month."