Jonny Numb

“So…about the bands that played Dark Force Fest, yeah?”

Good “art” doesn’t exist to pander to the whims of an audience; it exists to exist.

“Hey…was that directed at me, Slavoj Zizek?”

One can apply this philosophy to the wide variety of musicians and genres on display at Dark Force Fest. Out of all who played, I can think of only one that a handful of people off the street might recognize by name (Combichrist).

As with Kinetik, Triton, and Cold Waves, DFF is designed to celebrate “outsider” tastes in a manner free from the elitism and snobbery that mars some music scenes. From what I could tell, the majority of ticket-holders were there simply to have a good time and blow off some Real-World steam.

That said, I will start by addressing the elephant in the (Grand Ball)room via a comment I left on the DFF Facebook page following the fest. I tried to make my criticism as constructive as possible, but I’ll let you be the judge…

I know these takes aren’t popular, especially when most folks are simply happy to have the opportunity to attend an event like this. I get it, especially if you have a tough work schedule or need to book a flight to get to NJ and back. But the over-arching point is: the bands and fans alike deserve a professionally-run festival for their hard-earned money.

Having your stomach turn in dread of technical SNAFUs that might transpire during a band’s set is not appealing…so I can only imagine what the bands who played on Saturday and Sunday were thinking when they witnessed one sound-related clusterfuck after another on Friday.

Additionally, it wasn’t until Day 2 (during The Rain Within’s laser-gloved set) that event staff turned off the lights for the second-stage performances, which helped cut down on some loud and/or drunken sidebar conversations being yelled over the bands.

So yeah…once you get past all that, it was a good weekend, and for as Debbie Downer as all of the above sounds, I am certainly glad I went. Even if Das Ich had to cancel due to illness, that’s like complaining that a mile-long buffet doesn’t have the one thing you really, really wanted.

I could easily write reams about all the little details of DFF, but in the interest of maintaining reader interest, I am going to keep my impressions as succinct as possible. Think of this from the perspective of a music lover dashing from one stage to the next, hoping to catch specific acts (which became more challenging as delayed start times due to “technical difficulties” threw the overall schedule out of sync).

So…Friday:

One can always depend on The Gothsicles to give any festival a proper kick-off; I think of them as the MAD Magazine of the current Industrial scene. Their lyrics range from videogames to animals to Lovecraftian beings. Check out their crowd-pleasing track dedicated to the legendary “Konami Code” below.

Meanwhile, on the smaller stage, Noir looked awfully hot under their masks and the heat lamps in the room. And, as I mentioned before, nobody thought to dim the lights.

I was enjoying their set, but also wanted to check out Moris Blak in the GB. I was fortunate enough to see him in Baltimore in 2022, and his album, The Irregularity of Being, has been in my steady rotation for over a year now. So, of course I was excited to introduce Lizard to his excellent live show (which incorporates a light-up mask and a metric ton of movie/anime clips).

So…here’s where things started to feel more blatantly amiss. In what would become a cosmic joke for nearly every act that played the GB over the weekend, a flustered sound guy raced back and forth between the soundboard and the stage (rinse, lather, repeat), tinkering with shit onstage and on the board, all while the bands tried their best to maintain professional composure.

As the DFF organizers haven’t publicly addressed these issues (at of the time of this post, anyway), and with my lack of technical knowledge (with the exception of having been to enough live shows to know when things sound fucked up), I’m not sure whether it was a problem with the hotel sound system or those running the sound.

I dunno…maybe a sound system that gets its heaviest workout during wedding-reception karaoke should be overhauled for the next festival.

Also, bands that had a visual component were mostly shut out that first day, with a Blue Screen Of Death periodically popping up at random points in sets.

Anyway…after cutting into a good chunk of his half-hour performance time, Moris Blak played an excellent set. And I’ll be seeing him in Delaware this summer (at a venue that has its shit together). Buy his album, it’s great!

Bile…now there’s an acid-reflux blast from the past! A staple of Goth/Industrial comps in the early 2000s, I never had the chance to see them live (I did, however, witness an incarnation of Pigface that featured screamer-songwriter Krztoff). Heavily distorted vocals are part of Bile’s style, but I still found myself asking Lizard, “is it supposed to sound like that, or are they getting buried in the mix?” On Saturday, they did an encore performance (to cover the gap left by Das Ich) where the sound was much better, and Krztoff’s vocals much “clearer.”

Oh, and I’d be remiss to not share this anecdote:

On Sunday, after dropping off some merch at Lizard’s car, we stepped into the hotel vestibule, where Krztoff and his bandmates were standing, bags packed and ready to go.

Me: “Hey, Bile – great set(s)! Are you coming back?”

Krztoff (deadpan, not missing a beat): “We’re leaving.”

We all shared a laugh and received an ambiguous response as to whether they were reforming for more tours/new music, or if DFF was just a one-off. Whatever the future may hold, I’m glad I got to see them.

I’d wanted to see Rabbit Junk since hearing their Project Nonagon album, but the beginning of their set was also mired in start-stop technical difficulties. At one point, they just started powering through a couple songs, but the output was horrible, which led to another lull of technical troubleshooting before they resumed the set proper (even though some annoying feedback was coming through the speakers). Despite this, I enjoyed their set – really great energy that got the room moving.

I dug what I saw of Bella Morte‘s set, but I somehow get them confused with Corpus Delecti and Corvus Corax (semantically, not musically). [shrug emoji]

I’ve seen Psyclon Nine a bunch of times at this point, and I’m always amazed at how singer-songwriter Nero Bellum can get a crowd moving. Considering the last P9 show I went to was woefully underattended, I imagine they were happy to be playing for a large audience again. That said, I’m far too old to get too close, since Nero always prods the crowd for “violence”…

This was at least my fourth time seeing headliners HEALTH, and I imagine they were more than a bit frustrated and skeptical based on how the prior acts had gone. (It also bears noting that someone else was at the soundboard for their set.) For most of the set, the room was shrouded in pitch-darkness; the only lights some flashing, burn-your-retinas blinders onstage. At one point, The Blue Screen Of Death that had appeared during Moris Blak’s set made a cameo, and one of the band members asked, “can someone turn this broke-ass thing off?”

If you have an opportunity to see them at a smaller venue (or any other festival), I’d say go for it. When they’re on their game, they kill live. Their co-headline tour with Perturbator last year was simply amazing.

Anyway…I’m tired (and so are you). Will pick up with the Saturday (April 1) lineup next.

To be continued…