Invisible Cities with Spiral Path and Subtle Body at Danny's
Published 4.8.26
This was the 9th show booked by Dancing Imp. They're definitely a collective to be watched. Every Dancing Imp show I've been too has been excellent. Goth people and Philly should be invested because they're prioritizing Death Rock as a genre. Their 10th booking is coming up next Thursday with Nox Novacula (legends).
I was pleased to see a lot of goths at this show generally, but specifically people who were younger and who I'd never seen or met before. Sometimes it's just the Philly DIY folks (all love to my people) so I'm happy about the crowd that was there. Goth music is alive in Philadelphia!
Subtle Body was first. They've gotten better than the last time I saw them. The clothes don't matter to be clear but their outfits kind of matched this time so they might have read my last review :p. I was also so happy because I could hear Rachel's synth loud and clear this time. It sounded great! It seems she's gotten a new synthesizer which fixed whatever issue was happening before.
I was really psyched that she was transporting it in this pillow+suitcase thing, fuck a Thon Case am I right? Overall I'm pleased with how excited people are about them. I'm looking forward to a long future of scary vampire music from hell.
Spiral Path went next. I adore them guys obviously. They've got this new track that's very Depeche Mode-y (hello ABC devotees, please come to the gig hellooooo). They were also doing a bunch of weird crazy shit that I haven't seen them do before.
Here's Lauren with a beer bottle to the strings and Sean noodling around with this metal pipe he was hitting.
^(said pipe)
Geoff took a drill to his instrument at one point. I guess this isn't the first project he's done that in. Everyone should do it, it sounds awesome. Some people were saying it was too loud and it hurt their ears but I was right up front and didn't feel shit so I guess my earplugs are working. (Drop me a line if you want a rec for that but I don't do ads so I'm not linking that shit.)
I thought these elements were a good addition! I like that kind of crap. There are probably opinions floating around that noise elements and props are gimmicky, but I enjoy having fun and being entertained because I'm not miserable and self-serious when I go to shows. Obviously there are plenty of examples of noise show antics and folding table nonsense that are not entertaining and are in fact horrible. That is not what was happening here.
Invisible Cities was the headliner tonight! This band is so good, goth to the core. Plenty of the sonic elements are danceable and approachable, but they aren't afraid to get weird with it either. Their new tape is amazing, I've been listening to it pretty much constantly since the show, it's well recorded and produced. Undiagnosed is a must-listen track. Each of them is great and massively talented, but I'm especially fond of their synth player. They always look like they're having so much fun during the set. The synths sound great live and on recording too.