How about the VNV Nation concert in St Pete was AMAZING! They put on a fantastic live performance and the energy given up by the rest of the crowd was fanatic!
They played all the songs I could possibly have wished for, saving the best for the last. They had left the stage once, then came back on to perform a slow song that was NOT "Beloved" and a new song from their new Album, Judgement (due to come out later this week)... then when they left the stage again, I was left wondering, all the time are they gonna come back and play it? They've GOT to come back and play it! Its a staple! A STAPLE@!!!!
Then, they come back on and say, "You know we had to play it, I get so many people coming up to me saying how much the song means to them... we just have to play it...
and then they bust out with the opening of "Beloved". The crowd in typical fashion goes crazy. Oh man I was sooo happy, I started jumping up and down. It was..... beautiful.
They had an after party at this club called, The Castle. Having no clue how to get there, I score directions from a waify goth in the women's bathroom on a paper towel written in the stinkiest marker. The fumes were exceptionally strong. But, of course it was an exceptionally big marker.
After the concert, Jennifer and I head out to Ybor city to find this Industrial/gothic club "hidden away" from the main street. We find it in good time, and walking down the steps to the alleyway to the entrance of the club, we notice that the line to gain entry..... is... wrapped around the block! Nearly everyone I pass I recognize from the concert at, Jannus Landing. It was so strange to me to have an after party to an event in ... another city.... but I can understand when I gaze up at... The Castle. It is what it implies to be. A CASTLE.
(Will post pics accordingly)
Jennifer and I make idle conversation with a women ahead of us, who just turns out to be a teacher for ESE also, so we hit it off talking all about "IEPs, OCD, high and low funcitoning, Typical and not so typical IQ ranges and the stress, low pay and underappreceiation". We loose everyone's attention because they all have NO idea what we're talking about. It was great!
Once inside, I notice wooden chairs that have warped faces carved into them, An outside dance area with its own DJ booth, candlebra's, multiple bars, multiple floors, multiple chandeliers, and lastly multiple, vert intriguing paintings. (Again, will post pics accordingly).
Once Jennifer and I make it up to the second floor, I hear the other DJ (the one on the second floor switch it up to, CombiChrist! It was like it was meant to be! .... NOT!! How gay...
No, in all actuality I could only find one fault with the club (well, besides it not being in OUR city).... it was that they had no, READ ABSOLUTELY NO Danzig! But, can't do a bunch of complaining....because that was completely forgotten when I had the great fortune to meet the Drummer AND singer for VNV Nation.
Mark Jackson is this six foot something Englishman, that seems to be a clutz. Either that or he was drunk... and I'm thinking the latter to be true. He shook my hand when I congratulated him on the great performance at the concert. We told him we drove all the way from Jacksonville and he laughed with delight! He is this giant of a person so it came out in a deep rumple. ALl in all, he was very courteous.
Later on, I got to go up to Ronin (the singer). I told him thank you for writing "Beloved", as I shook his hand. Then the crazy Irishman got all serious and took my hand and asked if it meant something to, "you and your boy". I said, "yes." Then he asks if I know what "Beloved" really stood for. Before I get to open my mouth for a response, he proceeds to tell me over the course of four minutes (mind you the place was closing down and the employees were trying to get everyone around the guy to disperse and leave... lol, but the guy kept talking. He had said several times that night, that it was all about living in "this moment", and especially as of late I can relate to that sentiment) what its all about. It was awesome. Apparently it took him a long time to realize that he had to make peace with the one he had loved.... it seemed very personal to him.
It meant a lot to me to get the story, by the man who wrote it, on my all time favorite VNV song.
This trip seriously picked me up out of my funk. The funk I keep pushing myself into everytime I obsessively think of my impending doom and how one day my skin will shrivel up and die, my existance put to an end, my loved one's decaying, you know, the envitable...
Some of the lyrics really hit home to what I've been feeling lately.
Perhaps one could say that this trip was like my Zanax.
Whatever that feels like, I've never taken any.
They played all the songs I could possibly have wished for, saving the best for the last. They had left the stage once, then came back on to perform a slow song that was NOT "Beloved" and a new song from their new Album, Judgement (due to come out later this week)... then when they left the stage again, I was left wondering, all the time are they gonna come back and play it? They've GOT to come back and play it! Its a staple! A STAPLE@!!!!
Then, they come back on and say, "You know we had to play it, I get so many people coming up to me saying how much the song means to them... we just have to play it...
and then they bust out with the opening of "Beloved". The crowd in typical fashion goes crazy. Oh man I was sooo happy, I started jumping up and down. It was..... beautiful.
They had an after party at this club called, The Castle. Having no clue how to get there, I score directions from a waify goth in the women's bathroom on a paper towel written in the stinkiest marker. The fumes were exceptionally strong. But, of course it was an exceptionally big marker.
After the concert, Jennifer and I head out to Ybor city to find this Industrial/gothic club "hidden away" from the main street. We find it in good time, and walking down the steps to the alleyway to the entrance of the club, we notice that the line to gain entry..... is... wrapped around the block! Nearly everyone I pass I recognize from the concert at, Jannus Landing. It was so strange to me to have an after party to an event in ... another city.... but I can understand when I gaze up at... The Castle. It is what it implies to be. A CASTLE.
(Will post pics accordingly)
Jennifer and I make idle conversation with a women ahead of us, who just turns out to be a teacher for ESE also, so we hit it off talking all about "IEPs, OCD, high and low funcitoning, Typical and not so typical IQ ranges and the stress, low pay and underappreceiation". We loose everyone's attention because they all have NO idea what we're talking about. It was great!
Once inside, I notice wooden chairs that have warped faces carved into them, An outside dance area with its own DJ booth, candlebra's, multiple bars, multiple floors, multiple chandeliers, and lastly multiple, vert intriguing paintings. (Again, will post pics accordingly).
Once Jennifer and I make it up to the second floor, I hear the other DJ (the one on the second floor switch it up to, CombiChrist! It was like it was meant to be! .... NOT!! How gay...
No, in all actuality I could only find one fault with the club (well, besides it not being in OUR city).... it was that they had no, READ ABSOLUTELY NO Danzig! But, can't do a bunch of complaining....because that was completely forgotten when I had the great fortune to meet the Drummer AND singer for VNV Nation.
Mark Jackson is this six foot something Englishman, that seems to be a clutz. Either that or he was drunk... and I'm thinking the latter to be true. He shook my hand when I congratulated him on the great performance at the concert. We told him we drove all the way from Jacksonville and he laughed with delight! He is this giant of a person so it came out in a deep rumple. ALl in all, he was very courteous.
Later on, I got to go up to Ronin (the singer). I told him thank you for writing "Beloved", as I shook his hand. Then the crazy Irishman got all serious and took my hand and asked if it meant something to, "you and your boy". I said, "yes." Then he asks if I know what "Beloved" really stood for. Before I get to open my mouth for a response, he proceeds to tell me over the course of four minutes (mind you the place was closing down and the employees were trying to get everyone around the guy to disperse and leave... lol, but the guy kept talking. He had said several times that night, that it was all about living in "this moment", and especially as of late I can relate to that sentiment) what its all about. It was awesome. Apparently it took him a long time to realize that he had to make peace with the one he had loved.... it seemed very personal to him.
It meant a lot to me to get the story, by the man who wrote it, on my all time favorite VNV song.
This trip seriously picked me up out of my funk. The funk I keep pushing myself into everytime I obsessively think of my impending doom and how one day my skin will shrivel up and die, my existance put to an end, my loved one's decaying, you know, the envitable...
Some of the lyrics really hit home to what I've been feeling lately.
Perhaps one could say that this trip was like my Zanax.
Whatever that feels like, I've never taken any.