So - first & foremost – how AMAZING was the Mechanismus10 Year Anniversary Festival?!? Not that we’re going to blow our own horn too much on the site here, but seriously – what a huge success. The energy was non-stop from start to finish – even up to the last hour of the last day. Every single band brought it to this event – the good vibes were off the charts, turning the Highline became a sweaty hot mess filled to the top with black clothes and bass. The big hitters brought their A-game; Grendel continues to impress with their amazing new music (and his touring mates Ghostfeeder & Peter Turns Pirate brought it as well), Leæther Strip (Alt – 0230 gives you the cool symbol BTW) is a fucking legend and proved it yet again, and no matter how many times God Module plays, you still move your ass. Portland aggrotech made a big and loud showing as well with the visiting nolongerhuman and Unter Null. Out of town visitors Ayria, Voicecoil, and Cervello Elettronico were keeping the heads nodding for days. Seattle’s own Legion Within (with a Steve White appearance) and Assemblage 23 were every bit as good as you’ve seen before. Oh and the Gothsicles WROTE A GODDAMN SONG ABOUT THE FESTIVAL YOU GUYS.
Many of these bands had played Mechanismus in the past, but we did get some special first-time visitors including the mysterious Wychdoktor from Canada (who dealt with a Canadian hurricane to make the show) and a never-before, never-again performance by Decoded Feedback featuring Los Vincent and Claus Larsen helping Yone out on stage after the sudden split with her bandmate Marko – she refused to cancel the performance even though she had a damn good reason to do so. It was that important for her to play Seattle (especially after early cancellations by Aesthetic Perfection and Covenant) and a true testament that this event was shaping up to be something special. It was a massive project to put together and here’s hoping we can bring you another one in the future.
This whole thing got me thinking – Seattle/Portland has a fairly large collection of pretty well-known scene bands (most of which played this festival) but also an amazing group of local, up & coming acts that also got to showcase their talents in front of a packed house – The Walking Wounded, Pill Brigade, Mixed Messages (RIP), Blakk Glass, Webdriver Torso, The Blood Of Others, Missing Witness, Dead Animal Assembly Plant, and Black Agent. These bands have played a handful of times in other venues or opened for other touring acts through Seattle, but it certainly wasn’t to the crowd that this event pulled in. How awesome is it that these acts have been given the opportunity to play to a relatively full house while many of them are still making a name for themselves around the PNW? Now, when they end up on a local bill, hundreds of people got to experience them – many for the very first time – which will likely result in more tickets, more energy, more LIFE into the scene! I know a lot of us are a fan of dead things, but a dead scene is not one of them.
For those of you who may have heard, I Die – You Die (Vancouver, BC based ‘darker alternatives’ podcast in case you may have been sleeping underground for the past few years) recently interviewed Ali/DJ SAVAK and there was a discussion around lesser known bands playing the festival. Ali had said that this type of event was a way to, in a way, ’trick’ the patrons into showing up to a Mech show to see a big scene band, but then also seeing one or two openers who are trying to make the name for themselves. This is unfortunate, but also a state of things – people simply don’t go out as much anymore, so to finally get someone out of their cave to see a show takes a lot more effort (and typically a ‘bigger’ band). However, this is how things eventually wither and die. Those big bands either stop touring, or stop making music, or get too old, or simply can’t afford the cost of it anymore – as many of us know, even the ‘big hitters’ of industrial music aren’t tycoons by any means.
So what then? Those opening bands! The local acts! Especially in a city like Seattle, where we are fortunate enough to have a bunch of great bands and artists who are constantly raising the bar for each other, ensuring that things stay fresh. Of course, this isn’t just limited to Seattle – there are many more scene bands out there who are trying to get on the map and become the next in line on the bill when a major band starts touring the country. Hell – every single band out there started out opening for someone bigger than them at the time. Over 25 years ago, Nine Inch Nails toured as an opener for Skinny Puppy’s VIVIsectVItour. In 1997, Rammstein went on tour opening for KMFDM in the US (a feat Combichrist repeated in 2009). Ministry opened for Front 242 in the 80s. More recently, we have seen the rise of several bands such as Aesthetic Perfection, Imperative Reaction, 3TEETH, and Angelspit start out as openers and grow into headlining their own tours, and local favorites such as Assemblage 23 & God Module also began the same way.Talented opening acts can grow to rival and even surpass those early big-hitters by being talented and making a lastingimpression. However – it’s hard to make an impression when there’s no one coming to the shows to impress.
And it’s not just about showing up! There is a huge element of ENERGY that needs to be present to help act as the catalyst for growth. Go out on the stage and truly experience these artists putting themselves out there for you. Most of the time, they won’t be as good as the big shot touring bands they’re opening for, but that’s OK! Give them some love for their art – even if it’s not your favorite thing. Try to dance, tap your feet, do that weird gothy sway & nod thing…something to connect them to you. That energy is what they feed off of, so feed the beast! I’m reminded of a show I went to back in 2007 or so – it was a Combichrist tour – and the opening act was some bald dude with a squid tattoo who was really working his ass off up there to get noticed. I thought to myself “dang this guy is pretty good” but never got up there & showed him any love – and about 95% didn’t either. He finished up, packed his stuff, and we went on with getting our body beat thoroughly later on. This opening band was Aesthetic Perfection and I remember buying his album after the fact (A Violent Emotion), listening to it, and feeling really bad that I didn’t show the appreciation for what he was doing on stage because it was actually pretty awesome. Two years later he came through again, and I made up for it by getting all extra hype for him that time. It put things in perspective and now I remember this every time I see an up and coming opening band – you just never know where thing will end up, but you can control how you react to their music at that moment and those moments are why they choose to get up there and do their thing.
This is also a two-way street – these up and coming bands need to continue to put themselves out there as much as they can, caring about their art far more than anyone else will for quite some time. Make discs, put out downloads, and take shows wherever you can…but most of all – be accessible to your new and future fans! They’re the ones who are going to talk about you, drag their friends to the next show, and share your music. It’s just like any sales business – the best referral is going to come from someone who already knows that you are awesome and put out cool stuff and appreciate them as much as you want them to appreciate you. It’s a symbiotic relationship that spells out the future of our scene.
This festival delivered a lot of reinforcement that even though the scene can stagnate and sometimes feel stuck in the past or in a creative ‘rut’, there is a lot of life still left and a bright future for industrial music can be upon us. All we have to do is be willing to be a part of it. This scene is like a family – we’ve all got to work together to ensure that it survives. To the patrons – go to as many shows you can, and give some LOVE to the openers! You never know who’s going to blow up next! There’s also that hipster appeal to it – you can say you saw WebdriverTorso before they were ‘cool’ & own their first EP on cassette, and not even be lying about it! And to the bands – keep on keeping on! Make that beautiful dark noise and put it out in the world for us to sample and enjoy. You keep making music, we’ll keep coming to shows and consuming your art, and the scene thrives. *fist bump*
Many of these bands had played Mechanismus in the past, but we did get some special first-time visitors including the mysterious Wychdoktor from Canada (who dealt with a Canadian hurricane to make the show) and a never-before, never-again performance by Decoded Feedback featuring Los Vincent and Claus Larsen helping Yone out on stage after the sudden split with her bandmate Marko – she refused to cancel the performance even though she had a damn good reason to do so. It was that important for her to play Seattle (especially after early cancellations by Aesthetic Perfection and Covenant) and a true testament that this event was shaping up to be something special. It was a massive project to put together and here’s hoping we can bring you another one in the future.
This whole thing got me thinking – Seattle/Portland has a fairly large collection of pretty well-known scene bands (most of which played this festival) but also an amazing group of local, up & coming acts that also got to showcase their talents in front of a packed house – The Walking Wounded, Pill Brigade, Mixed Messages (RIP), Blakk Glass, Webdriver Torso, The Blood Of Others, Missing Witness, Dead Animal Assembly Plant, and Black Agent. These bands have played a handful of times in other venues or opened for other touring acts through Seattle, but it certainly wasn’t to the crowd that this event pulled in. How awesome is it that these acts have been given the opportunity to play to a relatively full house while many of them are still making a name for themselves around the PNW? Now, when they end up on a local bill, hundreds of people got to experience them – many for the very first time – which will likely result in more tickets, more energy, more LIFE into the scene! I know a lot of us are a fan of dead things, but a dead scene is not one of them.
For those of you who may have heard, I Die – You Die (Vancouver, BC based ‘darker alternatives’ podcast in case you may have been sleeping underground for the past few years) recently interviewed Ali/DJ SAVAK and there was a discussion around lesser known bands playing the festival. Ali had said that this type of event was a way to, in a way, ’trick’ the patrons into showing up to a Mech show to see a big scene band, but then also seeing one or two openers who are trying to make the name for themselves. This is unfortunate, but also a state of things – people simply don’t go out as much anymore, so to finally get someone out of their cave to see a show takes a lot more effort (and typically a ‘bigger’ band). However, this is how things eventually wither and die. Those big bands either stop touring, or stop making music, or get too old, or simply can’t afford the cost of it anymore – as many of us know, even the ‘big hitters’ of industrial music aren’t tycoons by any means.
So what then? Those opening bands! The local acts! Especially in a city like Seattle, where we are fortunate enough to have a bunch of great bands and artists who are constantly raising the bar for each other, ensuring that things stay fresh. Of course, this isn’t just limited to Seattle – there are many more scene bands out there who are trying to get on the map and become the next in line on the bill when a major band starts touring the country. Hell – every single band out there started out opening for someone bigger than them at the time. Over 25 years ago, Nine Inch Nails toured as an opener for Skinny Puppy’s VIVIsectVItour. In 1997, Rammstein went on tour opening for KMFDM in the US (a feat Combichrist repeated in 2009). Ministry opened for Front 242 in the 80s. More recently, we have seen the rise of several bands such as Aesthetic Perfection, Imperative Reaction, 3TEETH, and Angelspit start out as openers and grow into headlining their own tours, and local favorites such as Assemblage 23 & God Module also began the same way.Talented opening acts can grow to rival and even surpass those early big-hitters by being talented and making a lastingimpression. However – it’s hard to make an impression when there’s no one coming to the shows to impress.
And it’s not just about showing up! There is a huge element of ENERGY that needs to be present to help act as the catalyst for growth. Go out on the stage and truly experience these artists putting themselves out there for you. Most of the time, they won’t be as good as the big shot touring bands they’re opening for, but that’s OK! Give them some love for their art – even if it’s not your favorite thing. Try to dance, tap your feet, do that weird gothy sway & nod thing…something to connect them to you. That energy is what they feed off of, so feed the beast! I’m reminded of a show I went to back in 2007 or so – it was a Combichrist tour – and the opening act was some bald dude with a squid tattoo who was really working his ass off up there to get noticed. I thought to myself “dang this guy is pretty good” but never got up there & showed him any love – and about 95% didn’t either. He finished up, packed his stuff, and we went on with getting our body beat thoroughly later on. This opening band was Aesthetic Perfection and I remember buying his album after the fact (A Violent Emotion), listening to it, and feeling really bad that I didn’t show the appreciation for what he was doing on stage because it was actually pretty awesome. Two years later he came through again, and I made up for it by getting all extra hype for him that time. It put things in perspective and now I remember this every time I see an up and coming opening band – you just never know where thing will end up, but you can control how you react to their music at that moment and those moments are why they choose to get up there and do their thing.
This is also a two-way street – these up and coming bands need to continue to put themselves out there as much as they can, caring about their art far more than anyone else will for quite some time. Make discs, put out downloads, and take shows wherever you can…but most of all – be accessible to your new and future fans! They’re the ones who are going to talk about you, drag their friends to the next show, and share your music. It’s just like any sales business – the best referral is going to come from someone who already knows that you are awesome and put out cool stuff and appreciate them as much as you want them to appreciate you. It’s a symbiotic relationship that spells out the future of our scene.
This festival delivered a lot of reinforcement that even though the scene can stagnate and sometimes feel stuck in the past or in a creative ‘rut’, there is a lot of life still left and a bright future for industrial music can be upon us. All we have to do is be willing to be a part of it. This scene is like a family – we’ve all got to work together to ensure that it survives. To the patrons – go to as many shows you can, and give some LOVE to the openers! You never know who’s going to blow up next! There’s also that hipster appeal to it – you can say you saw WebdriverTorso before they were ‘cool’ & own their first EP on cassette, and not even be lying about it! And to the bands – keep on keeping on! Make that beautiful dark noise and put it out in the world for us to sample and enjoy. You keep making music, we’ll keep coming to shows and consuming your art, and the scene thrives. *fist bump*
