w/ The Brides, Damien Zygote

While our last show at The Asylum went pretty bad, Amy at GothicMiane.com asked us to open for The Brides (a touring act form NYC) and we did not say no. How could it be worse than the last show there? Usually Amy hosts a goth dance night in the Asylum’s subterranean lounge, so in theory that crowd would come upstairs for the Brides Show.

The sound onstage that night was a decided inprovement over the last time. Damien Zygote, who is a real character and had massive stage decoration, unfortunately played to just us. His crew is from way up north (Bangor), and tends to be underage. Couple that with the Asylum’s rep amongst Portlanders and it does not make for a good turnout. He tried his best, but unfortunately looked odd parading aorund the stage doing his usual schtick to almost no one. His is an act that looks odder than usual when the crowd is sparse.

The morning of the show, Cruella recieved her final and definitive breast cancer diagnosis, and told me that she did not want to cancel the show – one of those “I have to do it for me” things. While I had known for a few weeks that this was a distinct possibility, it was still a heavy thing to deal with. She had not told Runtt and Jack yet, so while we were onstage I kept thinking “is this the last time I wll be onstage with her?” Obviously spurred on be her predicament, Cruella but in probably her best performance to date. Overall our turnout was a bit better than DZ’s, but still nothing to scream about. The members of the Brides, though, seemed to like us and gave us a lot of compliments.

As for the Brides themesleves, they were what I call “the nouveau new wave”, like the Killers or the Bravery. They had that great retro/semi-techno sound, and put on a great show. Unfortunately, the crowd was still sparse, even though it was better than when we played. So much for the support of the Portland goth scene. I felt bad for Amy, as she had to pay them AND us, (and I would assume Damien Zygote), and I’m sure the brides were not cheap. The Brides were really nice people and tried to keep up a brave face, but I suspect we will not be seeing them in Portland again, just like so many other touring acts I have seen come here and fail.