Take, Just One Last Dare

There was a moment at The Fine Line on Wednesday night where the vocalist of the headlining act reached her hand out into the audience and connected with a fan. This fan started crying and the vocalist quickly dropped the microphone from her face to word, “Are you okay?” to said fan. The fan responded with their fingers in the shape of a heart, a nod, and mouthing the words, “I love you!” which was quickly reciprocated by the vocalist. That right there– that was the kind of moment that I live for at a show but those moments were a dime a dozen when it came to Wednesday night.

Nashville-born, Los Angeles-based duo Magic Wands was the first act of their night. Like the setting created by the lights and fog, their music was dark. It felt very dungeon-y with a slight industrial feel to the electronic leaning bass that was pumping through the nearly sold-out audience. Although Magic Wands has been around since 2008 and has five full-length albums and a smattering of EPs and singles, Wednesday night was my first introduction to them. Back in the day, this would have been right up my alley. The dramatic darkness mixed with the techno-forward beats and just the overall spell that their music casts upon your soul is captivating, but these days, I look for things with a bit more energy. Although I enjoyed watching the duo doing their thing on stage, I felt that it lacked a sense of excitement that I needed so badly given my current exhaustion and stress levels.

The night started to ramp up as Essenger replaced Magic Wands on stage. Although just a solo act, the amount of energy that this performer brought to the stage was just what I needed. Essenger started his set with a very EDM-forward sound. It reminded me of mainstream acts like Marshmello or Skrillex with a strong influence of everything from dubstep to straight-up techno. As the set went on, you got to see the depth of Essenger as the musical genius that he is. I could spend a million hours telling you about all of the influences that I heard throughout his time on stage but, at the end of the day, his sound is one that isn’t just heard, it’s felt. From the thumping bass to the swirling lights, Essenger’s set was like a full-contact sport, and I loved just standing there and taking hit after hit. This was my second time experiencing Essenger. The first was at the much more intimate Turf Club in Saint Paul last August. Although I liked that set too, Wednesday night’s set made it clear that this performer really thrives on bigger stages. I would give anything to see him absolutely kill it at a festival because, truthfully, I feel that that’s where he belongs.

The year was 2005 (or 2006), and I was slinging records at a local record shop in Des Moines, IA. Outside of being able to just listen to music all day, every day, my favorite part of that job was getting promo copies of albums (yes, this was a time when record labels would still send physical copies of music for you to play in your store and I loved it). I reaped the benefits of this old-school method of promotion by bringing some of those promo copies home if I really liked the album or if it was a record I was super excited about. I knew nothing about The Birthday Massacre (TBM) when a copy of their 2005 album ‘Violet’ came in, but I knew that the artwork was speaking to me. It was dark but with a bright pop of purple and a bunny and a skull and a broken heart– okay, I know you should never judge a book by its cover (or an album by its artwork), but I was intrigued. I took the CD home, popped it into my stereo, and my life changed. Okay, a little dramatic, sure, but truthfully, The Birthday Massacre opened my eyes to a whole new scene that I knew nothing about prior to listening to that album on repeat for a couple of weeks.

The music of The Birthday Massacre, like the opening act Magic Wands, is dark, but there’s a brightness that seeps through in the vocals that, at times, get buried in the heavy instrumentation. With Darkwave, industrial vibes, and a gothic feel, The Birthday Massacre is one of those acts that takes over all of your senses with just the music they are putting out there. Call me crazy, but as they played through their lengthy eighty-minute set on Wednesday night, I daydreamed in an almost twisted Alice in Wonderland style. Sure, that could have been due to the iconic artwork of this band, which pulled me into their world in the first place, but I would like to think it has more to do with the sheer power and perfection that they bring to a live performance.

Although I felt that sonically, this band was perfection (other than the vocals being a bit too buried at times), I loved how freeing TBM’s set felt. There was something informal about it, especially when it came to vocalist Sara “Chibi” Taylor’s interactions with the fans and members of the band. There was a lot of hugging, a lot of finger hearts being shot back and forth between stage and audience, and a lot of mouthed “I love you!”‘s. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there was one moment in particular that really spoke to me. I loved the way that, although singing her heart out, Sara took the time to connect with the fans on a truly spectacularly personal level. Moments like the one I opened up this post with happened throughout the night, but if you weren’t paying close attention, you might not have caught it. Instead, you just caught the feeling of witnessing a band that, even after decades of doing this, still has their fans and audience members in the front of their brain. If you aren’t having fun, the band isn’t having fun, and let me tell you, everyone is having fun at a TBM show.