This weekend I saw Emilie Autumn live in Nottingham with my good friend Sarah (she stayed over for the weekend and we had such a good time – we talked about feminism, good and bad university experiences, romance, music, and loads more ♥ ).
After a pit stop at Wagamama we headed over to the gig in Rock City, where we immediately bought some merchandise, including a copy of Emilie’s new book, The Asylym For Wayward Victorian Girls. I’ve been reading it this morning and I’m thoroughly enjoying it so far. The gig itself, however, was pretty disappointing. The main drawback for me was the fact that most of the music we heard came from a backing track and not from live instruments as we expected. Sadly, even most of the violin and harpsichord sound came from the backing track, as during one song she started off playing the harpsichord, and halfway through the song she got up and the harpsichord was still playing! She played a violin solo at one point (Face the Wall) which definitely was live because the distorted violin sound was buzzy and harsh, but when she played violin in other songs (e.g. Liar) the violin sound was exactly the same as it was on the album (that is, much clearer and less buzzy), which gave me the impression that she was just miming along (although in Liar she did play the intro live, and the rest of the song sounded like the album). Not only that, but the sound lacked any impact whatsoever; it sounded tinny and rumbly, like they’d cut out all the mid frequencies. I appreciate that a lot of the electronic/industrial music on the album would be difficult to recreate live, so I understand why she chose to sing over the recorded version of I Want My Innocence Back, for example. But with songs such as Misery Loves Company and The Art of Suicide, I can’t see why she couldn’t have recreated it using live instruments.
I also assumed that her backing band “The Bloody Crumpets” would play instruments, but in fact all they did was dance, flirt performatively, and spit tea into the audience. At one point Veronica mimed along to a recorded version of Unlaced on the harpsichord while Emilie played the violin part, but that was the most we got. I personally think it would’ve been a better gig if she had an actual backing band who played instruments with her, even if they only played the classical instruments on the album (cello, violins, harpsichord) and provided some backing vocals.
Another aspect of the show that bothered me was the amount of time they spent talking, flirting, kissing, joking around and playing silly ‘games’ (including the stupid “Rat Game” where Veronica brings a girl from the audience on stage and kisses her) – I would estimate that they spent as much time talking as they did singing/performing. It just all felt very contrived and pointless, and that whole “I wanna kiss a girl…” thing that they all kept doing just made me uncomfortable. It didn’t feel like an honest expression of queerness, it felt like it was all just for show, and I kept thinking “please just play another song instead!”
There were some things I enjoyed about the gig: the set looked gorgeous, they all had great stage presence, and there was great merchandise on sale, even if I could only afford the book and a poster. I had a look on the EA forum this evening and everyone there loved the show, so each to her own I suppose.  I prefer a great musical performance to a great burlesque performance, so maybe Emilie’s shows just aren’t for me. Sarah and I were both reluctant to criticise the show at first in case the other person enjoyed it, but thankfully we both felt the same way! Still, I was glad that we went and got to see Emilie live, it was certainly an interesting experience. ♥
This blog post has totally cheered me up after having a shitty day! & yay, I’m glad the weekend lifted your mood 🙂
I’m actually really dreading writing a review of the gig after looking at the EA forums last night haha; I fear they might all attack me! Ah well, can’t please everyone, right?
It sounds like the counselling is going quite well, I had similar discussions with my counsellor… talking through everything and putting it all into perspective helped me in the long run, so I’m sure it’s doing some good 🙂 & if you play some gigs in the summer, I’m totally going to be there!
I might come back to this post & comment again, my brain is seriously fried at the moment haha.
love love xxxxx
I’m glad this cheered you up; I hope the rest of your week gets better.
Yeah, I was half-scared that I’d get attacked for this post by EA fans, but like I said above, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Other people loved it for the burlesque aspect, and that’s fine by me. I still think EA is a really cool artist. You should totally write a review, you’d do a much better job than me as well, haha. I don’t know quite enough about sound to word my thoughts properly, so it’s not as good a review as I’d hoped.
Aw, thanks for offering to come and watch me perform, you’re too good to me. Alas, I think I’ll need some support! 🙂
Oh, and by the way, the reason I didn’t write much about what we did/talked about was because I wanted to keep that private and between us. 🙂
[…] we shared about the show. Before I elaborate on my opinions, you might want to take a look at her review (scroll down to fifth paragraph), which I agree with […]
Hey! I’ve just found your blog through your other site links, and I think you might be my new inspiration! I completely agree about Valentine’s Day getting wrecked because of that you-didn’t-buy-me-something-so-you-don’t-love-me crap. I’ve gotten hugs for Christmas that I’ve appreciated just as much as any other gift.
Also, I really like how honest you are about your inner thoughts/counselling session. I had started seeing a counsellor regularly back home (Canada) before I came here, and it still amazes me how much better I started feeling about a lot of my issues. I doubt I’ll be able to talk about them as candidly as you can for a long time, though, so kudos for that bit of strength.
Love the blog!
Cheers,
Meghan
Aw, thanks so much, I’m glad you like reading my blog. 🙂
<3
Just back from the EA show in Bournemouth – and hated it, for all the reasons you say. For a show where all the music came from a CD the sound was poor. For a “band” who don’t actually have to play, most of them couldn’t really dance, and the whole thing was just a cheap/lame copy of stuff that’s been done before – many times and much better.
It SHOULD be great, but it’s just not very
[…] Counselling, friendships and EA gig review! February 2010 7 comments […]