mistressofmuses

Last Friday was the other concert that we went to go see:


Aesthetic Perfection, doing an old-school set, plus genCAB and Whorticulture opening.

This one was cutting it a little closer to get there, since I wasn't able to leave work at all early, but luckily the class we were closing at work didn't keep me longer than usual, either. I was able to wear most of what I was going to wear to work, and change what little I needed to on the drive there, haha.

We actually wound up being down there earlier than needed, and had to circle like vultures for about fifteen minutes until one of the driving lanes turned into a parking lane at 7:00. As usual we car-bar/pre-gamed for a bit, then headed to the venue.

We weren't late this time, so we got to see our first opener, Whorticulture.



Whorticulture is a local band, and they've hit at least a little bit of success! We last saw them opening for Solar Fake (last year? the year before?). They got to play Dark Force Fest last month, which was pretty cool.

I've been impressed every time I've seen them, and even having only ever seen them live as an opening band, their songs have been memorable enough that I recognize them every time.

I always figure "hey, I should buy a CD!" and then don't have merch money, so this time was going to be the time! ...They do not have CDs at their merch table. I poked around on Bandcamp and discovered that this is because they do not have any albums... just nine singles released over the course of the last six years, haha. So I did buy their various singles, haha.

Their set was great, as they have been every time I've seen them, and even only getting to play four songs.

Three more Whorticulture pics + a music video embed

"Okay, hold on a minute. Time for an on-purpose wardrobe malfunction!"

Watch on YouTube

Here's their song from last year, "Faust," which I quite like. The video is them being dramatically gothy in the Molly Brown House Museum, which is fun, too.

After that was genCAB. They were supposed to open the last time Aesthetic Perfection came, but had to cancel because the singer had Covid.



Unfortunately I found them solidly... meh. They weren't terrible, but I found myself getting a little bored. I couldn't understand more than a handful of words out of each song (just kind of nondescriptly loud and yell-y.) The singer also seemed... shy? Like he didn't want to look at the audience, ha. He's the synth player for Aesthetic Perfection while they're touring, so I feel like he's had a good tutor in stage presence, but... I mean, I'd be petrified and hate being on stage, so. Glad to have gotten to see them, but not someone I'd seek out to see again/look for as a headliner.

Three more of genCAB

Not really a "good" picture, but I liked the dramatic silhouettes.

And then, Aesthetic Perfection!


This is by far the best picture I got for the night, ha.

It was exciting to see him back, since he swore that the last tour would be the last one in the US ever. (He doesn't live in the US anymore, and he's always very open about the business side of being an artist. Basically it's just prohibitively expensive to tour, in a way that doesn't work out as a financial decision. He's said he'd be willing to tour as a supporting act, and I think he did so last year, but I wasn't interested in the artist he was supporting.)
I think the old-school thing was really meant to be just a single special show, and then expanded to a very small tour, and it was exciting for Denver to have a date added. It's very possible that this one is in fact the last tour, so I'm glad we got to go. (Or maybe there'll be another in a year or two!)

I'm actually less a fan of his older stuff than I am his like... middle stuff. I'm a 'Til Death fan, sorry. Even so, his older stuff has grown on me quite a bit.

He opened with "The Great Depression," which was a good starting song. Having the first words of a set be "Hey you motherfucking son of a bitch!" is pretty good, lol.

Got a lot of other faves from A Violent Emotion (and I'll be honest, while I knew most of the other songs, I don't have the albums they're on. I'll have to get them from Alex, as I'm sure he does, ha.) I was glad we got "Pale," which is one of my favorites from that album, as well as "The Siren" and "Living the Wasted Life."

The final encore song was "Spit It Out," which is a great energetic song to end on. I'm pretty sure that was the song he opened with at the first AP show we saw, way back at Castlemans (RIP a great venue.) The energy of the crowd screaming along with "Spit it out scream, spit it out scream!" does make it a great one to hear live.

Could have done without a small cohort of girls who came in about halfway through the set and pretty viciously shoved their way in front of me, but ah well.

Five more pictures

Bought Alex an Aesthetic Perfection shirt (since the last one he tried to get, he wound up with the wrong one and didn't realize until later. The cut of the one he got didn't work for him, so I wound up with it.)
I bought a Whorticulture shirt, since there's not an album to buy, haha. (Forever sad to have missed out on their "Goth as Fuck" shirts, which were styled to look like the "Queer as Folk" logo.)

Poor Alex is just hideously sick. Negative on a Covid test, but I know that's not a sure thing. He is having a bad time of it. It seems similar to the awful whatever-it-was that I had back in February. Miserable.

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Unfortunately that meant we couldn't go out last night - we'd planned on going to the last "SIN Sunday" of the year, which was also a final test to see if they could draw enough of a crowd for the club to allow for it to continue as a monthly night. (It's been weekly for years and years and years. It was the night that used to be at the deconsecrated Church-turned-nightclub.) Minus the single "goodbye" event there a few months ago, it bounced between a few different clubs, but has been at the same one for a couple years now.
Then they decided a couple months ago (fairly abruptly) that it no longer had enough of a draw, so it was unceremoniously cancelled. The club owners agreed to give it one last shot, and would give us one a month instead of a weekly night, but only if they meet an undisclosed threshold of "worth it." The DJs have been really begging everyone to please-please-please come out. We were going to, and it sucks that the timing synced up the way it did.
I haven't heard anything yet from any of the DJs or on any of the local FB groups about whether they hit the target for last night or not. That makes it seem like it wasn't a RESOUNDING success, but hopefully it's just that it's the end of the year, and it'll take a bit for them to sort it all out.

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There's a lot said about how the last week of the year, from Christmas through New Years, is sort of a weird liminal span where time feels even faker than usual. After my grandmother died, it already feels like Christmas was a really long time ago now. Having three days off, then one day back, then taking an unplanned day off from work when she died, and then going back for just a couple days (one of which I worked solo), and immediately having another three days in a row off... it definitely feels really fake and weird and like I cannot tell what day it's supposed to be.

Alex being so sick that basically all he can do is sleep adds to the weird feeling.

I definitely feel like there are things I should be doing, but then when I try to figure out what it is that I'm forgetting to do, I can't figure it out. Trying to sort out my end of year reflections and goals for next year, I suppose. I feel like it's pretty well the same as last year into this one, though!

I remember hearing radio ads for SIN Sundays at The Church nightclub when I was in high school. The commercials ran overnight sometimes, and were extremely early 00s goth vibes. ("Denver's longest-running goth and service industry night, SIN Sundays at... The Church." *church bell and bat squeaks*) At the time, young-teen me thought it sounded extremely cool and like a thing I'd love to do someday, but I figured I'd never ever go. It would be too cool for me, obviously.

Then Alex came out here, and wanted to see if there were any goth nights. Not locally in Greeley, where we lived at the time, but there were in Denver! Like... SIN Sundays! At the church!

That was the first goth night I ever went to on purpose. (The weekend after my 21st birthday we had gone to Tracks, one of the biggest gay clubs in Denver, on what was coincidentally their monthly goth night, ha.)

The Church nightclub was located in an actual deconsecrated church. The building is over 100 years old, and it's just an absolutely fantastic venue. SIN Sundays was held in both rooms of the basement. Not sure I can think of a better place for a goth night. (And of course the additional opportunity to say "why yes, of course I go to church every Sunday. :) ")

We went regularly for years! Sadly, after a few years of declining attendance, the owners of the club eventually decided that it wasn't a profitable night. There was a bit of an attempt to rally and show that the night was still popular, but it didn't take off enough to change the owner's mind. (The club stayed open, but focused more on more mainstream-popular genres.)

SIN Sundays carried on, floating around between a few different clubs. Covid kind of wrecked everything, and nothing was happening anywhere for a while. SIN Sundays started back up a couple years ago, now at the same club that some of the other goth nights happen at, but we haven't gone back out. We've missed clubbing, but I don't have nearly the endless energy to handle late nights and drinking and then having to go be an adult the next day as I used to. Sundays would be the ideal night for me, since I do have Mondays off, but it felt wrong not being in The Church, heh.

The owner of the CoClubs has decided to sell The Church (as well as one of their other clubs, Vinyl.) The current usual home of SIN Sundays, as well as the Wednesday goth night, and "Mixtape" Saturdays which is half-goth, is not being sold, so it will continue.

But as a last hurrah for the club, they did one last SIN Sunday there last night.



There was great turnout, and it's a shame that wasn't the case before! Despite not having been out in close to 5 years, there were a lot of familiar faces! We didn't talk to many people... by design, lol. Baby steps in being social, okay?



But we danced, and we drank overpriced drinks (how the fuck is a well drink $11 now?), and it was extremely bittersweet to be back in a place that I've missed, yet know I might not ever see again.

Now, it's possible that isn't the case: the company that both clubs were sold to is also an entertainment venture. Though they seem to focus on electronic music, it could arguably be goth-adjacent... but I'm not going to count on it.

( Some more pictures from last night: )

Just in case, I plan to copy a couple of articles from CoClubs about The Church's history over here. I don't know if they'll leave them up or delete them now that they don't own the club any longer, but the history is cool and I didn't find a lot that was documented outside of the club's website.

Last set of show photos through stagelights for a while. :P We were spoiled for shows this month!

This time Covenant, with our friend Mark and his project Voicecoil opening!


The show flyer.


Obligatory venue sign. Taken after the show. The little white dot at the top of the sign is the moon.


Voicecoil opening!


Covenant! (Mostly Eskel)

Mark got to make a very exciting announcement, too: Voicecoil has been signed to Dependent Records! They're a German label who have released things for a LOT of pretty prominent artists within the scene, including Covenant, so that's extremely exciting news. (He actually told me and Alex about it several months ago while things were still being ironed out, but it's official now!)

( More below cut: )

The show on Saturday was fun! Who wants some mediocre stage photos!?


Obligatory venue sign.


The lead singer of Priest. My favorite shot of the night, despite the rando taking up half the frame.


Combichrist!

I had that mandatory work meeting after work, though I'd told my manager that I had to leave at 6:00. But then Alex was running late, and the meeting was winding down anyway, so I stuck around. Then Alex arrived, but I got cornered by the head of compliance who wanted to answer one of my questions, which I appreciated, but I had to go! I did cut out pretty fast after that, but we were still not leaving until almost 6:30.

As we arrived at the venue, dreading the parking situation and hoping we hadn't missed much, we saw a huge line of goths waiting outside, lol. Checking on the event page, we found out doors had been postponed until 6:45, so the timing was almost perfect!

We pre-gamed a little bit, and then headed in.

( More below the cut, including nine more pictures: )

We got home a bit after midnight, and managed to make it to bed by about 1:00, after taking care of the dogs. It's pathetic that I was as tired as I was after it! This "getting older" stuff is nonsense.

Bleh, photos were definitely pretty mediocre this time. The lighting was as not-conducive as always, but my phone seems to get worse every time I try to use it for things like this.

I know I have a lot a lot of catching up to do here, but it'll be one more night!