There was this Sunday I took off from work.  It was a cool down shoegazer Sunday at The Abbey Pub in Chicago.   A core group of local goths I know go for everything from industrial to shoegaze, goth and punk...post-punk, deathrock, Norwegian black metal.  It's amazing what you can find inside a goth's ipod. All of us went to see local bands Star and pictured here, Panda Riot.  They moved here form somewhere else.  I don't know where.  I just love this band.  They are just an easy sell for me.  I can so see this in a shoegaze set in a goth club.  I love shoegaze.  It's not the grey fog most people take it for.  I noticed I use the term "shoegaze" a lot.  It's just that it is the quickest, most efficient way of describing this band.  And I do believe that this band can have a wider audience than that word may suggest. Rebecca Scott's voice comes out clearly over the music.  "She Dares All Things" caught me wanting to dance, and it's so unintentional about it.  It just wakes you up like a spray of rose water.  "Plateau" begins softly enough to not see this pick up early in the song.  The guitar, the excellent use of drum machine, Rebecca's voice all then convince you to love this 6 minute song.  You don't even feel the time.  I like it when songs sort of sneak in this rhythm, this need to dance.  Indeed, this is what brightens a goths day.  This is not for brooding like Poe.  Indeed, this is for when you are done with that.   The "She Dares All Things" CD is consistent with songs that awaken this sense of wonder.  They just keep you engaged and listening.  In a goth club, which is the only context I know to put it in and play most successfully, this band would have fans.  Well at the least it is what happens when I hear it.  I bring this band up because they are headlining Tuesday night at the Empty Bottle.  I'm glad to see them as the headliner.  I'm going to see this band again.

  When Scary Lady Sarah put on a shoegazer song during Nocturna, people would just slow and concentrate their dancing.  The goths that learned their steps dancing to stuff like Cocteau Twins, the Cranes, Love Spiral Downwards...etc, have this intricate way of moving. Girls would use their childhood ballet skills.  Guys performed and refined steps recalled from old kung-fu movies. This is the visual I conjure and recreate when I dance Or maybe I just like grey fog because I stood in it long enough to see it's variety.  

Kaspar-Zig