The Birthday Massacre - End their tour in spectacular fashion!

April 26th 2015

Bristol, Fleece, UK

*****

Canadian imports Sell Out!!! tour is a big success!

The Birthday Massacre ***** Bristol, Fleece was the last night of the UK tour, and they put on one hell of a show. They transported the audience into a twisted childhood wonderland, leaving a sweet taste in the mouths of their faithful UK following. They know they choose the right bottle to drink from. The Bristol Fleece was the perfect venue for this band to complete their tour. There is no photographers pit at this venue, and it is small enough for the band to express their love of their fans.

What made this extra special was that it was Chibi’s birthday, but luckily it wasn’t a massacre… groan. It was more a celebration of the bands achievements over the course of the last decade and a love in for the fans. She used a supporting pillar just a few feet from the centre of the stage to lean out and touch, shake hands with, and even kiss her fans. Chibi made a friend out of Music Trespass’s very own new mascot Ray Wolfston (a puppet wolf). Not only did she cover his fur coat in lipstick, but he got to sing 'Lovers End', from the 2005 album 'Violet' with Chibi on stage!!!.

He has just the right measure of evil and cute about him to fit in with the bands ethos of light, dark kitsch. What I loved most about this performance of 'Lovers End' was Chibi’s timing on the lyrics “1-2-3-4 underneath the cellar floor, 5-6-7-8 lover will suffocate” The slight change in emphasis made it sound much darker live than on the album. The same was true of other tracks, their live sound has more impact and power than their album sound. They played a lot of their earlier and most popular hits such as ‘Red Stars’.

Single 'Beyond' is a beautiful song that verges on Goth in places. 'Pins and Needles' has now turned into a classic song. Alibis is a personal favourite of mine, being a particular fan of the material on the 2012 'Hide and Seek' Album. Owen, on keyboards brought a lot of energy into the performance, and Nate Manor the newest member of the band was rock solid on the guitars. The Birthday Massacre are a new wave band that have been growing in size on the underground circuit over the last ten years, although they have never been massive with the mainstream, they deserve mass attention.

This band has an interesting back-story. Although their bunny imagery and album titles like 'Looking Glass', make you think of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, the sophistication of the band and it’s influences are more diverse then you may think, if coming to them fresh. They originally named themselves after Clive Barker's fantasy novel ‘ Imajica’ a tale of reconciling the different dimensions of Earth. The original members of the band, Chibi and Rainbow, were heavily influenced by visual arts.I remain in awe that they use 'Violet' because it is a mixture of the contrasting colours blue and red and itself represents a sort of reconciliation between conflicting inner facets of human nature.

It is a softer play and free from the cliché of using ying and yang (black and white). Behind the scenes, Owen has put a lot of work into the bands internet / social media presence. They successfully funded their last album via crowd funding. Their visual aesthetic, play on contrast, and close relationship with their fans has been as important to the bands success as the music itself. One thing a little missing from the UK tour was a range of merchandise playing on the bands imagery. I would have loved for them to make a comic book or short animation to play on stage to accompany this tour.