Photo courtesy of Stephanie Marlow PR
Attending a Drab Majesty performance is the closest one is likely to get to a sacrament for the occult. In fact, the only thing missing as Deb DeMure (the androgynous alter-ego of singer/guitarist Andrew Clinco), and Mona D. (singer/keyboardist Alex Nicolaou), took to the Crescent Ballroom stage was a cloaked thurifer leading the way. Demure admitted as much when catching up briefly after a 2017 show promoting last album, The Demonstration (Dais Records). “I am just a channel for the songs; a vessel”, while pointing up when asked where Drab Majesty songs originate. Leading the way on this balmy July evening in Phoenix, the duo opened with the new record’s first track, “A Dialogue” and its trance-inducing, swirling guitar work and vocal layering, essentially capturing the crowd’s attention immediately. The band’s effective use of theatrics on full display with the duo appearing in futuristic silver costumes, hair, face paint and dark eye shades.
Drab Majesty leans heavily on ‘80s New Wave synthesizer influences like New Order on the following “The Other Side” with its fundamental guitar melody despite being one of the most energetic tracks on their latest LP, Modern Mirror (Dais Records). Having recorded the new album in Athens, Greece, it is only an organic transference to infuse greek mythology (particularly Publius Ovidius Naso’s story of Narcissus), with the pair’s already solid influences of cults, alternative religions and science fiction. Mona D. took the helm on lead vocals for the whimsical, dance floor beat pulses of “Oxytocin” with its calls for reckless abandon in the pursuit of everlasting love. Ovid’s classic antiquarian myth permeating the new record’s modern reinterpretation.
“Out of Sequence”, being the new record’s capstone, gave the Phoenix crowd reason to dance with its drum-machine snap while DeMure’s desolate vocal delivery somehow balancing with the song’s polar-opposite, almost optimistic guitar work. Reaching back to 2015’s debut LP for Dais Careless, the pair gave a rousing rendition of “Everything Is Sentimental” with its fast tempo and astral vocal vibe that kept the audience in a celebratory mood. Drab Majesty continued with tracks from 2017’s The Demonstration that gave the setlist some equilibrium. “39 By Design” embodies the group’s fascination for the occult having been written about the Heaven’s Gate cult with lyrics awash in melancholy reflection amid somber guitar tones. The dark wave swell of “Too Soon To Tell”, industrial thumping of “Kissing the Ground” and atmospherics of “Dot in the Sky” gave doses of what makes Drab Majesty and it’s self-described “tragic wave” such an intriguing listen. The biggest ovation came courtesy of their closer “Cold Souls”, where the duo’s imposing, otherworldly appearance clashed with the track’s lengthly, lullaby intro before cascading into it’s ethereal melody only to eventually fade into an angelic When you were dead / I took you by your head chorus. And like that, the duo faded into the darkness of the smoke machine haze from whence they came.
Your turn Europe:
9/18/2019 – London, UK at Dingwalls
9/19/2019 – Manchester, UK at Soup Kitchen (with Tashi Wada Group)
9/20/2019 – Glasgow, SCT at Broadcast
9/21/2019 – Leeds, UK at Wharf Chambers
9/22/2019 – Cardiff, WAL at Clwb Ifor Bach
9/24/2019 – Paris, FR at Petit Bain
9/30/2019 – Köln, DE at Bumann & SOHN
10/1/2019 – Wiesbaden, DE at Kulturzentrum Schlachthof Wiesbaden e.V.
10/2/2019 – München, DE at Muffatwerk
10/3/2019 – Leipzig, DE at Conne Island
10/4/2019 – Hannover, DE at Bei Chez Heinz
10/5/2019 – Berlin, DE at BI NUU
10/15/2019 – Hamburg, DE at Uebel & Gefährlich
10/16/2019 – København V, DK at VEGA – Musikkens Hus, Lille VEGA
10/17/2019 – Goteborg, SE at Musikens Hus Stora Scen
10/18/2019 – Oslo, NO at Blå
10/19/2019 – Johanneshov, SE at Hus 7
10/20/2019 – Malmö, SE at Plan B
10/22/2019 – Poznań, PL at Pod Minogą
10/24/2019 – Warszawa, PL at Hydrozagadka
10/25/2019 – Prague, CZ at Klub 007
10/26/2019 – Bratislava, SK at Kulturák klub
10/28/2019 – Budapest, HU at Dürer Kert
10/29/2019 – Wien, AT at Arena
10/30/2019 – Lubijana, SL at Gromka
10/31/2019 – Vicenza, IT at Vinilie
11/1/2019 – Martigny, CH at Caves du Manoir
11/2/2019 – Ravenna, IT at Bronson
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