Review of Necromantic @ The Knitting Factory with Lucas Lanthier of The Deadfly Ensemble 2.1.08

I must admit that I hadn't been to Necromantic in a while. I was either busy covering or getting to know other events, or just simply chilling at home. However, when I heard that Lucas Lanthier was going to do a solo acoustic performance as a precursor to his MC role and his Deadfly Ensemble gig at the Dances of Vice Festival, I was determined to re-break the ice and visit Necromantic.

Lucas Lanthier. I bumped into him before doors opened for Necromantic. The Knitting Factory is extremely busy Friday nights with multiple parties going on at the same time, and several parties going on the same night in the same room. That included the Necromantic space. We were relegated to the hallway until the space cleared out. He is quite the conversationalist and story teller. When I first started talking to him, I mentioned that I had a severe shoulder problem and couldn't bring my camera to cover his show that night. He asked me how I had come to have this problem, and I said that I wasn't quite sure. I thought it was because I had slept on it funny, and that I subsequently aggravated it even more from continuous use. His response was - and how vey in character of him - that I should tell people I injured it in a bar room brawl, because it was far more interesting a story. I agreed that his version was much more colorful, and that I would consider it.

I was first introduced to this very talented story teller, musician, and performer when I went to see The Dirty Weather Project at The Pussycat Lounge November 27, 2007 for DJ Patrick's (Salvation) birthday. The project consists of Lucas and Frank the Baptist. Originally I was interested in the show because of Frank, but after seeing the two perform together, it's Frank and Lucas. Unfortunately, I was not prepared to interview Frank or cover the show (it was a last minute thing), but it was highly entertaining. I don't know when I will next have the opportunity to cover Frank since he lives now in Berlin, but I am sure he will be back in NYC sometime in the future, since he has family in the area.

Frank and Lucas sang sea shanties and acted out their musical performances on stage as well. The Dirty Weather Project is based on Deadfly Ensemble repertoire, so it did not surprise me when Lucas said I should tell everyone I had injured my shoulder in a bar room brawl lol.

But let's get back to the night of the 1st of February, 2008. As I was waiting to gain entrance to the Necromantic space, I came across Francine, Necromantic's promoter and magician extraordinaire. I told her that I was going to review Lucas for the zine and that I would also do a write up about Necromantic at the same time. She was excited about the prospect, and asked for my business card as well as my full given name for future reference. After a moment,she put 2 and 2 together, and realized that we were friends on myspace. She ran into the space ahead of us, and we parted ways.

I was expecting to find a number of people from Lazarus at the party, and as time wore on a bit they all showed up. Lady Marnie, Interim Ronin Magister, Elder, Court of Lazarus, Deacon, Order of the Black Marble, was there. I finally got to meet her officially. Kitty Hawke, whom I have gotten to know well and I consider a good friend, was there. Mark, her husband, who is also so nice, was there. Lady Seregon Aristide was there. Her boyfriend Michael, Keeper of the Scroll, was there. Victor, one of the elders, was also there along with his girlfriend. Then there was Sauron Effros, Templar of SNOG and guitarist of Night Gallery (Kitty Hawke's band). If Kitty and Mark are somewhere, he ends up there too. On the other hand, if they don't go somewhere, he doesn't either lol. I joked that Lazarus was going to end up taking over the room or even the event itself lol.

BTW: Night Gallery will be performing at R Bar in NYC on Thursday, March 27, 2008 in NYC. Please visit GGM's weblog for further details:

And then there is William Welles of New Goth City. We keep on bumping into each other everywhere lately. At first he was just lurking in the shadows...once we were supposed to meet a while back at Contempt, and he texted me asking where I was. I asked him, "Well, where were you?" He answered "By the bathrooms near the bar downstairs." I was flummoxed that he would choose such a spot. He has come a very long way since those bathroom days lol. I think we all have! He has a great local event site. If you haven't already checked it out, go and check it out now (after you have finished reading the February 2008 issue of GGM of course)!

DJ Aengel spun during the earlier part of the evening. I officially introduced myself, and he asked me if I thought he looked sharp that evening. I replied, "But of course! Always!" He was wearing what I call his Victorian, black military style jacket which he probably purchased at Trash and Vaudeville, everyone's retail clothing store of choice in Manhattan (including myself). Underneath he wore a black, pirate's shirt with peasant sleeves acompanied by cyber booties to cover his feet. He will be spinning at the Anti-Valentine's Day Ball at Element this Sunday, February 17, 2008.

After a while, at around midnight, Lucas took over the stage. His repertoire consisted mostly of sea shanty type songs from The Dirty Weather Project. However, Dirty Weather developed from The Deadfly Ensemble!

The first song was "The Flight of the Invisible Siamese 3Year Olds" off Deadfly's The Deadfly Ensemble album.

The second song was "Urusarktos The Bachelor" off Deadfly's new album "A Seed Catalog for Extinct Annuals".

The third song was "Black Capped Choplains" off of Deadfly's first album The Deadfly Ensemble.

The fifth song was a sea shanty called "Dirty Weather" about a bottle of rum off the A Seed Catalog for Extinct Annuals album. This song was the catalyst for The Dirty Weather Project.

The sixth song was "John Fall Apart John" off the first Deadfly album.

The seventh and last song was "Tee mit Honig" off the first Deadfly album.

I caught Lucas after his set and bought two Deafly CDs from him. Yes, the songs he played that night were on those CDs. Deadfly's first album, The Deadfly Ensemble, and their new album A Seed Catalog For Extinct Annuals. Not only is the music on the album most stellar, but so is the CD packaging. They are truly worlks of art and what I would regard as al most collector's items. Those who are complaining of lackluster CD sales must be doing something wrong. For any of you who may not be familiar with his physical CDs, please do become familiar. If you are into things like Tim Burton's Oyster Boy Stories or old fashioned style photography , you will love the packaging associated with these CDs. The Seed Catalog even is in the form of a small book full of the songs' lyrics and accompanying nifty retro photographs of the band. really beautiful stuff and well worth the purchase just for the artwork alon.

I regard Lucas a bit like the David Bowie of the Goth scene, except that technically his voice is higher than David's. Not only is Lucas' voice an androgynous one, but his appearance is highly androgynous (in his case even much more feminine than masculine), in keeping with Goth chic. I am so hooked on Deadfly, I just love their spastic, flippant sounding operatic ballads as well as the bygone era subject matter of their songs.

What an absolutely fun time that was! I had forgotten what a wonderful vibe emanated Necromantic. I most definitely will be returning the first Friday of every month to meet up with friends and just have an entertaining, chillout time (how very psy-trance of me lol).

*A btw: The next evening I went to Staten Island to celebrate my friend Asif's birthday (of Vampyre Lounge lore), and I bumped into Francine at the ferry. She was going to Asif's birthday party as well! We had an interesting and entertianing little chat about the scene and its sundry characters. Good times...and what a small world...