As well as the heavier fare on offer at Bannermans that Mosh covered, Friday night in Edinburgh also saw Canadian goth band The Birthday Massacre on the UK leg of the “Under Your Spell” tour.
UK tour support was to come from English band Lesbian Bed Death, who describe themselves as “female-fronted gothic punk/hard rock band”. I wasn’t familiar with them at all before tonight and didn’t really know what to expect from that description. I wasn’t really feeling the gothic punk vibe from the band, they were more like a solid hard rock act – think AC/DC with a female singer. Their songs were all inspired by classic horror movies such as “Son of a Thousand Maniacs” and “Hallow-een”.
They also reported that their song “Video Nasty”, one of the highlights of their set, will feature in a new movie.
Opening with ‘Counterpane’ from the new album Under Your Spell, The Birthday Massacre‘s front woman Chibi instantly connected with the devoted fans in the front row. Clearly an extremely well-rehearsed and professional band they wasted no time in engaging the entire crowd in the intimate venue. The start of the set contained a lot of heavy hitters such as “Red Stars”, “Kill the Lights” and “One”.
The band worked well despite the confines of small stage for six members, with Chibi spending the majority of the time on the front riser. The drums, in particular were excellent and the acoustic kit sounded fantastic, even on the more electronic tracks such as “Superstition”. On reflection, the entire band sounded great and Chibi’s vocals carried particularly well.
The band stormed through seventeen tracks and as the end approached Chibi joked that they would keep playing as they had nowhere to go before the encore. Finishing with “Blue”, they then spent time with their fans before leaving the stage. Sometimes small venues offer the best experiences and this was definitely one of them.
Photos by Kerri Clarke of Exposing Shadows Photography
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