By: Chris Chriswell
One would think that the night of Jan. 24, 1997 in Asbury Park, New Jersey was a Gothic holiday. The temperature held a windy 40 degrees and the rain persistently battered a small club known as the Stone Pony. Scantily clad 14+ year old little girls and their boyfriends dressed all in black and scarily painted faces romped and ranted about as my friends and I entered the club. The smell of opium scented perfume, clove cigarettes, sweetly smelling marijuana, hair spray, and warm leather saturated the club with an essence so dark you could taste it. Suddenly, the lights dimmed, and many pairs of darkly mascara-ed eyes and the black dyed, stringy haired head they were attached to swivelled to foucus on the stage. An all-girl swedish Alice in Chains type band called Drain took the stage. Many of the black leather clad youngsters emitted sounds of disappointment. They weren't here to see Swedish grunge metal, or industrial noise (Sister Machine Gun), and neither was I. (Although every member of Drain was gorgeously beautiful.) What all of these white faced, pale skinned teenagers were here to see was a portion of Type O Negative's North American invasion.
The Drain performance lasted roughly a mere 25-30 minutes. After a 10 minute break, Sister Machine Gun, a half-assed industrial band took the stage. After about an hour (most of which was songs from a forthcoming album) SMG left the stage to give way to the Gods of Goth.
After about a half hour and many chants of 'You Suck, You Suck,' the stage was filled with a sea of billowing fog eerily lit with red track lights. Keyboards were predominant for about five minutes, and then I realized that this was the live version of "The Glorious Liberation of the users's Technocratic Republic of Vinnland by the Combined Forces of the United Territories of Europa."(take a breath now) As the instrumental ended and the next song proceeded, bass player/vocalist Pete Steele emerged full force from the fog and under a green light. His hair was tied underneath an olive green military hat and his arms were bare from a wife-beater style (tank top) dark green shirt. Many goth girls and potential 'Little Miss Scare-Alls' screamed at the top of their lungs and flocked to the stage, mascara running from teary eyes as Pete moaned his way through 'Love You to Death,' and 'Green Man.'
After theses three fine selections, Steele took a few breaths, and spoke a few muffled words to the crowd. He was right on top of the mic, so the only words that were the least bit understandable were, "this is, uhhhh, this is a song titled Christian Woman." Never in my life have I heard so many girls SCREAM at the same time!!! Anyway, this was definitely the most beautiful performance of this song that I have ever seen or heard. Everything (instrumentally) was right on key, and Pete's vocals were as incredible as ever!
After the triple sectioned song, Steele once again spoke to the crowd, this time removing his hat and letting his hair pour down over his shoulders. After looking around a bit, he said, "I can see that you're all getting restless, (points to the area where I'm standing) even you guys back there (raises his hand) yeah, I see you. Well, we're gonna play some of the heavy shit now, but please try not to kick the pretty little girls in the face, alright? (crowd roars in agreement) The point is not to hurt each other, alright? (crowd roars again)
The keyboards were then fired up again, and the drums kicked a tribal beat ; 'Fay Wray Come Out and Play.' Goths and other headbangers then moshed their way through 'Kill All the White users,' and an unfamiliar Black Sabbath cover. Every so often (throughout the show), the band would shout "Too late for apologies!!," play part of 'Too Late: Frozen,' and rumble into another song. Anyway, after '...White users,' Type O trucked through a menagerie of songs from Bloody Kisses ('Set Me On Fire,' 'Bloody Kisses,' 'Too Late: Frozen') and October Rust ('My Girlfriend's Girlfriend,' 'Red Water,' 'Wolf Moon')
There was a humorous moment in the show when the band bounced their way through an all too familiar Doors cover, 'Light My Fire.' Afterwards, Steele towered over the mic and stated, "Well, we figured nobody else can do the Doors justice like we can. So basically, if you wanted to take a piss or shit, then that was the time to do it." Once again, the crowd roared, and the show carried on.
Type O closed out the show with the epic 'Black No.1.' Of course there was a sing-along and the mosh pit festered one last time sending Type O Negative out on their next invasion, and happy band. As everyone filtered to the exits, I shouldered my way down near the stage to purchase a t-shirt, and then my friends and I were on our tired way back home.
Overall, the Type O show was incredible. The most breathtaking performances were (in my opinionated order) : 'Christian Woman,' 'Love You to Death,' 'Wolf Moon,' 'My Girlfriend's Girlfriend,' and 'Black No.1.' Even the stage, which consisted a mini-theme of October Rust was set up rather elaborately with roses and their thorny stems, threading their way across the amps and mics. On a scale of 1-10, the show deserves a 9.5 (I took off .5 because the club was tiny, and a fat guy stood in front of me most of the time, only allowing me to see Pete Steele). Anyway, if you get the chance to see the 'Vinnland Invasion,' take advantage of the chance!! The show they put on is an incredible hallmark!
The setlist:
Chris
Return to the '97 US Tour, part 1 or read the next review of this show.