Show Review: Emilie Autumn and The Birthday Massacre, the Crofoot, Nov. 22

Putting the Birthday Massacre and Emilie Autumn on the same bill was a stroke of gothic genius as fans witnessed a show that both rocked and went overboard with theatrics at the Crofoot last Friday night. The show started early, in fact, too early for me as I arrived a few songs into the Birthday Massacre’s set which featured songs from their past decade of music. I have seen Birthday Massacre play Pike Room the past few years so it was nice to see them get a large stage to really showcase their set. It was easy to see there were fans to see both bands as TBM trademark bunny ears were spotted and loud cheers after each song. They played a tight 50 minute set wrapping things up with “In the Dark” from their last album “Pins and Needles”.

It took nearly an hour to set up Emilie Autumn’s elaborate stage set which resembled a scene outside a gothic insane asylum. Emilie puts on a stage show in the literal sense so there was no backing band, only Emilie and two of her “Bloody Crumpets”. The Bloody Crumpets are Emilie’s stage partners and they are as much a part of the show as she is, sharing vocals and interacting with Emilie throughout the show. Her Bloody Crumpets for this tour are the Naughty Veronica and Amalthea. The performance included several songs from Emilie Autumn’s latest album “Fight Like A Girl.” Other parts of the show involved a reading of fan fiction with Naughty Veronica acting out parts of the fiction and some crowd participation as 2 crowd members with unicorn horns were pulled onstage to share in a kiss.  While parts of the show may have dragged on a little longer than welcomed, the entire show was an extravagant display of burlesque and vaudeville entertainment.

You can see more photos from the show at my flickr page.

Post by Mikel O.D. of MPAD Media.