Birthday Massacre San Antonio Review

Flyuer for the show...I don't think the Promoters did their research...

03/15/2006

Okay…I’m functioning on three and a half hours of sleep here. I know- I’m a pansy. But my ears are still ringing, my throat is still hoarse, the songs are still in my head, I may still reek of cigarette smoke but I had a blast seeing the Birthday Massacre last night.

First of all- I don’t really care in driving to San Antonio. It’s about 85 miles from where I currently reside, but it takes an hour in itself for the first 15 miles or so just because you have to go through downtown traffic- but past that, you usually just fly by. Although the drive ain’t scenic- unless you count cows, snake farms and flat land as pretty to look at. But I digress.

The venue was the White Rabbit, which looks like a mechanic’s garage converted to showcase bands and heavy metal ‘graffiti’ style murals of the namesake all over the exteriors. A small place with three stages for bands to play (two were being used for the night). The website infuriated me as it listed only two of the opening acts as playing that night and didn’t list the main act. Then no one would confirm for me if the Birthday Massacre was even playing. Well, it was this or try and buy a wristband from a scalper for SXSW tonight when they’re not scheduled to even hit the state till 1am

Cover was $12.

First surprise? Everywhere I looked said the show started at 8am. Which would mean the Birthday Massacre would be on at about 10pm at the latest. Cool- it was a work night after all. We got there at 7:30pm.
Second surprise? The Birthday Massacre wasn’t the only band playing. Which I kinda knew because hey- everyone needs an opening band. BUT THERE WERE AT LEAST SEVEN OTHER BANDS. The Birthday Massacre wouldn’t be on till 11pm at the latest.
Third Surprise? The bands were all good. How about them apples? The music varied from decent to crappy but the bands all gave inspired performances even when the crowd was apathetic and could be counted on one finger.

Who were the bands? Lemme see- from the ones I remember? Tokyo Rose, I Hate Kate, Girl In a Coma, The Start…I don’t recall the others names. Tokyo Rose had a fob as a lead singer and the band got shafted when their set was cut short and lasted only three songs. The reason, as the bass player told me, was that they had too many bands tonight, that the Birthday Massacre’s portion (their tour) wanted to start earlier so they were the chosen one to be cut. (Later we found out it was the lead singer to Girl In a Coma’s birthday and they were allowed to run their set longer- I believe this was the reason Tokyo Rose’s set got cut short) Too bad- their three songs were decent. But the bass player invited us to see them in San Antonio again tonight- which we may just might if I don’t drop dead from fatigue.

The other bands- like I said gave awesome performances even if their material was not too original. There were Killer wannabes, Greenday wannabes and enough little girls trying to sing like Debbie Harry to last me a lifetime.

But now to the main act before I forget. They didn’t come on till midnight. How did I find out abut the band? They had a song on the latest Metropolis records sampler and when I picked that up, I was listening to old Switchblade Symphony and was looking for a band in a similar vein. Enter the Birthday Massacre. Now, the only similarities the two bands have are a female on vocals and the genre their in. The Birthday Massacre ROCK! With a capital R-O-C-K! They have awesome synths and powerful guitars all capped with beautiful vocals. When I got their CD all of two months ago, I couldn’t stop listening to it. I really wanted to check them out live and hope they lived up to their studio recordings.

Which they did. It helped that the sound in the venue was awesome- the synths were a little down but a whole lot of emphasis was place on the ridiculously named lead singer Chibi’s voice. It helped that she was adorable as a button (even Holly thinks so, so she won’t be mad at me for this one). Reminded me of a younger Bjork and Chloe from 24 if she were nice. She had all the cute Bjork antics while on stage.

Set list?

The entire Violet album and what I came for too- older material which I have not heard and new material from an album supposedly coming later this year (which means another tour-yay!). They started off with Blue, and proceeded to play my favourite songs from the album (Play Dead, Never Mind, Horror Show) all in a row. If I had a complaint- I’d want them to space out those songs a bit more throughout the set, but it’s a really small complaint. The songs I knew all matched the album versions with added energy. The older material fit well and the new song seemed to continue the quality of material fund on Violet. They didn’t do an encore- which I believe is due to the fact that they don’t have enough material to do so. The set lasted all of an hour.

To cut to the point- I had a great time watching them perform. Reminded me of all the people who claim to have seen Nine Inch Nails in clubs before they hit it big and would boast about it. Well, I’ve seen the Cure, VNV Nation and now, the Birthday Massacre in clubs. I really hope this band continues their quality of work and hit it big at SXSW. They deserve it.

NOW DON’T SELL OUT!

SHOW RATING: ONE BILLION AND ONE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(the extra one is for Chibi being cute as a button- even Holly thinks so)

Merchandise: Two t-shirts, one free sticker that’s now on my car, their older CD and Tokyo Rose’s CD.
________________________________________________________________________
http://www.myspace.com/catterpillarboy

http://catterpillarboy.blogspot.com/