If you were heavy deep into anime in the 2010s, you’ve probably heard at least one song from this band. Not through searching…but through anime music videos. Specifically the song “My Demons” or “Die for You”. Tonight we’re seeing Starset on the “immersion” tour.
This show was definitely an experience, and what a tale to tell.
There was no support tonight at Rock City, and I assume the rest of the tour, being that there was a lot put into just the headliner’s stage design. A gig for Starset is called a “Demonstration”. The set plays almost like a film. Between each song, an intermission of a film played. A plot about an uprising in the future. The stage is further amplified by fan screens right at the center stage, in front of the band. It truly did feel like an immersion into a sci-fi world.
I know Starset as the band “with the music that sounds like it belongs in a cinematic film” and it was so thrilling to not only hear these tracks, but the harsh screams that the vocalist harbors. It’s easy to not realize the range of the singer when you hear their most popular tracks but GODDAMN- bro can scream.
Also, in the world of rock band wardrobes… Starset gotta be up there with some of the best. The sci-fi suits that all members wear have such a vibe. I almost wish the crowd had the memo to cosplay. The helmets were cool to see, with their own lights contrasting that of the stage. It was cool seeing all the members in their characters. The guitarists looked like some sort of secret service and the drummer would even taunt the crowd at times.
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Now, as cool as the experience is, I have to say that I would’ve loved two things. One is that the fans, not the audience – the actual fans casting visuals, weren’t directly in front of the band as it was hard to see them. Not only that but we had the fans and then a projector, so two screens to look at. Why not just cast it onto one? The fans casted this cool futuristic effect but seeing as they didn’t screen the film playing… why not just make them portrait screens on either side and then they can act as backlighting if it was imperative to have a fan screen as well as tv screen? And those fans also made it hard to get photos. The second thing, the film. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but let’s just say no audience member was recording the film…because no one was here for that. I feel like the narrative part of this needs to play more interactively. I hate to bring up other bands, but it makes me think of Bring Me The Horizon’s set where the visuals play into the stage. Whereas with this, it was a short clip, band play with fan visuals, band vacate stage, short clip, band play next song. It didn’t flow as well as it could’ve between stage and screen.
The main takeaway is; really cool experience for an audience member, not so great when you tryna get photos. The entire stage is blocked by fans where you gotta shoot 50 shutter speed or less to capture the visuals the fans are casting but then you got soft focus on images. I’ll just have to tell the publication it was the vibe I was going for and hope they didn’t read this part of the review…
As I’m writing this, they took the fans down – YES! – about halfway through the set. I’ve got to ask myself if they were worth it, as cool as they are. The band came out no longer donning the outfits. Instead it’s their signature Starset jackets that have this techwear vibe to them. By the way, the merch for this band is pretty sick, can’t lie. With the narrative now done, the band also interacted more with the crowd. Giving a shout out to the crew, joking about how “usually this is the time to thank the support act…but we don’t have one.” The night ends with the vocalist jumping down to the barrier and singing with the crowd. Something that makes the crowd go absolutely wild.
If this has taught me anything it’s that Starset should collaborate with a vocaloid and then I could see someone like Miku or Luka singing with them on stage via a fan…
See Starset, aight. Go watch some AMVs. Join a revolution. The band has wrapped up this era of the Immersion tour. The set now being different going forward.
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Photos by Jayne Slater
