o Cradle of Filth/Type O Negative/Moonspell @ Riviera Theater, 11/22, $28
Moonspell is my favorite out of the three bands, so it’s unfortunate they were first, but they still kicked ass. Luckily right when they started, a small group of Moonspell fanatics came up behind me, so I wasn’t the only one making noise in a sea of Cradle kiddies. Most people seemed totally unfamiliar with the band, but they got the crowd a little more involved as the set went on (which is good, since I think if you crossed CoF and TON, you’d get Moonspell). I always forget how good the drummer and guitarist are, since Moonspell isn’t a band that makes you think of instrumental prowess, but they’re great to see live. The bands aesthetic was much more “metal” than the last time I saw them. They played:

In and Above Men
From Lowering Skies
Vampiria
Opium
The Southern Deathstyle
Full Moon Madness

o Type O Negative was a full co-headliner, so they had a complete stage set-up, which was actually pretty cool. Drums and keyboards were split on either side of the stage, both on 5-foot high risers with chain-link fence and barbed wire in front of them. The backdrop was an old stone prison watchtower, and then they had big red spinning police lights and strobes. The intro music was “Bad Boys” (think “Cops”), and I half expected to see NWA come out to play a quick set. But no, it was the Type O guys, all dressed in orange prison jumpsuits. Peter’s bass strap was a steel chain and with his fu manchu and hair tied back with a bandana, he really fit the part and looked quite a bit like Lemmy. The unfortunate thing about all this was that they seemed to play music to fit the image, focusing a lot on their punk/speed metal songs rather than their more epic gothic side. That stuff is fun and all, but this was my first time seeing Type O, so I wouldn’t have minded some more of the wussy stuff. They still played “Love You to Death”, “Christian Woman”, and “Black #1” though, so that was enough to satisfy me.

o They had to totally tear down Type O’s stage, and then totally rebuild Cradle of Filth’s stage, so of course it took forever for CoF to get going. CoF had ramps and platforms and stuff, which was quite a bit to set up. The lights went down, and when they came back up, the band appeared with two gargoyles sitting on the platforms. After the first song, the gargoyles started to move, eek! They did that for a few songs, trying to frighten Dani, and then left. After another song, a guy with stilts on his arms and legs came walking giraffe-like onto the stage, with a scantily-clad woman riding on his back. They did some demonic sexual stuff with each other, and then the woman climbed up off his back onto a hanging curtain/rope. The band came back onstage and played a song with her twirling and twisting in the curtain 20 feet above the stage. Quite impressive, and the level of acrobatic professionalism was far above the writhing metal skanks they usually have on stage. Unfortunately, none of that could hide the fact that the music was boring as hell. Since I had just seen Dimmu Borgir, I was comparing the two in my head, and thinking that Dimmu has four or five guys in the band RIGHT NOW that can write great riffs, while it seems like in the million band members Cradle has been through, they haven’t been able to find even one guy who can write one. So I left after 6 or 7 songs.

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