Cinema Strange

Cinema Strange (with support from All Gone Dead + Joy Disaster), Dead and Buried at the Purple Turtle, Camden, London, 14th Feb. 2007

At the right of the stage in the dungeonesque neon lit terrain of The Purple Turtle's ‘Dead and Buried' event, a sign boldly proclaims that tonight there shall be no Metal, no EBM and no Techno. Bold indeed for the Goth scene, which now seems to be inundated with EBM after EBM act.

What a relief it is then to find an evening in Albion's "great" capital catering for a more Death Rock/ Psychobilly (and all their affiliates) scene. Last night being no exception, as the club prepared itself for the theatrical spectacle of Californian Avant-garde death rockers: Cinema Strange. This being only their second performance in London.

First up where All Gone Dead; UK death rockers with hair and make up to prove it as well as an unexpectedly large following, allowing the band to run wild with song after song, making the whole performance seem like a stadium gig. Quite the achievement for the first warm up act and despite the generic nature of their musical accomplishments the group managed to keep everyone entertained.

With much less make-up than the previous band was the polite French outfit Joy Disaster, a no-frills post-punk group that channelled their energy straight into their music as opposed to stage image and performance. That said as tight as the group were and as great as Nicholas Rohr's voice appeared, Joy Disaster suffered from a slightly less than interesting sound; their track "Yesss Yess Yes" only memberable due to an almost plagiaristic riff, to similar to Joy Division's iconic riff from "She's Lost Control Again".

It was with great anticipation then, that Cinema Strange finally graced the stage. Known for their theatrics it was unsurprising that props were at a minimum due to the small venue though the group made more than up for it via their own costumes and demeanours. Be it bassist's Daniel Ribiat coquettish performance as a Kabuki Geisha or vocalist Lucas Lanthier who seemed to be dressed and acting like Stan Laurel following a daring escape from Bedlam (with red nails and stiletto heels to boot no less).

Musically the group were on form too, each song swaying arbitrarily to the other, Lanthier's effeminate voice leading the procession, backed up by both Daniel and Michael Ribiat, the guitarist, whose stage persona was sealed when the band decided to unveil him of his periwig, disclosing him as completely bald.

While some may see Cinema strange's histrionic sets and theatrics as over the top and distracting, fans of this peculiar group know that the performance of spectacle is half the reason for seeing them live. And while favourites such as "Greensward's Grey" and "Laughing Bloody Murder" still stand out as impressive it will always be Cinema Strange's absurdist surrealism that'll win the hearts of fans of both Avant-Garde and Death Rock. Dali would be proud.

http://www.cinemastrange.nightmarezone.de/

Michael Byrne