What’s in a dress code, I hear you say? Quite a lot if the dress code happens to be black – basic black, all black or predominately black -and your attire isn’t. Life, for me, is one big fashion faux pas anyway so onwards into the show I go for Linea Aspera, Witch of the Vale and Soft Riot are waiting in the shadows.
Don’t forget about haircuts either. We are, after all, now in a darkwave land and Soft Riot ticked all the correct monochrome style boxes whilst said Soft Riot maestro JJD laid down a soundtrack of sequenced monotones to the beat inherent to a Jack Nance haircut. The voice in the machine speaks fashion advice once more.
Could a Jack Nance haircut be topped? No easy matter, you might think, yet Witch of the Vale did just that by the expedient use of antlers. In conjunction with their distinctly ethereal approach, this duo used this primitive visual reference to reinforce their strategy of making both voice and synthesiser into instruments of mystic intent.
Taking the stage next for a reunion engagement were Linea Aspera and they wasted little time in using passion, drama and a black beret to counterpoint the rigidity inherent to their coldwave persona. The combined impact of the synthesiser and Alison Lewis’s voice was as likely to affect your feet as your soul and, even as she sang the words “don’t look at me…” it would have been illogical, if not impossible, look anywhere else. Intoxicating.
Anyway, the end was all there was left and, back outside, it was raining. That seemed strangely appropriate.