Cyanotic in New Brunswick!
Well, I just got back from one hell of a show. And what an experience it was.
Lately, I've been going through something of a crisis of faith in my categorization of music. It sort of went as this: If 'true' industrial is the like of early Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Einstürzende Neubaten, and KMFDM, and is defined strictly as thus, then what am I listening to? Those late 80s/early 90s albums are very DIY in terms of sampling and such, Neubaten makes their own instruments out of scrap metal! Because of this, the sounds seem rather rough. Personally, I don't care much for early Skinny Puppy or any Einstürzende Neubaten. Early KMFDM I think of as simply alright, with Ministry being the only stuff that I feel really stands out. If I feel this way about some of the biggest bands in 'true' industrial, can I really consider myself a fan of industrial music? What do I listen to? Post-industrial? What does that even mean? I know for a fact that some of the bands are considered EBM, Futurepop, and Digital Hardcore, and I know which ones for clear reasons, too.
Well, crisis resolved. I now feel that Industrial, like any musical genre, progresses in different ways due to the innovation over time of the performers associated with it. The reason that industrial today sounds different from industrial of yesteryear is due to many reasons. But the main question of it all was, can I call myself a fan of industrial music?
The answer? A resounding yes.
A few weeks ago, Mike told me about a Cyanotic show at the Killing Centre in New Brunswick on May 19. Tonight was that show, and we both went. When we got to NB, we were a bit surprised at our surroundings, as a club was nowhere to be found. Instead, we found a children's hospital, a church, some kind of religious nursery school, and a neighborhood. We came to realize that the Killing Centre was, in fact, someone's basement. We were greeted at the door by Sean of Cyanotic, doing his Arnold Schwarzenegger impression that would continue for the majority of the time he spoke. The circumstances firmly in my mind, I realized that in my quest to find great industrial it had taken my taste quite a bit underground, especially the case for New Jersey. The scene reminded me of the excellent documentary film American Hardcore, which talks about how bands such as Black Flag booked their own tours at many venues, often closing businesses, people's houses, and even emptied pools. Mike counted, including us and not including band members, about fifteen people there. Before the show started, Mike and I listened in on a group that a bunch of them had gotten into, a group that included a few member of Cyanotic and Glitch Mode staff. I realized that they were talking about bands I'd heard of, and was quite familiar with, bands such as Combichrist, Icon of Coil, VNV Nation (which I'm not too fond of, which seemed to be the concensus), brief allusions to Scandy, and Rabbit Junk (another Glitch Mode Records artist which I'm quite fond of). During the course of Cyanotic setting up and playing, references and quotes were made of Ministry, KMFDM, and ChemLab (making fun of ChemLab, though). Tom of Cyanotic even made a quick joke, saying "Your uniform does not impress me," referencing the song of the same name by Atari Teenage Riot that the band recently covered on The Virus Has Been Spread: A D-Trash Records Tribute to Atari Teenage Riot. The lead singer of Cyanotic, Sean Payne, even mentioned my The Mad Capsule Markets shirt. That makes sense if he recognizes it, seeing as how Rabbit Junk founder JP Anderson cites it as his primary influence.
In all, there were four bands, and admission was $5. Unfortunately, Cyanotic's set had to be cut short due to technical difficulties.
The experience of the show, and its very nature, was incredible. It exuded the same organic nature that I always thought were present in hardcore punk shows done in similar circumstances, that is, hot and sweaty. There was beer, smoking, and, frankly, weed there. Someone was passing the blunt around, which Mike and I promptly refused. You can't damage my straight edge resolve. Music is my drug. And boy, did I take it hard. I went crazy at the show with headbanging.
After the show, we got to hang out with the band a little, and discovered that two of the members were also named Tom and Mike. We decided that Mike and I were the evil Mirror Mirror versions of the Cyanotic Tom and Mike due to our beards, just like evil Spock. We had to wait around for Sean to look for the merchandise, but I ended up going home with Transhuman 2.0 and a Cyanotic Fix the Glitch shirt, as well as two albums from MindFlux Funeral.
All in all, a fantastic experience. I saw Cyanotic in someone's fucking basement and it was awesome. Oh, and if Cyanotic mentions in some blog entry that the glitch fixed them, you can blame that one on me.

Read Mike's entry to get a fuller idea of what the show was like.