illusionofjoy | Masquerade 7

Wednesday night was my final shift at the Federal Reserve as a temp worker in the cheque department. The company had a luncheon that night for the department's closing, which was nice. It was likely the best meal I'd ever had at the place, given that I usually eat from the vending machines.

After work, I went to missjoi's apartment to sleep, which was very difficult given that I was wired for no reason I could figure out. I was able to get a brief nap in before my cell phone began ringing, with Joi telling me to wake up, get ready and drive out to Oakland.

I actually got to Masquerade about five hours before it started. Joi gave me a staff pass and I set forth to join the decorating and preparation fury that was kaspellsgoddess (aka: "The Gothic Martha Stewart").

I thoroughly enjoyed myself last night, which means that Joi gets to say to me, "I told you so." Seriously, though, it was as good as she claimed it would be.

everyday_gray, trhodes, illusion_of_joy trhodes and everyday_gray were there. Without any prompting, likely due to his state of intoxication, the former told everyone that he was gay for Halloween. Upon receiving this tidbit, I also became the recipient of his faux flirtations. This eventually led to the arse-grabbing photo session visible to the left of this paragraph.

masochistmonkey was at the event, being one of the "candy devils" of the night. In-between band's sets, the candy devils would run about, as their name implies, handing out candy. MM happened to be the only male candy devil. He was also the only one over six feet tall, wearing a priest collar.

As for the bands themselves, I was quite impressed for the most part. Turn Pale took the stage first, for whom I got right I front for. I was glad that I did. The band, whose sound is a marriage of the sonic palate of Alien Sex Fiend and Joy Division, began their set by opening with the latter's "She's Lost Control." From there on was an emotional set of ragged post-punk, which would have fit perfectly into the Manchester scene circa 1978. The band's lead vocalist was quite animated, interacting with the audience in such a way as to draw them into the tortured world of the songs being played. Suffice it to say that I liked this band enough to buy a CD from their merch table.

The next band up was Psyche, a group of German electro kiddies who were pretty generic. I passed on getting close to the stage, as I found their set to be fairly dull, especially after the intensity of Turn Pale. A word of advice to techno groups in general, dark or otherwise: vary your tempos and add some flourishes to your chord progressions; the majority of your audience members won't go into seizures if you do this and the rest of us will thank you for it.

Following Psyche was Oneiroid Psychosis. I wasn't able to get up to the stage for this group, as I was watching their merch table while they played. From what I heard, I would have liked to be there, however. The atmospheric drone-rock that they play reminded me of a more dismal Calla. Many didn't seem to appreciate this group, but I thought that the atmospheres they created were wonderful - very conducive to "interpretive Goth-dancing."

illusion_of_joy, Romell The final performers (and Masquerade headliners) were Hawaii's Razed In Black. Before they took the stage, Joi and I were able to get some photos backstage (final two photos on this page).

Razed In Black was quite good. Joi and I were right up front, rocking out to their industrial synthpop grooves. Joi was as giddy as the evil cheerleader she was dressed up as. My only complaint during Razed In Black's set would be directed at certain audience members who thought it appropriate to mosh during certain songs. To these wankers: get a fucking life. I resolved to seriously fuck up (in other words, draw some blood from) any moshing shithead who slammed into myself or especially Joi. If you want to mosh, go see Bane or Agnostic Front.

Overall, the night was a lot of fun for me. I saw some really good bands and got to hang out with a bunch of my friends. I would have voted for different winners for the costume contest, however.

In any case, Joi and I took MM home and then had a late-night breakfast before crashing for the night. The poor girl is still complaining about how much her feet hurt (but in a good way).