Nocturne at Princes sports bar

[celticsmith]

The venue was not nearly as bad as I had previously thought…..I mean, Deli and SPORTS BAR? All sorts of scary images crept into my head. In actuality my suspicions were unfounded. True it was a deli…..but that meant you could have actual food to eat. The drink selection was essentially beer bar stock….but that was ok since there were also several beer alternatives (Woodchuck Cider being a yummy example). While waiting for the bands to get set up and play there were various things to busy yourself with. They had pool tables (I suck at pool), and darts (I suck at darts), a couple of pinball machines, (I sorta suck at pinball), and several ANTIQUE video games (Galaga ?) as well as the usual nouveau bar video games (Strange….I suck at those as well). If all that fails there is also several TVs to watch and a juke box with some rather eclectic selection possibilities….most of which were not too bad.

There were three bands that played…Stillborn, Saint Famine Society, and Nocturne. I was there to see Nocturne.
The evening was summed up nicely by Master Bone, “I suppose they were ok, but I will reserve my opinion until I actually listen to the CD’s. Their sound man sucks ass!”

Stillborn was a last minute addition to the line up. Though the “official” start time was 8 PM they didn’t get started until 9:30 or so. The best comment of the evening was from Karmakazi “Not bad for a metal band”. Admittedly they were playing with extra bounce because they were video-ing it for their portfolio….It was standard metal band fare. In my opinion they really should try to incorporate some of the humor that they showed while performing their sound check. “check…check…cheque…cash….CHARRRRRRRGE!!!!…..check….Fuckin pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters….check….CHARRRGE!!!!”

I think it would serve to make them more distinctive in a world of alsos….

Saint Famine Society was the main victim of the “ass sucking” sound man. Their stuff was reduced to mishmashed goo. All sense of nuance was lost in the feedback and poorly mixed sounds. The base player was cute…I only wish I could have heard her voice.

Finally, there was the main event, Nocturne. Fabulous, in spite of the sound man, and even better on the CD’s. I had thought at first to describe them as Swichblade Symphony with a metal twist… but now I sort of view them flavored more like Kidney Thieves with just a hint of Rob Zombie or occasionally Type O Negative.
Bone suggested that they had a somewhat Marilyn Manson-esque feel as well…but I didn’t get that impression myself. I could be wrong…I don’t really listen to a lot of Manson.
(Gawd!….I sound like a wine critic. Ah well, one must go with one’s gifts.)
The highlight of the performance was watching Lacey Connor, the vocalist. Admittedly, a vibrant redhead in a corset dancing on stage is bound to attract SOME attention. Especially since her style dancing around tends to threaten an impending containment failure. Sadly, it was not to be, repeated discreet tucking saw to that (8 times…we were counting). Nevertheless, she maintained a commanding stage performance (as well as stage presence). In spite of the guy with no shirt and tattoos dry humping the stage (I kid you not!)

I also spoke some with Ivan McRoy before the bands began. He is good people with a nifty set of leather armor similar to the rubber “batman” armor I have been known to wear and a cool set of Goblin king-esque gauntlets. I must remember to find out where he got that stuff again…He told me…but I have swiss cheese memory (full of holes).

In the end, we ended up literally paying Nocturne the ultimate compliment. The one bands care about and respect the most. We bought CD’s. All three…several times (for there were several of us), after all these are hard to find around here and it was 25 buck for all three CD’s.

Nocturne is supposed to be opening up for Bile sometime in July…
Perhaps, with enough advanced notification (like more than 10 hours in advance, Cha!) we can provide more of an audience for them.

I am certainly up for it…

[Hardcoregirl]

Interf4ce introduced me to some of their mp3's a month or so ago. However, on such a short noticed, a sitter and funds were unattainable.

Maybe next time

[Mindwarp]

it wasn't as good as the show in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday, but it was still pretty good. even though they ran into more problems from the sound guy. Saint Famine said that the sound guy at the Riviera in Atlanta was also a problem, because he fell asleep at the board.

I thought the worst sound problem was with Lacey's vocals. however, she could sound like a muffled fart and still compensate with her great stage presence, which is one of the best I've seen.

the one thing about last night's show and the other times I've seen Nocturne (3 now) was they played their cover of "Kinda I Want To," which I've been wanting to hear live for a while.

it's also always great to be able to run on stage during a concert, even if the stage is only 6 inches high.

yeah, the tatoo guy was annoying. me and my friend who showed up were talking today and wondering why he'd always leave the stage area after he fell over. what a wuss.

anyway, it was a fun way to start off my return to Knoxville.

-

[rec|use]

nocturne just played last night here in tampa with defragmentation

they will be on tour with bile and defragmentation
i suggest you guys check it out

heres some pics from the show in tampa

http://ncc-records.com/liarsclub/selected.php