On January 28th my wife
and I made it out to Tampa to see Norwegian musician Mortiis in concert (a
special thanks to my mother-in-law and father-in-law for watching the baby). As
I’ve written on this blog before, his album The Smell of Rain is one of
the defining albums of my teens, when I mostly listened to Black Metal. But
the thing is, that’s the only album of his in that exact genre (sort of
industrial/darkwave). His music got heavier from then on, becoming industrial
metal, until recently. In 2001 when The Smell of Rain came out it
signaled a dynamic shift for Mortiis, as he had spent most of the 1990’s
creating music that today has come to be known as Dungeon Synth. This music has
few if any lyrics, and is a kind of dark ambience with gothic and medieval-sounding
melodies. A lot of people use this type of music as soundtracks to their Dungeons
and Dragons games, to give you an idea of what it’s like. Mortiis gave an interview recently
detailing the falling out he had with his band and with more than one manager,
all of which led to him revisiting his roots and returning to the style of
music he made in the 1990’s, now that the Dungeon Synth genre has more of a
wider audience (wider than in the 90’s at least, it’s still pretty underground).
I’ve been open-minded enough to enjoy pretty much anything Mortiis puts out.
Not everyone is though.
The concert was held at The Orpheum in
Ybor City, which is a neighborhood in Tampa once known for its Cuban immigrant
community and cigars, now known for its nightclubs. Nearby is The Castle, one
of the too-few dedicated Goth nightclubs still in existence. So Ybor City
itself is important to the Goth community. And it's reasonable to think that
there are Goths who probably have enough money and time to show up to any concert
at The Orpheum no matter who is performing, and thus maybe don’t even do a lot
of research on the acts that are performing; under the assumption that if they’re playing at The
Orpheum, they’ll be right up their alley anyway. What’s more is that the concert
was sponsored by Communion After Dark, a podcast that plays modern dark
electro, EBM, darkwave, etc. I’ve listened to a lot of their back catalog going back to 2008, I haven’t listened to every episode, but I’m pretty sure
they’ve never played Dungeon Synth. So, the concert was going to attract a
certain crowd, with certain musical preferences. I’m not sure it was the right
crowd. I’m sure they’d at least heard of Mortiis, but perhaps they only knew
him for his industrial metal. Thus, they were completely blindsided when he
performed Dungeon Synth instead. That must be why half the crowd left before
the concert was done.
To begin with, the opening acts
couldn’t have been more different from each other and from Mortiis. First we
had Gulf Blvd., a dark electronic band who sounded pretty good. They didn’t play for
very long but I think they show promise. Next up was Tomb, an extremely
heavy, screaming metal band. Now I’ve enjoyed pretty heavy music before (have a
listen to Dornenreich), particularly in my teen years, but I like it better
when there’s at least a melody. Tomb was just not cup of tea, I’m
not here to complain about any of the acts. It struck me as odd that the genres
of the two opening acts were so different, but people were here to see Mortiis
mainly, so they stuck around.
It took a long time for Mortiis to
set up after the end of Gulf Blvd.’s act, but for good reason. Stage hands
brought out banners, dead tree props, and a big synthesizer, making the stage
look like winter in medieval Norway.
Mortiis walked wordlessly onto the
stage, wearing his famous troll mask and sporting long dreadlocks, with much
fanfare from the crowd. He did not acknowledge them. He merely walked up to the
synthesizer and remaining completely stoic, played his dark ambient Dungeon
Synth, with charcoal sketches of castles, dragons and witches projected behind
him.
He never said a single word the entire concert. It was all about
atmosphere. In my last blog entry I talked a little about the wrestler The
Undertaker. He originally was a lot like this too. He’d come out to the ring
with traditional funeral music, put on a grim look, never show any kind of
emotion or respond to the cheers of the crowd (and incidentally The Undertaker
would go through many different eras and change his look and personality
repeatedly, just like Mortiis, only to return to his roots later, so it’s a
good analogy). Mortiis was doing something similar to that.
Mortiis went from song to song. He
did raise his fist to the crowd’s cheers a couple of times, but that was the
full extent of his interaction with the crowd. And when he was done, he just
walked off the stage. A few fans wanted an encore, but he didn’t come back. I
think people were put off by this. I wondered if it was because so many people had left before the concert ended that he left so unceremoniously. My wife brought up a good point. I don’t
know a whole lot about Norwegian culture, but it might have been a cultural
thing. Americans have been brought up to expect flawless customer service from
everyone they give their money to. I know this well enough, having worked in
call centers. They’re entitled. When you pay somebody, they owe you
and are expected to go above and beyond. “The customer is always right” and all
that. I think for example of Aurelio Voltaire, an American singer (whose music
really defies genre but leans mostly goth). At every concert of his I’ve been
to, he goes to his merch booth before and after his performance, talks to the
fans, signs their CD’s and takes pictures with them. He goes above and beyond
what most musicians do for their fans. This is the sort of thing Americans expect.
I recall something similar happening when I saw the German band Project
Pitchfork in San Francisco with Ayria, where after the last song they just up
and left without saying a word; although they did get talked into doing
an encore after the crowd got loud enough. Although they were a lot less stoic
than Mortiis, maybe it’s a European thing to not act quite so indebted to ones’
fans.
But by the time the concert had
ended, most of the crowd was already gone, for what I think was a combination
of the genre not being what fans expected to hear because they didn’t do their
research, and Mortiis’ stoicism and lack of interaction with the audience. Now
I personally didn’t mind any of this at all. I could see that Mortiis was
trying to create an atmosphere. I really felt like I was in wintery medieval
Norway, as I listened to the calm ambient music. It was a welcome break from
being in Florida where any temperature under 70 Fahrenheit is unusually cold. I
thought the performance was awesome, personally. I loved the set design and the
artwork that was projected in the background. It would have been weird if
Mortiis suddenly shouted “Hello TAMPA!!!”. It wouldn’t have worked. It would
have clashed with the energy of the performance.
I follow Mortiis on social media, so I already
had an idea about what I was going to get. I heard he was going back to his
original style. I mean it would have been nice to hear him sing some of my
favorites, but I understand. All of his merch was based on his old music too.
No The Smell of Rain or The Grudge in sight. It was all either
his old albums from the 1990’s or his brand-new album in the same style,
released just this month. I picked up a couple cassettes as souvenirs too.
The one on the right is his new album, Spirit of Rebellion.
Thing of it is though, I think
people expected this Mortiis:
But got this Mortiis:
And yes, this is basically what the concert I was at sounded like.
Anyway, the concert gave me
something to think about, with regards to creators wanting to switch genres,
and what can happen as a result. I admire Mortiis for just doing whatever he
wants to do and not caring what anybody thinks. He doesn’t choose the easiest
path, but he chooses the path that feels right to him. If you read his recent
interview, he doesn’t have an easy life. But he still does what he wants to do,
makes the art he wants to make. I want to be that way myself. I want to write
in different genres and do whatever strikes my creative fancy while making a
living off my art. I find him to be rather inspirational. Something I aspire to
be. He’s one of my heroes, in that way.
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