The nights are drawing in, the students are back, Halloween is just around the corner and the goth gig calendar in this most gothic of cities is suddenly full to bursting with a cornucopia of aural and visual delights. Two days earlier Twisted Nerve, Revanica and Social Youth Cult had played a sold out gig at the Banshee (which I was gutted to miss), and on the same Monday evening as this gig, goth-adjacent artist Eric13 of Combichrist is belting out some garage sleaze rock with his band the Pinheads at Bannerman’s. In this context, attracting a couple of dozen punters to the cosy confines of Sneaky Pete’s is no mean feat and a reward for the hard yards Joel Heyes has put in over the last decade as his Byronic Sex & Exile project heads out on yet another tour pre-promoting his new Dracula-themed album which will be available within the next month or so.
This gig saw the Edinburgh début of another stalwart of the Yorkshire dark music scene, Jan Doyle Band, here in full goth mode performing the majority of the set which featured in his stunning contribution to the recent Ravenspurgh online goth festival. As with BS&E, performance is very much a key element of a Jan Doyle Band gig, and on this form it is hard to think of another contemporary artist who can as fully and effectively conjure up the true heady spirit of the Batcave circa 1983.
Beginning with the brief Reptile House dirge of I Thought He Was Your Reflection, the pace picked up with the new guitar-enhanced version of Rain On Ice, with the more reflective and more atmospheric Last Rites, Getting Nearer and The Party adding to the louche and spooky vibe. With Williams divesting layers of PVC, leather and fishnet, the set built to a climax with dark disco stomper Sister Sarah, the peerless They with its Daniel Ash-inspired guitar scratching and syncopated March Violetsesque drum track, and finally his stunning and unique unhinged cover of Soft Cell’s Martin, an artist devoted to his craft leaving everything on the stage.
13 Tombs were the Fife filling between the two one-man bands from goth’s own county, and their high octane horror punk’d up deathrock’n’roll was equally well-received, particularly the more overtly goth-influenced tracks like Dehydrating, Dead Roses and a breakneck version of I Drink Your Blood that recalls the cartoonish spirit of Misfits. Although Mark had forgotten his trademark prescription dark glasses and managed to inadvertently kick over his can of lager, his sheer energy and Al’s impressive versatility on the guitar saw the duo successfully through to the traditional set closer, Monkey Pus.
Frustrated by the limitations of a half-hour slot on his last visit to Auld Reekie for this summer’s Deadinburgh Festival, Joel Heyes clearly relished the prospect of bringing the full Byronic Sex & Exile experience to the punters of the Scottish capital, with the full intro tracks to set the scene for the candelabra-lit audience walkthrough, which was later repeated during the doomy lilting lament of The Vampire’s Castle, always one of the highlights of a main set which is deeply marinated in gothic romanticism.
With the customary sword wielding during the impassioned Death Or Joy and a dagger-enhanced Bloodstains from the forthcoming Songs From The Blood album also adding a sense of theatricality to proceedings, Heyes rounded off another great night of varied gothic musical entertainment with four fan favourites, the dancefloor filling Vampire Guitars and Grave Is In The Heart, the brooding Dented Shield and the talismanic Leviathan.
As ever, the gothic scene only continues to survive because of the willingness of artists like BS&E to take the financial risk and constant headaches and setbacks of arranging a self-promoted tour, and because acts like JDB and 13 Tombs accept that they will be unlikely to recoup their own costs for the thrill of performing to a loyal, appreciative but small audience. On tonight’s evidence, it is clear that for all concerned, the game is still worth the (appropriately flickering) candle.
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