"The Black & Violet Masquerade"

"The Black & Violet Masquerade"

Everyone who's anyone is here
And anything you'd ever want is near
One thing to remember let's be clear
It over if you show them any fear

Somebody told me it's only a game
But I feel so lonely inside of this place
While we're playing dressup on the stage
I wanted to tell you, I wanted to say

Don't ever fade, don't ever fade
Even if they offer you the world don't ever fade
Into the black & violet maquerade
Into the black & violet maquerade

Pomp and Circumstance is being played
Everybody wants to see you dance to the funeral serenade
Forget the empty promises they made
Death for decadence is an unworthy trade

Nobody told me the price that you pay
And they kill you slowly for talking this way
This isn't the hit parade; it's an open grave
Now everybody's watching, let's be brave and come what may
Don't ever fade...

Devils in every direction and no earthly protection
I turned around to find you ran away
You should have stayed

You should have stayed, you should have stayed
It was you and me together all the way
But you ran away, and I felt betrayed
You should have stayed

Everyone who's anyone is here
And no one knows if no one shows their fear
I know you're still out there somewhere
If you're listening, if you still care

Don't ever fade...

Into the black & violet maquerade
Into the black & violet maquerade
The black & violet maquerade
The black & violet maquerade
The black & violet maquerade
The black & violet maquerade


This song probably makes less sense now that people can actually understand the lyrics but I like it and I enjoyed writing it:)

The Show 2.14

The Show was a success largely in part to Susan and Hutch over at The Well who helped get all the technical stuff worked out. Nicolette did a great set and helped out with my stuff as well. Niki sold some masks which was awesome and the show was good timing in and of itself because the next day I was too sick to move so I'm glad we got to did everything we planned to do for Valentine's Day before I got the plague. Don't worry about me; I'm still a little under the weather but I'll be just fine:)

This is the setlist. We were going to do "Sweet Dreams" with the cello and the keyboard but technical difficulties made it a little too much to ask for so I just did that one with the techno set:) Overall, I was really happy with the way things went musically and I'm looking forward to growing the whole synth-pop Dream Machine aspect of my music right now:) Also, I don't have a picture of it yet but I unveiled the Phonohedron which is this cool thing I made with guitars and keyboards and a big metal face in the middle of it but more about that later...

You can find out more about Niki's masks and other clothing at www.myspace.com/stretchercase and you can even comission a mask to your specific likings:) The next show will be bigger and better, I promise! I will leave you with some pictures I stole from Ann Kraynak Rodriguez's facebook page. She took some cool pictures that night and I want you to see just how awesome I looked and I will do that through the art of taking someone else's photos from the internets. Hopefully she won't press charges:

Exibit A=


and Exibit B =


I also promised the lyrics to the new song "The Black & Violet Masquerade" and I'll get those up on here in the next couple of days. Thanks to everyone who came out to the show and I hope to see everyone soon at the next gig which is yet to be announced!

Cheers and happy V-Day!

Hell Box

So I'm getting ready for the show this Saturday at The Well and I'm trying to get some things in order that have needed to be done for a while, not the least of which is an overhaul for Hell Box.

Hell Box is a small box that we kept a bunch of stuff in for the band like extension cords, quarter inches, tri-prongs etc., and it was named for the horrible, jagged, metal edges that would rip your flesh when you tried to move it. It wasn't always an evil box; it just took a lot of abuse and over time developed sharp metal spikes. It's predecessor, Hell Trunk was actually a pretty dangerous little trunk with pieces of rusty, spiky metal everywhere and we actually left it out for people to put tips in...very carefully.

Then there was Hell Box and now it's covered with black duct tape so it's looking better these days. I can't seem to find the lid which at this point is actually the bottom of the box. It somehow got turned upside down so the lid must be locked at all times or the contents will spill out everywhere. I honestly don't remember how that happened.

The best thing about going through Hell Box was looking at a few historical items of Seth Boulton & The Dream Machine that had been left behind in our trail of destruction. I wanted to share these with you now:



The first thing is a setlist from when we played Xhedos Cafe in Ferndale Michigan. I wasn't going to wear makeup for this acoustic show but Stacey, my drummer's twin sister's partner, seemed disappointed so I ended up wearing makeup.

Here's the other side of the flyer for the show.



Notice this was before the new logo for the band was done. I don't think Xhedos exists anymore. Although I'm pretty sure Laura and I had coffee at the same place under a new name last time I was in Detroit. They still have a stage and do acoustic shows.



This set list was for a show we did in Greenboro I'm pretty sure. Or maybe it was The Spot. Before it closed or course. We've played a lot of places that have changed names or closed. I don't think it was our fault but there is a disturbing correlation.




It's kind of hard to read but this one's pretty funny, it's a list that Nicolette made of all of the songs we did. I don't think we ever played all them at once but we might have. We never played "Cannon Ball" more than a couple of times and there are some covers on there that I'd kind of like to work up again.

Also in Hell Box was some electrical tape, a bunch of Underground CD's, a copy of The Cure's greatest hits, some sunscreen which we always tried to never be without and the best item of all:



This is the emergency stick of Secret deodorant from the bottom of Hell Box. It's been everywhere from Detroit to Nashville and I'm pretty sure everyone in the band has used it at least once although I'm not positive and I don't know how you'd prove something like that. Still, that's what I'm putting in the description when it goes on eBay.

Well, Hell Box is looking good, things are a little more organized and I feel like I've really accomplished something today. Plus I've had lots of fun with the new scanner today. Today was a good day.