This is the band Regenerator, an industrial band from California. They played Chicago about a year ago, during Gothfest held at of all places Excalibur. The choice of venue was odd in some ways because it is an established mainstream type of place, and it's in such a busy touristy area. It's really hard to park in there. The place itself looks fabulous like it was made for gothic-industrial type of events and in fact did host an industrial night ages ago, but trendies in that area are a little less tolerant.....well anyway, this is about seeing and hanging with Regenerator. It was Friday, and I went a little less for the bands than for the festival as a whole. My friend Natalie from work could not make it with me that night. To gothic-industrial events, I'm OK going alone. This is I feel, my native habitat. I have friends in this environment, and I can just follow my own whim this way. Goths just dance beautifully. They make an extra effort to dress up for festivals. American goths can be so casual and lazy, but how American goths dance is something to admire. The custom is to dance alone and so people feel free to dance any way they please. It's all about superimposing your own individual rhythm to the music. And I can tell roughly how old a person is by how they dance. People that learned their movements in the early to mid 90's are slower and more ornate, elaborate. What ever movements are locked in, is what influenced you to dance when you first learned. Prior to this night. I did not know who Regenerator was. I did not go to see them. So this night was far more special than I expected.
The festival took over two stages and a whole area dedicated to merchandise. So when a band finishes here, another band is ready to start in the next stage, while a DJ takes over from the first band, no waiting for whoever, and my whim is impatient. You can go in and out of rooms, wander about the merch area and go broke, have their watered down drinks, and go broke. Excalibur is said to be haunted but there was so many trad goths out that ghosts would appear like under dressed Renaissance Fair people. This is me on the left, and next to me is Patrice, the female lead singer. Wrex is the male lead, he is the guy in the black mesh shirt above along with Patrice and the rest of the touring band. Regenerator was actually one of the headliners, along with Black Tape For A Blue Girl, Attrition, and Redflag. It was nice to see the bands just hang around like everyone else. And many seemed to know each other, it's very trans-local the gothic-industrial scene. So I see Regenerator, and I take pictures and video. I recall hearing "Apnea" and "Organism" from the Disease CD. They are old pros at creating danceable rhythms. And they are not formulaic. They are the Faith and The Muse of the industrial scene, old pros with a well deep enough to defy time. They have been around for I think over 10 years. They've put out a lot of music over those years. Their songs are thought provoking. There is a passion behind every song. I would later discover that they are vegan, and I can see how that would peek out in some of the songs. Yet, this passion is part of what drives the urgency of the words without being preachy. They are just so intelligent and also well traveled. I was not knowing this when I saw them play. My opinion was still unshaped when I first saw them.
In performance, Patrice dances and sings like she knows she looks good. Yet she does not over state, just merely confirms what the audience already knows. And I'm getting this all on camera. And there were so many cameras on her in that performance. Regenerator look good and they sing good, what else do you want? You want to hang around with them? Sure...they are meeting with some of the Projekt people, including some from Black Tape at Greektown. I took them there. They were originally going to take a taxi there, but I took them instead. A cabbie ain't gonna give a shit. Regenerator are incredibly sweet people. We all dined on Vegan burgers. Bullshitted about casual stuff, like how long they've performed, and where, the oddness of my real name and it's origins. I didn't like my name growing up. It was odd and it was long. Now when people hear it, they are pleasantly intrigued by it. It's nice to have that happen. I drove them back to their hotel, sleepy after just eating. Patrice noticed the car smelled like roses. Rose is like my favorite scent, and it's sweet when it is noticed around me. There was one scary moment, brief but scary. A truck was on my left and leaned right into my lane. I veered to avoid him, in mid conversation. Patrice noticed that too, and said "good driving." By the time they entered back into their hotel, I was a fan fortunate enough to spend time with them. I wanted to know everything but you can't just ask this ask that. Let the conversation go, whatever they are inclined to tell you is good enough. Many things seemed to go right on that Friday, yet sometimes I wish I had the conversational skills of an NPR interviewer.
Kaspar-Zig
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