sean brennan

even though we're still tired from the trip, last night we went to see london after midnight at the knitting factory. i've always wanted to see a show there so i can cross it off my list.

show at 8pm, quite early, especially for goths. but since we arrived late last time and almost completely missed london after midnight, i didn't want to risk missing them again. thankfully, this time they were the headliner. we arrived a little after 8pm and no sign at all that the show would be starting soon. i looked at the merchandise and chuckled a little in nostalgia as there were some quite old stickers and posters for sale. perhaps sean found them in his garage or never managed to sell enough before the band puttered out in the mid-late 1990s. i used to think sean was a self-centered, narcissistic, pompous, arrogant ass based on his in print persona but i liked the music and would go to the shows. whenever a clearly goth band says they are not goth and get mad at the implication, you just have to wonder about them. i mean, the band started around 1989 with sean claiming to be a 400-year old vampire. i might have the article still somewhere amongst my things. then a few years later he's in goth magazines dressed to the nines in goth style and sounding goth and pissed off that people think they're goth. lately though, sean has grown up or something. now he's mad that goth isn't what it used to be (i agree), he's vegan (amen to that), and goes off on how fucked the children are, this country is, and what an asshole the president is (hey man, no need to preach to the choir!). so i'd say that back in the day when i listened to goth and dressed a bit goth but rarely called myself goth (and didn't get mad if someone called me goth), perhaps my mindset wasn't close to sean's in print persona but now it's closer. plus he has a bit of a sense of humor. he introduced the band and then asked for the audience to do the same, turning right towards me and saying, "now it's your turn". funny stuff but i guess you had to be there.

a few songs were synced to pre-edited videos (like music videos) and there was some computer difficulties for which sean remarked that he "hates computers". there were even lyrics for the first song and i was reading them thinking, "aaaah, so that's what he's saying". hahahaaa i've listened to that song for at least 16 years or so but i've never been one to memorize lyrics. what was kind of cool (and annoying at the same time) was the audience knowing the lyrics and singing along. for one of the songs, there were quotes from "1984" by george orwell on the screen. ok sean, stop trying to make me love you.

for "spider and the fly", it was a downplayed performance as the band exited the stage and sean performed by himself to a backing track and played a little guitar at the very end. i couldn't read the setlist from where i was but i could make out the basic structure and knew that the show wasn't over yet. in fact, the band's return wasn't even an encore. after the encore however, i could see there appeared to be one more song left on the set. the crowd was really lackluster with their applause, so much so that we almost didn't have an encore. the crowd took the setlists at this point so i couldn't get one and tell you for sure but staring at the list earlier, it appeared that we missed a song due to their lack of enthusiasm. fuckers.

p.s.
the opening act, lore, was utter crap. thank god for my shitberry, i turned my back to them and focused on playing a game.

sound and vision

setlist:
your best nightmare
feeling fascist?
shatter (all my dead friends)
nothing sacred
where good girls go to die
demon
the beginning of the end
america's a fucking disease
republic
pure
spider and the fly (sean solo)
the bondage song
kiss

encore:
sacrifice
the kids are all wrong

p.s.
twiddle thumbs got her lost luggage back! they found it at the airport in são paulo, shipped it to miami, and it reached LAX yesterday and was delivered to her parents' house. she picked it up today.