First, my apologies for the lack of posts over the course of the past couple months. Life was both busy — mostly with work, but also with my sometimes overwhelming social life — and uneventful, so I didn’t really have a chance to post much of anything, but even if I had there was nothing to post. But now we’re back with exciting happenings!
This past Saturday night, there was a music event at a new bar downtown called The Pinhook. It was billed as a steampunk gathering, which I’ve severely missed since The Clockwork Ball moved to Chapel Hill with the closure of Ringside, so Betsy, myself, and our mutual friend Karaya who was in town from Atlanta suited up and headed out.
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After a very pleasant two-minute walk from my apartment, we arrived at the club, newly inked membership forms in-hand — due to NC liquor laws it’s a private club for members and their guests, but membership is available to anyone 21 and up and it only costs $2. Unbeknownst to us, the event was 21+ only, and Karaya is unfortunately not quite there yet. However, because we’d clearly dressed up — I was wearing a fedora, a vest, and a tie; Betsy was in what I can only describe as an angry/sexy flapper dress; and our little goth pumpkin was wearing custom black and silver bloomers and a corset — the gentleman manning the door made an exception, put big black X’s on the back of Karaya’s hands, and let her in as our guest. It was very cool of him.
The Pinhook’s space is very nice. It’s airy and spacious, and non-smoking so you can actually enjoy said air, with a handful of classic arcade games, a pinball machine, and a bunch of random board and card games. The stage is at the far back of the club and is low enough to the ground that there are no steps, but high enough to elevate the performers above most people’s heads. It engenders a very personal feeling with the people on stage. We saw four bands perform, three on stage and one I’ll cover in a moment.
The first band we saw take the stage was Veronique Diabolique. I’d read about them in the Duke employee newsletter, in an article about employees in bands, and I was instantly intrigued. I would best describe them as French Gothic rock. The lead singer sings entirely in French — except when they did their awesome cover of They Might Be Giants’ Don’t Let’s Start — and it really makes for a very unique and enchanting experience. I would have preferred if her mic was either better leveled or less grainy, but I still enjoyed seeing them very much and look forward to do so again.
Throughout the course of their set, one of the guys who was clearly in another band was wandering through the audience distributing booklets of some sort. Leaning over to a table lamp in the corner so I could read it, it turned out to be a book of sea shanties. As in sailors’ work songs from the age of sail. I was more bemused than anything, so I stuck it aside and continued watching Veronique Diabolique perform. After their set was done and they started clearing the stage, the gentleman who’d handed out the pamphlets directed our attention over to a corner off to the left, ninety degrees from the stage. The band Oyster Destroyster had set up and was prepared to lead the crowd in the singing of some sea shanties. To describe this as utterly brilliant doesn’t begin to express how delighted I was. It gave the audience something to do between sets other than mill around looking bored as well as gave the previous and forthcoming bands a crowd distraction so we didn’t get in their way or bug them while they were trying to tear down or set up. We sang a few songs, and when we were done the next band was pretty much ready to go.
What we saw in front of us was Senryu, but that doesn’t really describe it. It was two guys, a guitarist and a drummer, the first of which was wearing a cape, a pair of long-johns, and a pair of black tighty whities on the outside. His partner in crime — because he certainly didn’t look the part of a crime-fighter — was wearing a referee’s jersey. They explained that they were from Knoxville, TN, and had no idea what steampunk was, so they just started putting on clothes and that’s what they ended up with. They took a look at Wikipedia and it said something about underwear, so they figured they were good to go. They launched into set of raucous, high-energy, sometimes-psychedelic rock. They were also great, and had phenomenal stage presence and rapport with the crowd and were very well received. For their last song they brought in a bass player who was simply exceptional. They’d driven from Knoxville so I kicked a couple of bucks into their gas fund. We also bought their new CD and they threw in an EP for free. I love buying albums directly from the artists because you know they’re getting the money they deserve and it’s fun to talk to them and get a better impression of what they want their work to mean. Senryu got a great crowd response at the end of their set, and then it was on to more sea shanties while the third band prepped.
As Lemming Malloy took the stage, we realized that the bass player from Senryu was their drummer and is an amazing musician. They had a weird blend of cutting-edge and retro sounds to their music, spread across several layers of complex interplay, and were a bit more mellow than the previous band without being even remotely sedate. They were obviously more connected to the steampunk scene as well, and their lead singer Jay Cartwright has this awesome tricked-out steampunk keytar that is a work of art in and of itself.
After having seen four great bands, we briefly retired to a friend’s house for an after-party and then went home and collapsed into bed. It was a wonderful night and I wish all the success in the world to both The Pinhook and the very talented artists we saw there this weekend. I certainly know I’ll be checking it out more frequently.
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