Teen Gothic

For context this was an all ages show that is part of the same tour they're on now. I am a big Then Comes Silence fan and my old high school friend putting on the show is a huge Vision Video fan. The band are so cool they make our podunk town a tour stop twice now over the latter friendship. This is admittedly more of a Then Comes Silence fan post. I mean no offense, I am just able to speak on their body of work from a fan's perspective. I offered to help as a Dj and run a goth night across town.

I met them trying to find the venue walking down the street it was on. It was already a pretty funny situation with people in black knowing to follow other people in black, before they even crossed the intersection to properly introduce ourselves. It was a time crunch with less than two hours before doors. So it was all about helping them load in ASAP and setup gear. I didn't actually tell anybody I was the dj except the driver/merch guy. I'm not sure why. Probably because I couldn't think of how to even say it without it coming off as pretentious. I was there to see the bands mostly and help where needed.

The whole crew are a bunch of lovely people. Their driver too! He tried to give me a free TCS 12" when he knew I was a fan and I insisted on paying and adding the newest 12" of Trickery to the bill. The band were sweet enough to sign both for me.

During TCS sound check downtime, I got to tell Alex (vocalist) that I was really grateful they were visiting our small town on this tour. I tried to keep the fan boy behavior to a minimum and express quick earnest appreciation. He was really happy I was already familiar with an LP that dropped weeks prior and was just a super down to earth guy. Really patient during a rushed along sound check too with my green sound guy friend on the controls. Total pros.

Both bands sounded great. I came out from behind the decks to dance my ass off during TCS.

Because the crowd seemed more familiar with the headliner, it was a situation where the crowd started a few steps back but TCS completely won them over within a few songs.

I played music between sets I thought the bands would dig, but low energy enough to make it easy for them to raise the energy when they started playing. Blitz, Killing Joke, 1919, Sad Lovers and Giants, Fad Gadget, The Damned and newer music like SRSQ, Dionysus, XKAT, Void Republic. TCS drummer Jonas came out from behind his drums after their set to shake my hand and properly introduce himself while I was in the dj booth to the side of people. The drummer from Vision Video asked me for a track ID of the last thing I played before fading out. Because he said he was trying to Shazam it on the drum stool waiting for his bandmates and was striking out. Unfortunately I was too focused on when to stop the music to remember what song it was at the time.

Playing Killing Joke also brought up fun conversations with Hugo from TCS about our mutual love for Geordie Walker. I helped them load back into their van and Alex asked for my number in case the hotel was lame. Since I wasn't far down the road and had room. Dusty and other Vision Video band members were getting lots of attention from people on a 1 on 1 basis after the show. So I felt it was important to give them all space.

Overall a lovely night. Both bands and the crowd seemed to have a great time and I hope a return visit is planned!

Sorry for the random-ish dump i was too shy to make 2 posts at once :> lmao

 So my hometown (Athens) is home to the lead singer of Vision video, aka Goth dad on TikTok, or just Dusty Gannon. Athens’ local newspaper is called Flagpole, and each year they do a thing called “Flagpole Favorites” where people vote for their favorite business via Flagpole (ex: best Italian restaurant of the year). If a business wins they get the title of Flagpole’s favorite restaurant/business of some sort. They also get a plaque to hang in said business. Last year, in 2022, Dusty Gannon was sorta the face of that years Flagpole Favorites. The photo i attached shows the ad for Flagpole Favorites from last year. My Parents own a business and they got a Flagpole Favorite Runner up. So in their window hangs a picture of Goth dad drinking Boba! 

Last Sunday, I went to my first goth night ever. It took place at l'International, a bar in the 11th arrondissement in Paris. There was two bands playing, Varsovie and Vision Video.

I only knew like one Varsovie song before they got annouced as the guests of this event, so I listened to their albums, liked it and was really happy to see them, they're post-punk, they remind me of Joy Division but in French to give you an idea.

Actually, I came here mostly for Vision Video since I've been wanting to see them live for a while, it was the second time they came to Paris, the first time they did it was also in that bar but I sadly couldn't attend, so when I saw that they were coming again to Europe I was like "Fuck everything else, I'm going to see them whatever it takes this time". I was a bit sad that Emily wasn't there but Angelica, who filled in for her, was absolutely amazing.

Before the concerts started, Dusty took the time to talk with people in the bar, I was too shy to go talk to him and didn't want to bother him, but he noticed that I was wearing a Vision Video t-shirt and came talking to me. He was really nice, he complimented my makeup (several times by the way), we talked a little bit about Varsovie since he enjoyed them too, we also shook hands, Dusty was literally the kindest ever with everyone.

The shows were both really nice and everyone had a lot of fun dancing and singing along, Dusty interacted a lot with us about various topics during the show.

After the shows, both Varsovie and Vision Video were hanging out at the bar, I bought a patch and vinyl (that Dusty kindly signed) from Vision Video's merch table, we even took some pics together and he gladly said yes when I asked if I could hug him.

The bar itself was really nice I thought, the concerts took place in a room downstairs. I met really nice people here, there wasn't any problem with someone being a jerk, everyone was very chill.

I thought some of you might enjoy this cover so I filmed and edited it just for r/goth. They shared the stage with Redwing Blackbird and the amazing Urban Heat. A fantastic ages 16+ show here in Colorado. My friend called Urban Heat's frontman Goth Prince (like the Purple Rain musician).

https://elcorazonseattle.com

Me, personally, I love them! They are honestly the first goth band I’ve listened to and have really gotten me involved with the subculture. Also, the lead singer, dusty, also known as Goth Dad, is really awesome, as well as the other band members. Going to get to see them live in August!