Impressions of the Twisted Firestarter #6

Twisted Firestarter has become the eagerly anti­cip­ated warm-up party for the Infest Festival and always deliv­ers a fant­ast­ic party atmo­sphere to get the fest­iv­al off to a crack­ing start. This year was an incred­ible line-up with head­liners CLAN OF XYMOX. This will be an exclus­ive UK show for them. MASSIVE EGO are finally back and this show is a long-awaited return to the UK scene. DEAD LIGHTS are fast becom­ing ser­i­ous con­tenders for the elec­tro-glam-EBM crown, MOTH SLUT bring their andro­gyn­ous and ener­get­ic per­form­ance, Bristol’s finest STRANGE FUTURES. And finally, the ever mod­estly named IAMIMPERFECT are in fact the per­fect open­er to set things off to a great start.

It was a hot, sticky night at Rebellion Manchester for the gig, but no-one cared the place was crammed with beau­ti­ful people, all a feast for the eyes in their best goth­ic glam. I was very lucky to be there as a guest and pho­to­graph­er of the amaz­ing band Massive Ego, who I'm also lucky to call my friends.

Unfortunately, I missed the first band, IamImperfect, but I've seen these guys before and they are so good, I have to give them a quick men­tion and I bet every­one loved them.

Strange Futures

Strange Futures, a young under­ground elec­tro-punk duo, were next to per­form and what a great act they were with an impress­ive vocal­ist, such a strong voice com­ing from such a small frame. A great synth sound, you really should look out for these guys.

Songs included: Come Back Harmed, Scrap Metal, and Bad Theories. They also sang a new song that hasn't actu­ally been fin­ished as of yet.

Moth Slut

Moth Slut are a fab­ulous pair from Manchester. They soun­ded amaz­ing and LOOKED fab­ulous in their goth­ic dresses. How they man­aged to play gui­tar, sing, and move around the stage like they did was just epic.

Songs included: The Vampire's Awakening (intro), Night Of The Moth, In The Dead Of Night, To Tell A Lie, and Hellhound.

Dead Lights

Dead Lights, a goth­ic duo who looked incred­ible… Saul, the lead sing­er, braved wear­ing his poin­ted, plastic jack­et in the incred­ible heat of the ven­ue. It must have been so uncom­fort­able, but we all know the show must go on. Drummer Richard was on fire, almost lit­er­ally in this ven­ue, but they gave us a fab­ulous per­form­ance with impress­ive vocals.

Songs included: Doom Doom Trash, Sinners Are More Fun, and Format The World.

Massive Ego

Now, I might be a little biased as these guys are friends of mine, but ser­i­ously, bias doesn't come into the equa­tion when they per­form. They are just per­fec­tion, singing some much-loved 'oldies' and some from their new album 'Symphony Of Flies', which is awe­some by the way. The crowd loved them, and even in the fur­nace, the boys did a fant­ast­ic job. Singer Marc Massive always engages well with the audi­ence, and his singing and moves on stage are mes­mer­ising. Wearing his crown of thorns, which is very heavy, must have been even more pain­ful in the heat. The swel­ter­ing crowd loved them and were more than will­ing to join in with the arm waves and dance moves. All too soon, the last song was over and they depar­ted the stage to thun­der­ous cheers. Always a sad time, but luck­ily they are doing a mini head­line tour at the begin­ning of September, so I will be doing it all over again in Sheffield and London! Do try to see them live if you can.

Songs included: I Idolise You, Symphony Of Flies, Man Becomes Monster, and In My Own Darkness.

Clan Of Xymox

Clan Of Xymox are a Dutch elec­tron­ic rock band formed in 1983 and are best known as the pion­eers of the dark wave music scene. You can see why when they per­form, visu­ally they are spec­tac­u­lar with shoot­ing laser beams through­out their per­form­ance, and of course, they soun­ded amazing.

Songs included: There's No Tomorrow, Jasmine and Rose, Emily, and Blood Of Christ.

Afterparty & Final Thoughts

What a fab­ulous night it was, and it con­tin­ued on into the early hours with the Club Stigmata after­party fea­tur­ing DJ Mark Waller, who did a fant­ast­ic set. Meanwhile, I found the most com­fort­able chair and sat people-watch­ing the beau­ti­ful crowd as they laughed and chat­ted with the bands, of course, I was tak­ing pho­tos, cap­tur­ing the event. Promenade Cinema turned up, so I had a lovely chat with Emma and Dorian. Also present were the fab­ulous Ghost Bells and Zeitgeist Zero. Seeing some of my goth friends just made an incred­ible night even more spe­cial. I will nev­er for­get it.