with Brokencyde, Deuce, Polkadot Cadaver, William Control
Revolution Live
April 29, 2012
Better than: Actually being Frankenstein
Goth rock, what hath ye wrought? For this writer, goth died when Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis hanged himself in his Manchester home back in 1980. It has since evolved and mutated countless times into an industry that preys on teenagers during their most awkward of life's phases. Blood on the Dance Floor currently holds the torch for the latest incarnation of goth, now called "Scene." This genre seems to clash electro, hardcore, emo, and eighties new romance into one heck of a Frankensteinian monster.
It was a dark and stormy Sunday afternoon when BOTDF brought its Fight to Unite tour to Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. The awkward teens expressing themselves in their best Hot Topic uniforms of ironic cartoon T-shirts and gore, lined up in the drizzling rain. Parents scattered among the crowd a few people away from their spawn to give their kids space.
Inside, the headlining band brought seven other acts with them to halfway fill Revolution for a music festival of grown adults pandering to teen angst and confusion with lyrics like "We all fall down/We'll pick you up" (From BOTDF's "Believe In Me"). They also bring some scandalous baggage with them. One thing shadowing BOTDF singer/guitarist Dahvie Vanity are allegations of statutory rape.
It is important to note he has never been charged, but pornographic sexual themes do appear in his lyrics. During the show, he introduced "Scream for my Ice Cream," as a song about "my jizz." That was the stagehand's cue to fire a foam cannon into the crowd, and that cannon would not relent throughout the show.
There is nothing subtle about this band.
At one point, Vanity had a back and forth with an audience member. From a distance I could only hear him on the mc: "You are gonna do what to me? ... What do you want to do to me? ... You're too young ... You're not 21 ... You're 12."
One mom in the line outside, before the show, was overheard saying she has been taking kids to BOTDF since they were 10, saying she thinks she is more into the band than her own children. "Kids are smart. They know what is real and what is not," she rationalized.
Maybe, lady, but only as long as those kids are educated. None of that was on display inside Revolution. One band, goth/metal act New Year's Day lead the audience in some meek sieg heils. When vampiric dandy William Control came out, he opened singing "We need a new world order," a theme Adolph Hitler most famously used during his Aryan race campaign.
All the while, most of the acts inside repeated the mantra: we love you and be yourself. Someone would form a heart up on stage with their hands, and the audience all responded in kind. It was a creepy sight of programming to watch. And it's why, at the end of the night, Vanity could go around mooning his audience with his bare ass and his co-singer Jayy Von Monroe could hurl a huge wad of spit into the crowd and throw up a heart and everything would be hunky dory again.
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