Jonny Numb

Part of what I enjoy about concert venues like Mickey’s Black Box and Phantom Power is the fact that they’re unassumingly nestled in the midst of Pennsylvania farm country.

Unlike Philly or Baltimore, which require heavy (and often stressful) freeway travel, reaching these tucked-away nooks of Lancaster County lead one on a journey of winding back roads and scenic, quiet countryside.

I went to Millersville University for a spell, and remember Phantom Power’s former existence as the Point of View Theatre (where I saw 21 Grams, Greenberg, and Moon). I remember the theater’s grudging reluctance in adapting to the online era, with their listings appearing in the weekend paper or via prerecorded phone message.

As a music venue, Phantom Power fills the gap left by Lancaster’s much-missed Chameleon Club (which shuttered shortly after COVID-19 swept the States), offering a modest enough space to create an intimate experience. The adjacent parking lot is also a plus.

And, for whatever reason, this location has become a popular tour stop for Goth and Industrial acts. I’ve seen Twin Tribes, Clan of Xymox, Front 242, The Mission UK, and PIG perform on the Phantom Power stage, which is pretty damn cool.

So when I caught wind that the excellent Goth act Rosegarden Funeral Party had scheduled a stop at PP on April 26, I pounced on a ticket and spent the drive to Millersville in a paradoxical state of relaxation and anticipation.

While the venue was sparsely populated (parking wasn’t an issue), the energy of the gathered crowd was immediately obvious. RFP frontwoman Leah Lane was onstage doing a DJ set at a little after 8. She revealed that one of the openers, Summore, was unable to make the show, thus the DJ’ing where their set would have been.

I knew nothing of the other opener, Trigger Discipline (except that I loved their name).

Now: there are times when going in cold to new music yields results that border on the otherworldly – filling the soul and mind with that subjective, synapse-sparking transference that only music can provide – leaving you gobsmacked and, ideally, bettered by the fact that you bore witness to something so unique.

TD’s setup was curious: a cool-looking, old-school nightclub microphone and a saxophone, propped up and ready to go. As singer-saxophonist Alyssa Gallagher and guitarist Jae Yahkel Estes tuned up and got their lighting rig in order, I realized I’d held the door for them as they followed me into the venue.

Their set began with distorted dialog samples and screeching, droning guitar. Then Gallagher’s banshee-like vocals kicked in as she began a kaiju-esque pantomime of city-crushing destruction, turning Trigger Discipline’s performance into a full-body experience. Dressed all in red (including platform sneakers), the frontwoman’s intent was clear: total obliteration of the gathered crowd.

As I watched – swaying from side to side, my head lolling and swimming within the intoxicating noisescape – I was reminded of other times unconventional musicians blew me away: Pharmakon and Harpy in particular. I admire the fearlessness and defiance in coloring outside the artistic lines.

“Controlled chaos” would be a good descriptor.

Gallagher left the stage on two occasions, venturing into the crowd and laying prostrate on the floor as her screams reverberated throughout the room.

What’s interesting is how Trigger Discipline’s set gradually, subtly wandered afield from its noisy beginnings and culminated in the poppy, overtly dancey (yet lyrically acerbic) single, “Babble Babble Babble.” The set ended with an unexpectedly reverent (and relevant) rendition of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up” which found Gallagher in the audience once more, shrieking the lyrics and giving a couple people (myself included) the chance to sing along.

Their performance floored me in a way that made me thankful to be sharing the space with a small yet dedicated and open-minded crowd. Even as Gallagher and Estes marched through their set with sludgy, infectious energy, I found myself overwhelmed with melancholy over the fact that it had to end.

If that isn’t a sign of great art, I don’t know what is.

I have stated my love and admiration for Rosegarden Funeral Party elsewhere, but it always bears repeating. The more I listen to Lane’s impassioned and vulnerable vocals and spastic guitar, and Dean Adams’ precision drumming, the more I feel they’re carrying the torch of ’80s and ’90s “Goth” – the stuff I was weaned on through many Cleopatra Records compilations in my late-‘teens and early twenties. The musicianship is tight and the tunes catchy, while the lyrics are soul-searching, thought-provoking, and sincere.

Awesomely enough, Gallagher reappeared onstage to play sax on RFP’s “Doorway Ghost.”

After the show, I fanboyed to Gallagher at the merch table, and she even nudged me toward purchasing a blazer she’d repurposed with a TD design on the back. Estes stated, “I’m surprised no one else picked that one up – business in front, party in back!” (As an aside, Goodwill blazers outfitted with buttons were once my preferred show attire.) I said, perhaps too loudly, that I would wear it to Wave Gotik Treffen in June. I also picked up their American Gothicc LP and the Babble Babble Babble 7″.

I don’t even have a decent record player right now, so that also speaks volumes for how much I loved TD’s set.

As Lane and Adams had dashed off the stage to meet fans at the merch table, I waited in line to share my appreciation of them coming to Millersville and mentioning the times I saw them at Dark Force Fest (2023) and last year’s tour with The March Violets. They mentioned they had played a previous edition of Wave Gotik Treffen, but there was a four-year moratorium on repeat performances(?). That said, they gushed about the experience and seemed nostalgic for the time spent in Leipzig, which helped raise my own enthusiasm toward the impending adventure.

In conclusion: a great Saturday night of discovery and catharsis!