I never tire of seeing I:Scintilla. I can safely say about them is that their songs don't fall into ruts, when songs start to resemble one another, a certain predictability. I:Scintilla does not do that. They also don't just have one awesome song. When you like this band it's for many songs or at least so it is with me. I can hear that entire album "Optics". My impression of the new album is coming up but first I must marvel at that first CD. You got that crunchy but dance- worthy industrial beats and guitar, only with songs that don't sound all that alike. I can't say that about Blutengel. They can't seem to get out of this same rhyme scheme, it works for them for about three songs per album. Their beats are aggressive but it's that songwriting. I gotta say the same for L'ame Immortelle only not to that same extreme.
Is I:S strictly a subcultural industrial band? That question always brings up in my mind their appearance on JBTV. Look that up on youtube. The show is a regional pulse on all that is subcultural and some that emerges from that. This show introduced me to grunge. Fed into an already existing familiarity with industrial with bands like Front 242, Ministry, and then left turn with a Material Issue video and interview. And now I:Scintilla gets airplay and an interview with Jerry Bryant. This guy likes it all. Will they find a wider audience? I believe they carry the torch effectively within the gothic/industrial enough to sustain a loyal audience. 
Hearing the CD feeds the need to see them live, because once again, it's not about one single song. It becomes about all of them. And so I'm happy to have them play here locally. They have done so a lot in support of their debut and now I'm happy to see them work from the new album. You see, some impressions only sink in after hearing them repeatedly. It's good fortune to say that about seeing bands as well. Live performances count for a lot of the dominant common identity, part of what they will be remembered for. If you live far, then you just have that one iconic time, after that it's the CD in the car or on your itunes. I've seen I:Scintilla a lot of different times. And so this post reflects that.
On Saturday 23 October I saw I:Scintilla at Reggies, our local female fronted industrial band that is well on it's way to have a national touring presence. They have already done at least one national tour supporting their debut CD "Optics". I believe they have played California, New Jersey, Iowa. "Optics" is a solid CD to go touring on. I like nearly all the songs, industrial dance-floor classics the lot of them, and they sound awesome live. Upon hearing "Optics" I believed the band had much more in the tank. The well is deep indeed. This past Saturday at Reggies they played mostly from their new CD "Falling And Dying" and that shows to me that this is what the band will bank on. It shows that they trust their new material, as great as the old was. "Falling And Dying" is great. The debut CD has all these songs that are not formulaic. One song does not telegraph how they will write the other. Some bands find themselves in a rut where you can spot a mile away what they will say, or where the music is going. Things start to sound alike. Not so with I:Scintilla. The only thing that was telegraphed is their consistent ability to write resonant music for the industrial subculture. This is not saying that I:Scintilla panders to that subculture. They belong to it. The more I listen to "Falling", the more I like it. Even them slow songs are awesome. Normally I just skip the slow songs like they're infomercials, but Ms Brittney sold it like Hooverphonic. This contemplation has more to do with repeated listening of the new CD. The concert experience is separate.
So, they could have leaned heavily on "Optics", but they did not. Good for them. I think they played very few from that first CD. But they seemed to know when to place them, almost to renew the crowd with something familiar. 2007 is not that long ago, but it really feels that way. In that year I was barely in my awareness of the band. One of their most unusual gigs in October 2007 was at Brauerhouse in Hillside, Il., right near a cemetery. It was my only visit to the place. It burned down in 2008. When I:Scintilla played there I assumed it would be packed. I counted less than 10 people there. The venue was probably too far away for most. It felt like I was witnessing an exclusive performance. Anyway back to last Saturday. Britney and the band had amassed a good local crowd to perform for. I had no problem reaching the front. The casual porous fans hanging around the middle, or everywhere else but the front. It was not difficult to move around, which was nice. I don't like a packed, packed crowd.
Zig
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