MY FAVORITE ROADBURN 2013 MEMORIES
A FOREST OF STARS
Victorian eclectics A FOREST OF STARS
are a special band and if there is an audience that can fully appreciate their
uniqueness and intensity, this is it. They performed the entire “A Shadowplay
for Yesterdays”, which dark and gripping story was illustrated by the visuals
of Ingram Blakelock, author of the stunning video for “The Gatherer of the
Pure”. The novelty was that the original guitarist and founder-member Mr. T.S.
Kettleburner was rejoining the Gentlemen's Club, reclaiming the position finely held for a couple of
years by Sir Gastrix Grimshaw. As the show went on, as emotional and gripping
as expected, I had the chance to observe once again the different and
interesting personalities who make this band frankly great. If Katheryne, Queen of the Ghosts, is delightful and graceful, and The Gentleman
and Henry Hyde are both very intriguing for different
reasons, watching vocalist Mr. Curse performing is truly something incredible…
He seems to be physically possessed by a tormented, frightened, angry alter-ego
on the verge of psychological collapse and about to transcend towards a
dimension too bleak and powerful to imagine. He doesn’t move much, and I do not
believe that it is because of lack of space (there are 7 musicians on stage for
AFOS). I imagine it is because he feels as if an impending implosion of dark
energy is about to happen: he scratches his skin and tightens his fists as if a
monstrous, inhuman force was pushing from within to come out. His scrawny face,
when lit up by the stage lights, is no longer that of the amiable, withdrawn
guy from Leeds: it turns into the archetype of an ageless, tortured being
fighting against the darkest of human emotions. Because of that, and because of
the flow of engaging music, AFOS are a sublime act to experience, and when “The
Gatherer of the Pure” and “Corvus Corona” hit their breathtaking highs, the
crowd responded with one of the warmest ovations of the entire fest.
I hope this b/w sequence of pics can give you a hint of the spectacle that AFOS gave us.
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