We had a wonderful evening with the cult band
The Legendary Pink Dots and supporting band, Dead Voices On Air & Aimee Lane at the
Double Door, Chicago Illinois. The night was clear and the summer air was cool, much like
the crowd at the Double Door. We arrived about 8:15 p.m. and were greeted with a line at
the door with 40 or more people waiting to enter. Not your mainstream concert crowd, most
of whom were dressed in black, young women wearing knee high boots and platforms shoes,
clad in the dark gothic garb. We patiently made our way into the venue.
The Legendary Pinks Dots (LPD) tend to pull fans to their live shows like flowers attract
bees. The fact they live in Holland might have a great deal to do with this, since they might
tour once a year to North America. The shows are either a sell out or near sell out each
time they return. The Double Door was fairly packed for this show.
LPD have put out a voluminous amount of music. Back catalog suggests LPD has released over
100 CDs, cassettes and vinyl on various labels in Europe and on Soleilmoon in the states
beginning as early as 1981. Edward Ka-Spel and Phil Silverman are the long term founding
members. For this tour, the line up of band members include: Edward Ka-Spel, (lead vocals
and keyboards), Phil Silverman, (keyboards, vocals), Martijn de Kleer, (guitar and
violin), Niels Van "Hornblower", (saxophones, flute, bass clarinet and
percussion), Ryan Moore, (bass guitar, drums, percussion). On this tour, LPD supported
their new release, A Perfect Mystery on Soleilmoon Records.
The sound at the Double Door was very good. LPD put on a wonderful set of music supporting
the new release and played a couple previously released tracks. I didn't get a set list
but from what I hear, they did a different set at each show. The night was full of energy
and everyone seemed very satified with the selection of songs, sound and length of the
show, which lasted well over an hour. We had a great time at this show. I hope LPD returns
again in the near future.
Edward Kaspel photo copyright Last Sigh 2000
Dead Voices On Air (DVOA) is mainly Mark
Spybey (Propeller and ex-member of Download) with various friends on the
occaisions he goes on tour in North America or records a new release. DVOA for this venue
included special guests: Scott Gibbons on guitar, (Strawberry, Orbitronik, Lilith), Aimee
Lane, (vocals, strings and bubbles), Eric Pounder (Pounder on Invisible Records, guitar),
Neils Van "Hornblower" of LPD, (saxophone, clarinet, flute and percussion) and
Ryan Moore, (Twilight Circus In Dub) on drums.
Photo copyright Last Sigh 2000
Dead Voices On Air began the sonic adventure
for the evening and played a diverse set supporting songs from his last release Piss Frond
(Invisible Records), and a blend of ambient music plus a track from Download,
"Base Metal". Aimee (vocals and guitar) with Neils on his saxophone toyed
gleefully with each other on stage -- Neils honked out sudden blasts on the sax directed
towards Aimee which she reacted to with surprise. Mark was busy singing and tweeking
knobs. Rumbling bass and guitar effects (Scott Gibbons and Eric Pounder) mezmerized the
crowd. Thanks to Mark Spybey for coming back to North America for this tour.
To view more photos of this tour and LPD live in 1997 go to:
Edward Kaspel
June 2000
LPD & DVOA
in Toronto
DVOA & LPD
LPD in New York City
1997
Visit LPD
Visit DVOA
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