{"id":1865,"date":"2017-02-07T01:38:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T01:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/?p=1865"},"modified":"2019-12-28T02:45:24","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T02:45:24","slug":"february-2017-new-dark-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/?p=1865","title":{"rendered":"February 2017 New Dark Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nFebruary 2017 New Dark Age <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Friday the 13th of January saw two noteworthy scene events in NYC. Christian Dryden\u2019s recently reorganized band, the Ritualists performed a set of nine or ten original pieces plus a George Michael cover, \u201cFather Figure,\u201d at the Delancey under the Williamsburg Bridge. They opened with pop-sounding \u201cSay Yes\u201d off their EP, then moved into a piece with a Led Zeppelin-meets-Echo & the Bunnymen feel, and a third song which featured Dryden\u2019s spectacular, soaring vocals over a tribal beat.

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Christian Dryden leading The Ritualists<\/p><\/div>
\nThe set featured a variety of styles to please a variety of musical tastes including psychedelic, Brit-pop and Post-Punk with New Wave and pop hooks thrown in. They introduced a new piece to their repetoire, \u201cShe\u2019s the Sun,\u201d a 60s-sounding combination of psychedelic with New Wave , followed by the George Michael tribute, and ending with Dryden\u2019s flagship anthem, \u201cI\u2019m With the Painted people,\u201d a geographically well-situated ode to the Lower East Side\u2019s glam and punk scene.<\/p>\n

BodyLab<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DJ Eisdriver<\/a> and DJ Arsenal held the second edition of BodyLab, an industrial\/EBM purist\u2019s dance night in the dim backroom of the Parkside Lounge on East Houston where black-clad and boot-shod enthusiasts punished the dancefloor to the sounds of Skinny Puppy, Front 242 and Ministry as well as less-identifiable harsh electronics . Fascinating, yet disturbing music videos from the Cleopatra Records<\/a> collection flicked silently of a large screen as backdrop visuals to the heavy-duty soundtrack curated by these two rivet-head deejays and late-arriving guest DJ Wendy Blackwidow, late of Philadelphia\u2019s famous Assimilate night. Free giveaways included packaged CDs of techno-electronic music.
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Inclement weather and hazardous driving conditions prevented us from attending birthday parties at QXTs for Damien Plague<\/a> and Krys P. With apologies, New Dark Age extends very belated Happy Birthday greetings to both. <\/p>\n

Stimulate<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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DJ Paradox (right) and admirer<\/p><\/div>
\nThe recurring alternative music party hosted by impresario Xris Smack<\/a> was held on the eve of MLK Day, Sunday night, Jan. 15 jointly with a NYC-based alternative-lifestyle organization calling itself Fetish Tribe<\/a> at Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side club, The Delancey. A Who\u2019s Who of famous deejays from the metropolitan area including Sean Templar, Paradox, Eric Aengel, Michael T, and QXT\u2019s birthday boy Damien Plague enlivened all three floors of this venerable nightclub, where dance spaces were available in the basement and main bar area on the ground floor levels.
\nFor an extra $10, one had access to the third floor indoor garden where Fetish Tribe put on X-rated displays of \u201csuspension\u201d and more on gorgeous and lingerie-clad volunteers, the details of which I will leave to your imagination.\"\"<\/a>
\nDenizens of NYC\u2019s dark demimonde came in all kinds of transgressive attire and costumes, from old-school punk to bizarre outfits befitting the theme denoted in the event\u2019s subtitle, \u201cWicked Winter Wasteland.\u201d Notables of the scene, including William Welles, Ashley Bad<\/a> (in a cr\u00e8me-colored latex body-suit), Athan Maroulis<\/a> (Spahn Ranch and Noir) and Kai Irina Hahn<\/a> (The Sedona Effect and Noir) were on hand.\"\"<\/a>
\n Acclaimed tribute band Disorder<\/a> packed the basement performance space at around 1 a.m. for a flawless set of Joy Division\u2019s history-making, Post-Punk repertoire. Enthusiasm shown by the mixed audience of goths, punks and plain music-lovers has to be termed \u201cover-the-top,\u201d as lead singer Mike Strollo succeeded in capturing the earnest and anguished vocal style of the tragic Ian Curtis with masterful instrumental accompaniment.<\/p>\n

Memento Mori<\/p>\n

This last Thursday night of the month event continues to flourish under the auspices of deejays Ana Vice, Valefar Malefic, Mike Stalagmike (Defcon) and Bela Lugosi Alex. The creepily gorgeous d\u00e9cor of Bedlam, the bar at which it is held provides a unique and just right environment decorated with antique anatomical models and medical charts and a massive, mounted moose head. Artificial cobwebs are strewn about and hung from the numerous lamp-shaded wall sconces that provide conducive, dim lighting to the venue. Countless and various colored tea-lights everywhere \u2013 on the bar, on tables, lined up along baseboards – add a sense of dark glamour. Tatters of shrouds dangle from the ceiling in the he small, but sufficient, strobe-lit dance floor.
\nThe musical selections vary with each of the deejays and can range from such obscurities as Cold Cave to such standards as Sisters of Mercy. Whether it\u2019s Death in June or Ex-VoTo, attendees at Memento Mori are sure to have their taste in dark music not only broadened, but darkened!
\nThis night we found Ana Vice, one of the original founders, opening the night from her statioin at the deejay booth. Charming and gorgeously attired\/groomed Bela Lugosi Alex acted as a sort of host, entertaining guests with friendly conversation while both snapping and posing for photos alongside his better half, meta-beautiful Catgirl Morales. The Catgirl was just back from having been to North Dakota where she had visited to support the indigenous people movement, a cause with which she strongly identifies. To everyone\u2019s delight, Catgirl had brought along her bewitching cousin, Sacramento Samantha, fresh from the West Coast, wide-eyed and enthusiastically touring New York and the East for the first time. Fabulously attired, statuesque Valefar Malefic floated about – preened as always like an androgynous vampire, the very epitome of Goth.
\nBesides bar seating, Bedlam also provides comfortable, upholstered booths where attendees can give their dance feet a rest and engage in intimate conversation. One on such booth we found DJ Mike Stalagmike entertaining some attentive members of the opposite sex early in the evening. Goth celebrity Aurelio Voltaire was observed huddling and snapping selfies with friends in another booth somewhat later in the evening.<\/p>\n

Ward 6 <\/p>\n

Father Jeff Ward and DJ Patrick Cusack hosted the latest edition of this, the longest running Goth dance night in NYC on the last Saturday of January. Doors opened at 11 p.m. and attendees got the warm welcome by M Banshie. Entry to what has become one of the all-time favorite venues for such events, Windfall, was $10 at the door, or $8 with flyer. The night takes its name from the Chekhov short story about an insane asylum, with a play on the main host\u2019s surname.
\n By all accounts this was the most heavily attended event in this category at Windfall, drawing such scene luminaries as deejays Arsenal and Ash, William Welles, \u201cBent Nail Studio<\/a>\u201d artist CharleSilas Garlette and his significant other, Sirma as well as scene regular \u201cTragic Doll\u201d Shirley Alvarez<\/a> accompanied by a beautiful entourage of female family members.
\nJackie Rivera had a stand set up where she hawked her crafted, morbid jewelry and accessories under the label \u201cJackie Hates You.\u201d Pencil artist Bill sat in his usual station making candid sketches of those in attendance who danced before him or stood still long enough to be captured on drawing paper. Mixologists Gerard and Julia kept imbibers satisfied despite the seemingly overwhelming demand. The dance floor was crowded like never seen before owing to the draw of the extraordinarily appealing mix issued forth from the booth. Windfall manager Chris Savo took a moment out from his house duties to pose with Father Jeff for a photo.<\/p>\n

New Recording
\nPeter Murphy
\nBare Boned and Sacred<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Metropolis Records
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This latest Peter Murphy release is a compilation of the somewhat variable setlist presented during the recent \u201cStripped\u201d tour, complete with audience reactions. The feeling of \u201clive\u201d is amplified and rendered unique by the fact that the \u201cStripped\u201d tour was predominantly in the acoustic mode. Thus the versions heard on this CD come across as loud, clear and up front, similar to the way it was experienced by front-seat attendees at the concert performances themselves. <\/p>\n

The first track is the acclaimed \u201cCascade,\u201d the consistent opening track during this long \u201cStripped\u201d tour, which begins with an electronic instrumental riff reminiscent of the dots and dashes of Morse code, onto which Murphy speaks in low mystical tones about \u201ctwilight.\u201d Then it takes off into off into an irresistible, rhythmic set of arpeggios and a powerful, melodious song. <\/p>\n

The second track, \u201cSecret\u201d was less frequently presented during the tour, heard also on \u201cThe Secret Bees of Ninth,\u201d a 6 song EP, and is played with Murphy\u2019s self-accompaniment, strumming on an acoustic guitar plus thje backing of a solo piano. \u201cAll Night Long\u201d is performed in a style that all fans will find delightfully familiar, but \u201cMarlene Dietrich\u2019s Favourite Poem\u201d gets a novel and innovative treatment as far as the accompaniment, while the vocals are faithful to the original.<\/p>\n

Just as he did on the tour, Murphy pays emotion-laden tribute to David Bowie with \u201cBewlay Brothers\u201d on the next track. Then the acoustic guitar proves especially apt as accompaniment to \u201cA Strange Kind of Love,\u201d because of the measured pauses between widely spaced lyrical lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rose\u201d off the \u201cLion\u201d album gets a fuller instrumental backing on the following track in keeping with Murphy\u2019s fuller, soaring vocals. The high point for Bauhaus fans on this album, as during the live shows, is the \u201cBauhaus Medley\u201d of minor key masterpieces that begins with \u201cKing Volcano,\u201d runs through \u201cKingdom\u2019s Coming\u201d and ends up with \u201cSilent Hedges.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNever Fall Out\u201d was frequently performed during the tour, but we who attended the late night performance in NYC didn\u2019t get to hear it, so the CD provides an opportunity to enjoy this piece off \u201cNinth\u201d in stripped-down style with mere guitar strumming accompaniment and some subtle male vocal back-ups.<\/p>\n

\u201cGaslit\u201d off of \u201cNinth\u201d was performed at virtually every stop on the \u201cStripped\u201d tour and serves well as the setlist draws toward a beautiful climax, just before \u201cLion\u201d – also missing from both NY City Winery sets – leads to the final entry on this album that was not part of in the \u201cStripped\u201d tour setlist,, the languid, mystical, Near Eastern hymn, \u201cYour Face\u201d from the 2002 album, \u201cDust.\u201d<\/p>\n

This album is a must for Peter Murphy\/Bauhaus fans. Although many of the titles will already be in their collections, they will hear them sung with his voice now thoroughly mature as never before in \u2013 as we say \u2013 \u201cclose up and personal\u201d versions Close listening will reproduce the experience of witnessing it in intimate proximity to the artist, with just enough instrumentals to highlight his rich vocal style.<\/p>\n

Museums<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Whitney Museum of American Art<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The first week of February was the last chance to see the mind-bending and dazzling video\/light-show exhibit called Dreamlands at the Whitney in NYC\u2019s Meat Packing district. Large format screens showed everything from actual 1950s Pacific nuclear bomb tests to slo-mo images of glittering, costumed characters, to human puppets and psychedelic patterns. Here there were imaginative flashing neon signs and there, rooms full of competing screens with films, slides and colorful images to hypnotize viewers. A sampling of images are shown in the Aquarian edition.<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Museum<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Max Beckmann<\/p>\n

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Self-Portraits of Max Beckman<\/p><\/div>\n

This venerable mother ship of art had two exhibits of interest to the Goth crowd. Upstairs was a retrospective on Max Beckmann<\/a>, 20th century artist from Leipzig, whose success in his Weimar Germany was short-circuited by the rise of Nazism, forcing him to emigrate to Amsterdam and then later, New York, where he continued his career as an acclaimed Expressionist painter, a label he thoroughly rejected.

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Bird’s Hell – Max Beckman (1938)<\/p><\/div>
\nWhen he wasn\u2019t painting introspective self-portraits, he often produced grotesque, sometimes distorted images of his wife Quappi and some seductive women as well as puzzling tableaux of people engaged in casual violence.<\/p>\n

Masterworks \u2013 Unpacking Fashion<\/p>\n

Downstairs in the Anna Wintour Costume Center, the Met put on a display of sixty, chronologically arrayed fashion masterworks, from the 18th Century through the present, with an emphasis of design and materials. What we found fascinating from our particular point of view, was the presence of numerous works with a transgressive, in-you-face attitude. I\u2019d like to see some of these outfits, shown nearby, at the next Goth gala, Endless Night or Dracula\u2019s Ball. Some of the frankly absurd shoe designs reminded me of footwear that might have been featured in fetish mags.
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Like to see these at the next Endless Night Vampire Ball<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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Punk ain’t (comp[letely) dead yet<\/p><\/div>
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What everyone’s wearing at the Annual Fetish Ball<\/p><\/div>
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Not exactly “sensible footwear”<\/p><\/div>
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An absolute “must” for the Anti-Valentine’s Ball<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 2017 New Dark Age Friday the 13th of January saw two noteworthy scene events in NYC. Christian Dryden\u2019s recently reorganized band, the Ritualists performed a set of nine or ten original pieces plus a George Michael cover, \u201cFather Figure,\u201d at the Delancey under the Williamsburg Bridge. They opened with pop-sounding \u201cSay Yes\u201d off their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1865"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3433,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions\/3433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}