Ken Geiger Spent Halloween Weekend with Nathaniel Shannon and The Vanishing Twin, Dan Andriano In The Emergency Room, Darkest Hour, Mutoid Man, and the Mighty GWAR

Photo courtesy of Ken Geiger

Halloween Weekend 2016: Never Leave Brooklyn

I am thankful to be so near Brooklyn around Halloween time. The amount of shows that go on all at once is insane. Being able to attend three shows in two days (and only having to pay for one) was not so absurd to conceive or even do, so I went for it. Needless to say, I survived it all, despite being sprayed with a whole lot of fake blood and cardboard in the process.

Photo: Ken Geiger

Nathaniel Shannon and The Vanishing Twin at the Church of Ascension & Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room at Brooklyn Bazaar, 10/28

Plans to go into the city on Friday night admittedly came as a happy accident of sorts to me. I was scrolling down Facebook one day when I saw someone share a link to a song by a new artist named Nathaniel Shannon and the Vanishing Twin. The song was called "Debuntes." The dark instrumentals and gravelly vocals had me immediately hooked. Next thing I knew, I bought my train tickets and was off to some church I had never even heard of in Brooklyn for an album release by an artist I had only heard a couple seconds of music from.
 
This show was performed in a manner I had never seen before. The audience sat in the seated rows of the church, and the concert was conducted as if it was an actual mass. There were two people that actually read passages on death from the bible before Shannon took the stage and delivered an equally depressing set to compliment the readings. Just because it was something I had never seen before for a concert does not mean it was not awesome. In fact, it was the complete opposite.
 
Nathaniel Shannon and the Vanishing Twin delivered an awesome set for a debut performance. His songs are the perfect melodramatic soundtrack to a funeral scene, or walking through a part of Brooklyn you have no clue about late at night. It was music that definitely resonated with me for the rest of the evening when thinking about it in that sense. Also, he sang a song about mailing a dead baby. How can you not be happy after hearing that?

After the show, everyone who paid was given a copy of his debut album, Trespasses, which was packaged in the form of a full-on book. The actual music came with a download code. Again, very cool aspect to add to this already interesting album release show. I am listening to the album now as I type up this review, and I will have more to tell about it soon. For now, I will recommend you check out the track "Debuntes" on Shannon's Bandcamp and impatiently wait for him to book another show in the (VERY) near future.

After leaving the Church of Ascension, it was only 9PM. It was too soon to leave the city in my eyes. So I did what seemed natural and sensible: find another show. Thankfully, the Brooklyn Bazaar was not even five hundred feet from where I was, and Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio was bringing his solo act there for the evening… for free. Well, that settled where I would spend the rest of my night rather quickly.

Once again, Brooklyn Bazaar is a very interesting venue. While the stage upstairs was fairly normal, the downstairs dining area and actual bazaar area drew me in. After having some of their Grade-A fried chicken downstairs, I made my way to the inside to catch the show.

Photo: Ken Geiger

I managed to catch the start of Andriano’s set just in time. Included in his live lineup was also Dan P. on lead guitar and keyboard, for any of you folk punk / acoustic music fans out there who know of him. But, whereas Nathaniel Shannon earlier in the night provided a darker tone with his show, Andriano brought out some great positivity and singalong songs that the crowd happily ate up. While I am not necessarily familiar with his body of work in Alkaline Trio, I have to say that his solo work was really the best that I have heard come from him. Even if you are not a big fan of Alkaline Trio, but appreciate the type of music Dan makes, I would recommend seeing him while he still tours his solo work too. It made me walk out of the venue that night with a huge smile on my face, especially since he played the wonderful song “It’s Gonna Rain All Day.” And sometimes that is all we really need music to do for us, to help us forget about whatever awful shit happened to us during the day, week, past few months or whatever. Impulsive decision well made, I would say.

Photo: Ken Geiger

GWAR, Darkest Hour and Mutoid Man at House of Vans, 10/29

House of Vans is the place to be for a Halloween party, as far as I am concerned. Last year's extravaganza they put on with Flipper and Big Business featured everything from giant werewolves and robots battling to a grand costume contest and, of course, great music. The costume contest may have been scratched from the itinerary this year, but that was all but forgotten given some of the other stunts pulled by the featured bands that evening.

Photo: Ken Geiger

Brooklyn’s own Mutoid Man were the first to play. For those unfamiliar with the band, the best description I can give is that they are an ass-kicking heavy metal / hard rock band featuring members of Converge and Cave In, with a touch of Satanism, crack-cocaine and soul added in for good measure. I remember they blew the walls off Irving Plaza last year when I saw them open up for The Dillinger Escape Plan, so I knew what to expect. What heightened their already energetic set, though, was the visual art battle put together by the House of Vans and artist Dennis McNett.
 
Remember when I mentioned that robots and werewolves were fighting at last year's event?  Well, they came back for round two, accompanied by an alien spaceship this time too! I cannot give you the exact details behind the story for this, or why the werewolves and robots feel the need to fight, but I can tell it's just as fun to watch as the band playing onstage. In fact, Mutoid Man was great soundtrack for such an epic brawl. I think the constant turning to look at both the battle and the band is what gave me the neck pains I feel today.

Photo: Ken Geiger

Up next were Darkest Hour. Although they were more straight-forward in their approach to heavy metal than Mutoid Man, the fanfare about them and the continuation of the werewolf / robot brawl is what made their set so damn memorable. As soon as the band started to play, the gigantic werewolf set up in the House of Vans knocked down a gigantic wall made of cardboard boxes into the audience. Now, what do you think a crowd of rabid metal fans are going to do with cardboard boxes? Just leave them alone, maybe? If you think that, you may need to go to a show with me soon.
 
These boxes went flying everywhere in the venue, whether it was into the crowd, onto the stage or into the photo pit section. And, when the boxes were all torn up, people took them as shields and proceeded to mosh with them (I am guilty of doing that as well. I do not regret it at all, though.). With all of this madness going on, Darkest Hour couldn't help but be the perfect soundtrack for all of it.

I give the people at Vans and Dennis McNett credit for those insane visuals. I also give credit to Mutoid Man and Darkest Hour for delivering awesome sets. At the end of the night, though, everyone knew who the audience was waiting for: GWAR. The Masters of Scumdogia have built up a legacy over the past 30 years for having one of the most bizarre and messy shows on Earth. Even without original bandleader Oderus Urungus, GWAR still manage to deliver that same kind of madness night after night, whether the people like it or not.

Being able to describe this show down to every single stunt is almost impossible. There was just so much to visually take in. If you want to see it all, then I recommend you see GWAR for yourself. But I will note a few highlights:

The Blood: spraying the audience with gallons of "blood" (water and food coloring) is a staple of any GWAR set. If you want to be like me, you can stand right up on the barricade and end up looking like you just jumped in a pool of Kool-Aid. But, no matter where anyone is, they will end up with blood on them; so do not wear your Sunday best to this one. Thankfully, the House of Vans provided us with nice white shirts for such an occasion.

The Intergalactic Brawls: the blood had to come from somewhere, right?  That's where the intergalactic brawls take place. Throughout the set, we saw various members of GWAR take on characters ranging from the legendary “Jagermonsta” to none other than Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Of course, GWAR ended up beating them all for our pleasure. Now there's no need to worry so much about November 8th!

"Slaughterama:" But why should they have stopped at just killing for the sake of defending their title as supreme rulers of the galaxy? Surely, the great GWAR must love just killing for the sake of it… Cue "Slaughterama." This is the song that I feel is THE pinnacle moment of their show. The lyrics depict GWAR’s very own game show, Slaughterama. The victims in this twisted game are a hippie, an art school student and a Nazi skinhead. All they have to do is answer one question in time and they can live… But, of course, the clock is always too quick. This was the song that always made want to see GWAR live and being able to see them do it in all its glory was just icing on an already bloody yet perfect cake.
 
That does not even begin to scratch the surface of what went down in GWAR's set that night. But that is because I believe a show like this is literally the perfect example of something you just have to see live for yourself to be able to understand what the hell I am even talking about. I still have blood from it on my hands and in my ears. But I don't mind that, as long as the big stupid grin I was left with from them remains as well (which it has).