6.17.05
Chrome
Epicentre
Darkangel
Arena
Fearless
Entropy
Endless Skies
Further
Kingdom
Perpetual
Homeward
Distant->Rubicon
Honour 2003
Airships
Lightwave
6.18.05
Chrome
Darkangel
Procession
Arena
Genesis
Saviour
Legion
Standing
Joy
Perpetual
Homeward
Solitary
Holding on
Beloved
Electronaut
Pictures:
Intro
Chrome
Chrome-2
Darkangel
Procession
Procession 2
Arena
Genesis
Genesis 2
Genesis 3
Saviour
Saviour 2
Legion
Standing
Standing 2
Joy
Perpetual
Homeward
encore
Solitary
Holding On
Beloved
Electronaut
End of Show
Ronan & I
Mark & I
After a busy day in the New York streets, and some much needed rest at his place my brother and I walk the mile and a half to Irving Plaza. The line runs down the block, but it’s moving. I walk to the end as I see what everyone is wearing: the usual black and rivet-boots, a lot of fishnets and tinted hair. As we walk in a security guard, who looks like Jermaine Dupree, asks my brother where his goth gear is at, and jokingly tells him to go back home and change.
We climb the stairs to the ballroom. DJ Hellraver spins ‘Timekiller’. It’s early and less than half the crowd is here. We walk around theater and upstairs balcony. While there, a chick hands me a pass for tomorrow night’s afterparty at Club Albion.
Nothing much is going around so we prop ourselves on a ledge by a wall. Sitting there while Soman and Imperative Reaction played their set. After an hour of sitting, Mark walks by us. We greet him and he stops by to greet some of the fans. He walks back to the merchandiser’s and eventually loops back around to go backstage. Waiting in anticipation, the Imperative Reaction set ends and we make our way to the main floor. It’s a mixed crowd, less clique oriented and wardrobe intensive than I expected the NYC scene to be. Even my non-goth brother mentioned he preferred this crowd over a DMB show crowd.
The lights dim, the cheers begin and the show starts. Everyone cheers.
Drums crash to the opening of Chrome. Ronan runs around greeting the crowd. His short, stout presence commanding attention with every movement of his frame. His loud baritone asks how many fans have never seen a VNV show, because they are here to “sing, have a good time, and shake your boo-ties!”
The song ends and he pleads for the crowd to move to Epicentre. Everybody jumps as the body heat rises. “No tears, no sympathy!” He cries, as we sing along. Ronan asks for our hands, the room begins clapping to the beat. The audience jumps, dances and sings along to this goth club staple.
Darkangel comes next: ”I’m in this mood because I’m scorned, I’m a mood for total war to the darken skies once more and ever onward.” The energy is palpable, hearing everyone sing along and move to the music is contagious.
When the song is over, he takes a moment to talk to the crowd: “It’s good you all brought your singing voices because this show is being recorded.” The ecstatic room screams in excitement. I have always wanted to be part of a live show in some matter or form (matter+form?). He greets New York City and his “toxic friends in New Jersey.” He talks about the new album and introduces Arena. A song filled will with positive notes “brighter than all the stars combined, more than all the waters, earth and sky all that I wish and all that I dream.”
Fearless comes next Ronan asks the crowd several times if we are having a good time before stating this is a song “for livejournal users… The notes marking the beginning of Fearless start making the natives restless. I didn’t hear this song last time so I’m thrilled as everybody else. Cheerfully and wholeheartedly the audience screams. Ronan thanks the crowd for participating. Pulsating beats keep everyone moving and singing along: “I’m not afraid, I’m not alone, I’m not unhappy.”
Entropy, follows, the song billows through like a hurricane. Exciting the fans with the hardest of the new songs. When this track ended, the band slowed the pace with Endless Skies. A slow number to chill the crowd out, asking us “how many years since you found yourself, staring at an Endless Sky?”
When the next song begins, my brother has to shake me from my disbelief, “it’s Further!” he screams at me. Probably the most ‘beautiful’ song in their catalogue and a rarity from Burning Empires, everyone cheers. Ronan stands in the front as he sings, waving his arms in dramatic showmanship:
“At the end of days, at the end of time, when the sun burns out will any of this matter?” Oh how I love this song, definitely in my top five, a somber number about evanescence and human existence. “I know in darkness, I will find you, giving up inside like me.”
Kingdom comes next. Fists wave in the air, bodies sway and swing back and forth. “…until I see this kingdom is mine, I’ll turn the darkness into light, I’ll guide the blind, my will be done, until the day I see our kingdom has been won!” After this song, a condom balloon floats over the audience and Ronan mentions how that might be a good prop during (hint,hint) Airships. It eventually settles on a speaker, and a barrage of sealed condoms start landing on stage. One lands near his feet and he picks it up “ribbed for her pleasure? What about mine? Is it going to play Slayer when I wear it?” he jokes.
He introduces Perpetual as the song they’ve had the most fun playing in this tour. During the song he asks the crowd, for “purposes of this next line”, to scream before singing “the sound you’re hearing, is the symphony of what we are.” As the song dies down bands exits the stage one by one.
After a few minutes of crowds cheering for the encore the band comes out. Ronan apologizes because he didn’t know the barrage of condoms originated, not from one horny audience member, but from the table handing them out by the merchandise table. He tells us all to protect ourselves before starting Homeward. “So far from the shores I left behind, still far from shores I’ve yet to reach”
In another moment of comic banter, Ronan tells us how he and his jewish friends want to start an Irish/Jewish bar O’Horowitz’s and on top of the payphone will have a sign that should be familiar to Irish and jews Call Your Mother.
After this, the band starts begins with Distant segueing into Rubicon. He screams in anger as he sings: “Tell me what to do? So I do NOTHING wrong! Something I can hope for, something real that I can see.” Cheers from the balcony and around the floor follow along.
“This is Honour 2003” he tell us as he introduces the next track and encourages us to sing along: “on this day, we praise the Fallen” The house readily jumps, thankful to VNV for supplying the music as they are thankful of their fans for singing it back to them.
The screens display clouds and Final Fantasy inspired airplanes during Airships. When the song is over, Ronan informs Mark and the crowd “this isn’t California” so they can’t leave with a slow number The end the night with Lightwave a fast moving instrumental with an addictive beat from the new cd, The crowd moves along as some kids break out glow sticks (I detest ravers). The night ends and we make our way downstairs and onto the busy streets at midnight. My brother’s hungry and we make a pit stop at a Subway. Some of the concert crowd is headed to Sundown, the gothic night we are hitting after eating. We take off to find the ‘club’ around the corner. Well, if you can consider a hole in the wall basement a club. It’s populated by an Elder Goth crowd, a German guy with long hair comes out and I ask him about the club. He is not a VNV fan (blasphemer!) and only likes old school stuff.
This really doesn’t seem like the kind of place I’d want to hit. We decide to save our money and check out the Afterparty tomorrow night instead.
Night 2
We decided to skip the openers this and arrive there around 9:30, in the middle of Imperative Reaction’s set. There are more people tonight and we don’t get our ledge seating. My brother tells me the media gives out the wrong impression on the gothic scene. Yes, I assured him, we’re not all satan-worshipping, baby killers.
When their set ends, my brother and I go find room in the crowd. We get spots almost exactly where we stood last night. The set change lasts longer than the night before and we anxiously wait.
Like the previous night, the set begins with Chrome and followed by Dark Angel we were wondering where the ‘new’ set list was. My brother threatening: “it better be the last” of the repeats. Our fears were quelled when Procession began as the video screens displayed gears spinning in the background the band kicks into this song from their way-back catalogue. “One day we'll see our names in stone where fires burn. The great who silent stood among you never praised nor never known.” Heavy on the drums, this song keeps the crowd moving. In fact, rare are the times fans are not moving, save the ballads of course. They follow this with another rendition of Arena. Ronan once again tells us this is being recorded.
Genesis I talked to my brother earlier how I hoped they would play Genesis and the prerecorded “In the beginning…” starts and I know the song is coming. “Even lands we once called home, lie undiscovered and unknown only heaven’s silence for an answer.” As Ronan says, points his mic to the rafters. Another crowd pleaser that keeps everyone moving and singing along.
After this, it’s my turn to tell my brother what song is next: Saviour, one of my favorite rarities, and they are playing it live. I nearly piss myself as the song flows through. Everyone singing and moving to the beat in unison. It was definitely one of the best performances of the night. Ronan’s glorious baritone singing with such conviction:
“A God of love. A God of care. A God of hope. A God of words. A God as lost as you and blind to fill your hollow soul again. You seek a God to stand above you, wrapping healing arms around you. You'll find another God of pain, a God of suffering and tears. Give yourself unto your God. Sacrifice yourself again.
Burn your thoughts erase your will to Gods of suffering and tears.
Tie hallowed bonds around your hands. Kneel before this seat of shame to Gods as lost, Gods as blind, Gods of suffering and pain.”
Legion follows. Like the Phoenix show, it starts in the slow Anachron style for dramatic effect, before going into the full force version. He demands we move and give him our hands:“none can change in me these things that I believe, but I don’t know what happens now, I am too scared to close my eyes”.
Standing is just one of those songs that capture a moment. Afterall, the song itself talks about making time stand still. By the reaction of the fans, this one is a favorite because everyone, and I mean everyone, is singing each and every word. He demands the crowd move and sing along to the music, as we clap to the beat. Focused energy as one, we readily comply. He stops singing for a while so he can hear the audience, a smile radiates from his face. “It wasn’t you, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t anything, it was a day so long awaited and a chance to be as me.”
Joy follows in all its industrial beauty from their earliest work. With its anger and heavy bass, this song, gets a crowd response. The audience moves to the rants of this Celtic shaman as he asks “why do I love, when I should feel pain?”
Perpetual
The song ends and the band leaves the stage to make us beg for an encore. After a few minutes the clamor of the crowd brings the band back.
When the band returns, Ronan regales the crowd with a story about a show they did in Chicago when the audience did the Mexican Wave. One of those things that is “stupid but brilliant fun.” He wanted the NYC crowd to do one too, and so it was done. After that moment, Ronan introduces this next song stating it will be their next single. Homeward
Ronan asks Are you ready, Jackson?” Solitary begins “Set me aflame and cast me free.
Away, you wretched world of tethers.
Through the endless night and day I have never wanted more.
Always thought that I would stand before the faceless name of justice.
Like some law unto myself, like a child of God again.” When the song finishes the bands leaves the stage once more.
Only Ronan and Mark come back out this time. He gives the mic to Ronan while he goes to get a piece of paper. He comes back to invite the audience to the afterparty, reading from the flyer “meet the band, drink, dance, stay up late”. He tells the audience that a dream for him has come true tonight. Since he started writing music to have people sing it back to him. According to Ronan, he's "never heard singing like that" during Standing, choking back a few tears.
He continues the show, "this is the song that guys will put when they wanna get with the girl. Or this might be the song that a girl puts on to get with another girl." everyone cheers “Admit it guys, it’s a beautiful thing.” A blue light cascades upon him, as the notes from Holding On begin. The emotion coming from his voice is tremendous:
“If I believe do you, will you believe in me? Or am I alone in this hollow dream? Somehow I’m always falling over me.” He sings this song with such passion it almost brings us to tears.
The energetic, bittersweet and heartbreakingly beautiful, Beloved follows, a true EBM ‘powerballad’. Cheers arise as they follow the song from it’s slow beginning to energetic bridge and it’s glorious end. “moments lost though time remains, I am still proud of what we were, no pain remains, no feeling, eternity awaits. Grant me wings that I might fly, my restless soul is long, no pain remains no feeling, eternity awaits.” The crowd jumps in unison, as the floorboards tremble. It’s a moment of ecstasy by the looks of the ecstatic crowd, I’m not the only in awe.
The two members go to their respective keyboards and start the drum-heavy Electronaut as video screens flash the neo-futuristic images that are their trademark. During the break of the song, the band members step in front of the stage and raise their fists as the bass drum pounds. The audience does the same in return and it’s a sight to be seen. They return to the keys and play the rest of the song amidst the cheers of grateful fans.
We make our adrenaline-fueled bodies downstairs and out of the club. My brother tells me, Holding On and Beloved sealed the deal for him and that was the best concert he’s ever been to. We stop at a Walgreen’s because he needs to use the bathroom, which is out of service. We pick up some Gatorade and sour-gummy worms before finding an NYU building that he can go inside. I take this chance to call Renzy and tell her about the show. We hail a cab to take us the club, stopping a block away and walking the rest of the way in the chilly New York night. I spot a goth chick walking in that direction so I ask her were the club was at, she points I hand her a pass to get for $5 instead of the usual $15.
We know we arrived by the crowd outside. A younger, more industrial scene climbing the stairs to Club Albion. Up the stairs and down the narrow hallways were we are patted for weapons (only in NY) before stepping into the club. There are three rooms: the chamber for Gothic Dance and old school stuff, the main floor for EBM and 80’s retro and the Playground downstairs for Industrial. We sit in the main room listening to Ministry’s ‘Everyday is Halloween’ I ask the guy next to us if he was at the show. He tells me he’s roadtripping from Wyoming for these shows and the next two, I tell him I’m also visiting from AZ before I go ask the DJ if he knows where VNV will be and he tells me downstairs.
We head down there, there’s lots of good music but the dancefloor is tiny and packed with people. Mix drinks are $9 and bottled beer is $6, bottled water $4, damn New York prices! It takes the band a while to get there, so I enjoy and absorb as much of the NY scene as possible. Their scene is very ethnically mixed, Asians, Puerto Ricans and more than just one Count Chocula or Blade wannabe. The bands start arriving, we spot Soman up in the DJ booth with Hellraver, the guys from Imperative Reaction are also walking around looking gother than thou.
Downstairs comes the man himself, Ronan, he is immediately surrounded by fans. He signs autographs, and gets pictures with fans. We shake his hand and I get a picture with him. Mark isn’t around, so we head back to the bigger main room and stay a while and dance, to Saviour (again). We look for Mark again and my brother, jokingly states “he’s probably at the bar.” On the way out, I pass the bar in the main room to spot, Bruce, an Area-51 regular. We head downstairs, and sure enough, at the bar is Mr. Jackson.
I walk up to him and say “Great show Mark, could I get a picture with you?” Sure he tells me before signing both of my tickets. I thank him by asking if I can buy him a beer. Never one to turn down a beverage he accepts my offer as he signs by brother’s ticket I ask “How tall are you, by the way?” He replies “6’7”. I get him another BudLight, (hey don’t blame me, it’s what he was drinking!).
Mark greets his gift with a smile, in his English accent he says: “ahh…you are a good man!”
“and you’re a great drummer” I responded. “This is another great drummer” he tells me as he introduces me to the mohawked drummer for Imperative Reaction. It’s already past 3am, I wish them both a good night and head out.
There was something special this night. Maybe it’s New York, maybe VNV Nation, maybe the combination of both. The amazing energy that arises out of a VNV Nation show is almost inexplicable. Such high energy music creating this synergy of movement and ecstasy. The fans feeding on the music and the musicians feeding off the energy of the audience. The amalgam of evaporated sweat, pot smoke and bodies in motion.
relapse
[nin 5.28.05]
[nin 5.28.05]
[vnv nation 5.17.05]
return
[homeward]
reach
[electronaut]
release
[vnv nation]
[vnv nation]