On
May 2ed, I went with Carol to the Temple
Bar Music Centre to see The Dresden
Dolls play. They were a two two-piece band from
Boston made up of singer/pianist Amanda Palmer and drummer/occasional guitarist
and vocalist Brian Viglione. They described their style as "Brechtian punk
cabaret", and had exposed an underground Dark Cabaret movement that gained momentum in 2005. Amanda's mad
lyrics reminded me of that other Boston band Throwing Muses who I also loved. But their style was very much
their own. Along with The Libertines,
and Babyshambles - The Dresden Dolls had been our favourite
band since we started going out together a year before. It's funny the way I
would always associate certain people and certain times in my life with certain
bands. I would always associate my happy times with Carol with the music of The Dresden Dolls and The Libertines.
I had not been to a major gig in over two
years when I saw Morrissey, and I
have to say I had to laugh at being surround by so many young Goths, Emo girls
and Punks considering by then I was old enough to be their father! That said
there were many beautiful Goths that I knew I would have loved to paint. Carol
took photographs of some of them, and later in the year I would use these
photographs to produce studies in watercolour. Carol and I got pleasantly drunk
and saw the support band - the name of which I can't remember. Then The Dresden Dolls came on. They were
absolutely brilliant. What a racket they made! Brian the drummer was fierce and
he was very sexy! Amanda dressed in a tatty old T-shirt was beautiful - I completely
fell in love with her. It is not that she was that beautiful but her talent and
craziness wowed me! Her vocals ranged from the most beautiful softly spoken to
the most ear piercing screams. In a music world of such commercial and mindless
crap - I thanked god that there were still musicians with soul, style and
intelligence like The Dresden Dolls!