New York – Savannah, GA based independent label Graveface Records has embarked on a Roadshow tour, featuring a handful of represented artists. All heavily on the shoegaze side, Monday night Shea Stadium hosted the lineup of The Casket Girls, The Stargazer Lilies, Creepoid, and Dreamend, featuring founder Ryan Graveface himself in more than one of the bands.
The standout of the night was Philly grunge rock band Creepoid, with the most energy and that good hot rock. The kind of rock that reminds you that you’re alive and is the best way to feel. Bassist Anna Troxell had the same look on her face the whole time, like she couldn’t be prouder to be able to make this music and play it live, and the other guys were into it too, instead of having a bored unaffected look like they were putting themselves to sleep with their own sleepy shoegaze. I think that’s what NYC-based The Stargazer Lilies did to me. I enjoyed them but I definitely zoned out for most of their set. Their songs are conducive to that anyway, and the band was playing more for themselves then trying to put on a show, which is what you do in a shoegaze band. It’s more about the thick haze of sound that builds on itself then trying to jump around and pull any crazy moves to keep people’s attention. The Stargazer Lilies’ (which is actually a real flower) set was beautiful with songs like title track “We Are The Dreamers,” that are transportive in an in-your-head-way.
Their set was a little expedited due to some sound issues at the beginning, but I was happy to be enveloped in their live sound. Turning their debut album We Are the Dreamers up really loud comes close, but unless those sonic waves are hitting your face in real time it’s never quite the same.
The opposite was true of The Casket Girls (shown at top). Maybe it was more of the same sound issues that night, but they never sounded quite right, with slightly off harmonies and pitchy peaks in weird places. Sister singers Phaedra and Elsa Greene tried to spice it up with some not always together choreographed moves they did while singing, like they rehearsed it all enough to have robotic muscle memory, but were totally numb to it all. There was a strange, cold energy in the room, like watching Lady Gaga jewelry box dolls with big curled bleach blonde hair and big dark sunglasses stiffly lift their arms and attempt graceful ballet moves, but they could only be wound up to a limit. What didn’t change, despite their normally pretty goth-pop becoming somewhat atonally headache inducing, was the wisdom of their acid trip lyrics. The live delivery sounded mixed in all the wrong ways, but the message was still lurking in there somewhere. Also, their drummer (who was also doing triple duty with Dreamend and The Stargazer Lilies as well) went from making bets about who could drink more beer to ripping his shirt off at the first suggestion from a crowd heckler. This guy was there to entertain, and that he did.
Fellow Savannah, GA shoegazers Dreamend was up first, putting the first haze into the atmosphere. Main man Ryan Graveface was pulling a Bob Log, wearing a mask that had a microphone inside, so the vocals sounded as if they were coming from an old school telephone receiver back in time, and the beats and melodies were from the future.
The Graveface Roadshow will go on all over the US and parts of Canada through March, with Dreamend, The Stargazer Lilies, and The Casket Girls on every single one
