[ATTENDED: October 24, 2019] Starset
I had taken C. to a couple of live shows before and he had been to see Ice Nine Kills with his friends. But this was my first time taking him to see a club concert.
This was going to be a long night too. Four bands! With the opening band going on at 7 and Starset ending around 11 (and it was a school night!).
C. has been a fan of Starset since their first album came out. I had not heard of them and I’m not sure where he came upon them, but he really liked their debut Transmissions.
And I can say that now that I know more about them, they would have been a band that I would absolutely loved and been utterly obsessed with back in high school as well. Their back story and concept is pretty intricate, so I won’t bother trying to do justice to it here. Suffice it to say their albums are concept albums.
I also love that he didn’t like the second album, Vessels, as much because it was too poppy (not his words, but I think that’s what he meant). When I had talked about getting tickets to them the last time (I think we’d just missed them come to the area, he said it was okay as he didn’t like that album that much). But that the third album was back to the cool stuff again so he was pretty excited when I told him I’d gotten us tickets.
He wanted his friend to come along, but it being a school night and us not getting home until 12:30 made it impossible for his friend to come. So it was just us.
The band was formed in 2013 by Dustin Bates, who is also the band’s lead singer, songwriter, and keyboardist. He was also in the band Downplay with Starset bassist Ron DeChant. Bates has a Masters’ degree in electrical engineering. He has done research for the US Air Force and taught at the International Space University (whatever that is).
Using that educational background as a jumping off point, Bates has created this complex backstory. The story goes that Starset was formed as part of a public outreach initiative by The Starset Society. The Society had obtained a Message from a mysterious signal sent from space and wanted to alert the public to it.
After releasing their debut album Transmissions, Bates published a novel The Prox Transmissions, which detailed more of the history of the Society. After putting out their (apparently musically controversial ) second album, they released a graphic novel also called The Prox Transmissions, which was a tie-in to the novel. Their newest album came out last month.
I can say without question that a band that writes proggy concept albums, talks about secret transmissions from space, a secret society that is trying to disseminate the truth and whose lead singer wrote not only a novel but a graphic novel too, I would have been all over them.
So yeah, I was into it.
I also love that their concerts are called Demonstrations. I had also heard–either from C. or elsewhere, that the band wears spacesuits and masks or some such thing.
So by the time this Demonstration was about to start, I was ready.
The Demonstration began with a video. A man in a cloth mask stood with his arm raised. Some of the musicians came out on stage. The drummer, Adam Gilbert, stood in front of the video with his arm up and the crowd was pretty excited.
Then I was really surprised because as the lights came up I saw that the band were not futuristic looking at all. Rather they were like desert nomads. (This is all part of the third album’s concept).
I was also really surprised to see that the first musicians out were a violinist (Siobhán Cronin) and a cellist (Mariko Muranaka Friend) in desert garb as well.
When DeChant and guitarist Brock Richards were revealed, they had their faces covered by the desert wraps that covered their mouths (two bands in the night whose faces were covered!)
It was a very cool visual.
After some introductory music “A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE”, Bates came out in full regalia with some interesting visuals going on behind him and they quickly jumped into “MANIFEST.” Boy was it catchy.
I was interested to read that their biggest hit so far has been from the dreaded Vessels album. “Monster” was a pretty big hit for them and the crowd went suitably crazy.
After the first couple of songs, the video screen behind them was taken over by a woman. I had seen picture (or perhaps videos) of her by the merch table earlier. She informed us that things were going just fine and there would be no disturbances at tonight’s Demonstration.
The first set consisted primarily of songs from the new album (which makes sense given how they were dressed and all).
The other older song was “It Has Begin” from Transmissions. By the time they got to “TELEKINETIC” I was totally into the show and was even singing along (not sure if C. was embarrassed by that or if he even noticed). I’m surprised to see that that song was not a single (at least not yet).
Bates announced that they would be doing a cover (the fourth cover tonight). He asked, Has anyone heard of the band Led Zeppelin? They played “Kashmir” which actually worked pretty well with the strings and all, although Bate’s delivery is so very different from Robert Plant’s that I found the mash up a little icky. They didn’t play the whole 7 minutes thankfully. But I think it worked very well thematically.
There were a few more new songs, including “Trials” which was a fun flag waving event (even Bates had a flag).
Midway through the set the announcer lady came back but was interrupted by a guy which suggested that things were not well at all.
Then there was, in my opinion, a hilarious intermission.
There was a kind of “commercial” about the three sensors in your brain that help you to see things better, more interestingly. I enjoyed it quite a lot and was annoyed that people talked all through it–although in fairness, it was a 6 minute countdown. And indeed, when the brain commercial was over, the screen went blank and just showed a countdown. C was tickled that they basically did nothing for 6 whole minutes.
But they wee actually very busy–a costume change was underway.
Incidentally, around the building were these posters that claimed they worked with AR technology. C. wound up buying the poster pack. The posters are cool low tech propaganda but apparently with the Starset app, cool things happen. The problem is the app doesn’t seem to work, so until they fix it, he’s just got some minimalist posters on his wall.
Then the band came back out in full space suits! Just as promised!
Well, the string players were not in suits, they were in black clothes. And Bates himself was dressed as a nerd in a bow tie and glasses, which was really fascinating. Later in the show he took of the glasses and threw them into the crowd–a few feet in front of us (that would have been an awesome souvenir).
Both the guitarist and bassist were in space suits and so was the drummer. The suits had lights on them and face-covering helmets
They opened the second half with the wonderful “Carnivore” from Transmissions.
Then everyone left and the strings played a lengthy string piece which somehow morphed into AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” (which was pretty unexpected). They didn’t sing the song, but that does count as the fifth cover of the night.
This led to the second song from Vessels, Bringing It Down. Whether people think this record is very different or not, it did fit in very well live.
It was followed by another Transmissions song, “Telescope.” This song was especially fun, because Adam Gilbert put done his sticks and was literally just smacking the kit with his hands.
They ended the night with one song from each album.
And, during the final song, My Demons,” Bates came out into the crowd and sang along with us. He was really close, as well. Not quite as close as Hyde was, but within about three people.
When the song was over, the band came out and started throwing all kinds of crap into the audience–mostly sweaty towels–that’s not a souvenir I need, frankly.
The set was a ton of fun and the crowd was totally into it. By the end of the night I was definitely a fan of the band.
I do wish we could have looked at merch more, but the smart thing was to head out and get home at a somewhat reasonable hour. We didn’t even stop for a cheese steak!
So that’s pretty good for a first time club show:
- Four bands
- Two bands wearing masks
- Two singers coming out into the audience
The two of us are planning to see Ice Nine Kills later in November. That night there are FIVE bands. But I think we might arrive a little later for that one. Maybe get a cheese steak before the show instead.
SETLIST
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE ‰
- MANIFEST ‰
- Monster Δ
- ECHO ‰
- WHERE THE SKIES END ‰
- It Has Begun ≅
- TELEKINETIC ‰
- Kashmir [Led Zeppelin cover]
- PERFECT MACHINE ‰
- TRIALS ‰
- Carnivore ≅
- Thunderstruck [AC/DC cover played by the strings]
- Bringing It Down Δ
- Telescope ≅
- OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE ‰
- Frequency Δ
- My Demons ≅
‰ – Divisons (2019)
Δ – Vessels (2017)
≅ – Transmissions (2014)
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