Happy Birthday!

So last week was a pretty busy week for me. Firstly, there was paintballing with some friends from work, which was awesome, plus I found paintballs don't actually hurt that much. Oh, and our team won! Then we went on a day trip to Thorpe Park on Wednesday, which was a fantastic day out. I'm deffinitely going there again (soon, I hope), especially for Saw the Ride! Finally, last Thursday, I went to Oxford with some close friends to see one of my favourite bands; The Birthday Massacre.

For those of you that don't know, The Birthday Massacre are an industrial synthrock band, based in Toronto Canada. Thier style is a blend of heavy guitars, euphoric melodies, 80's style industrial with electronic/synth backings that have a strange fairy tale feel to them. Infact, saying thier music is like a twisted fairy tale is a perfect way to describe them, with a blend of sweet innocence and darker more sinister music. It's this blend of styles that gives them thier signature sound, a contrast which works in many strange but wonderful ways.

The Birthday Massacre - Oxford Academy. 09.07.2009

We spent the day looking round Oxford and taking photographs, though there wasn't that much to do, so we headed to the venue reasonably early. There was already a small que forming by the time we got there. After a bit of waiting, the doors opened at 7, and we were in. First complaint here was that the venue was too damn cold! Seriously, someone shouldn't have set the air conditioning so high. After 30 mins or so of Shivering (no pun intended), the first support act were up.

Adrenochrome were the first support of the night, and whilst thier style wasn't bad, they weren't that good. For a start, it was rather heavy and too in-your-face, a style that I feel really conflicts with The Birthday Massacre's sound. Whilst I am into this style of music, it's not what I was there for, plus they lacked variety. It felt like they were playing the same song for 30-45 minutes. They weren't terrible by any means, but they just felt too out of place.

Next up, Raggedy Angry. Thier set started off really promising, with them appearing on stage with crazy costumes, and a sound with heavy guitars, atmospheric synths and a dark vocal style. But once things got into full swing, it all went a tad too emo. Some tracks were alright, a crazy style of synthrock, reminding me a lot of Mindless Self Indulgence. It appeared that lead vocalist had took a few pages out of Jimmy Urine's book, with the zany way he was acting on stage. Covers of This is Halloween (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Gangster's Paradise were rather poor though.

After two mediocre support acts, things weren't looking good. A short wait later, and The Birthday Massacre burst onto stage, opening the set with Red Stars. As soon as they started playing, all worries were easily put to rest, as they put on a fantastically energetic show. They were clearly putting a lot of effort in to this (which wasn't really suprising, considering it was thier first UK show in two years.) Lead singer 'Chibi' acted in a way I never expected she would, marching onto stage, saying a cute "Hello!" to the audience, before proceeding to headbang and jump around like crazy. She's easily one of the most hyperactive lead singers I've ever seen live (which is not a bad thing!) Considering how dark thier music can be, her cute lively style actually worked extremely well, and added that extra layer of energy to thier performance. The overall sound was excellent too, the synths provided by keyboardist Owen and drum beats from Rhim never actually clashed, like with some synth bands, Bass from o.e wasn't overpowering and added a great rythmn, and guitaring from m.falcore and lead guitarist Rainbow was imaculate. If you'd closed your eyes, you could have sworn you were listening to the album, but expanded upon. Only once, did the music sound a bit off during thier set, and 'Chibi's' crazy antics with Rainbow led to him nearly falling over on stage, although the latter was quite hilarious. A blend of old and new tracks worked well, ending the set with an encore of Blue and Happy Birthday, a perfect ending to the night.

Overall, it was a pretty good, though if it wasn't for the support acts, it would have been perfect. The Birthday Massacre but on a fantastic show, and it was worth it for them alone! For a mere £8 ticket, this gig still felt like a steal.

My friends and I got some food from a chinese next door to the venue afterwards and came out to find the band talking to fans. Naturally, we ceased the opportunity and got some photographs, signatures and had a chat. I'm not meaning to brag here, I'd just like to thank them for being such great people, they really are such a nice group of people! With such a fantastic performance and them actually bothering to meet thier fans, it shows they geniunely care, which is something I really respect. I find these days that some bands don't put in that extra effort, so kudos to The Birthday Massacre!

Setlist (note: this is from another gig, but it's pretty much the same as the set they played in Oxford)

RED STARS
GOODNIGHT
FALLING DOWN
UNFAMILIAR
PLAY DEAD
WEEKEND
SHIVER
TO DIE FOR
LOVERS END
REMEMBER ME
VIOLET
VIDEO KID
LOOKING GLASS
I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW
WALKING WITH STRANGERS
----------------------------------------
BLUE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

"This shit, this shit, this shit will fuck you up!"

So last Tuesday I had the pleasure of seeing Combichrist live. You wouldn't think that an RnB club would be a suitable venue for a band that classifies themselves as elctro-industrial, but that night, it was the perfect venue for them.

Combichrist - The Robin 2, Bilston. 26.05.2009

First of the many support acts was DeviantUK. Now, I don't mind them, I think they're a good band, but there was nothing very special about thier performance. Maybe it was because they did a better job during the Legion:Gothica event at Eddies from earlier this year. They just don't really feel like the type of band to warm up a crowd, though they still put on a decent show.

Next up, Uberbyte. There was much better crowd interaction this time round, and even some comical moments (the lead singer decided that "Bilston" didn't sound rock enough, so he called us "Cleveland", amongst other locales. But that's something you probably had to be there for.) The transition between male and female vocalists interested me, and they did a fine job, even if there were a few technical issues to begin with. Thier style and attitude went down quite well, a pretty good warm up job then. Oh, and did I mention that they were cosplaying D-Gray Man? Extra brownie points from me for that one!

The final support of the night was Aesthetic Perfection. They had a much heavier style than the other bands, which fitted in with the Combichrist style perfectly. It was an excellent performance from this act. I have to say, this was my favourite of all the supports, but then AP were the last support on, and the atmosphere had been set by then, so maybe that's an unfair judgement.

Finally, the main act, Combichrist, who put on an incredible set, throwing out tracks at a blisteringly amazing pace. It was non-stop action all the way through, they litteraly threw the crowd into a frenzy of raving/dancing/whatever you like to call it. Crowd interaction was spot on. They played tracks from thier latest album, Today We Are All Demons to thier greatest hits so far, with perfect pacing and execution. Highlight tracks of the night were deffinitely Electrohead, Sent to Destroy, I want Your Blood, and, the end of the main set; Shut up and Swallow. Then the encore tracks This Shit Will Fuck You Up (with the lead singer getting the entire crowd chanting the lyrics, which is the origin on this blog title) and What the Fuck is Wrong With You were a perfect climax for the night.

Overall, a fantastic gig, which actually suprised me. I knew Combichrist would put on a decent show, but I never expected it to be this good! The slew of great support acts really helped too, and made it well worth the money (girugämesh could learn a lot from this.) This was deffinitely one of the best gigs of 2009 so far.