Catching Up With Absolution Fest 2023: More Photos and Videos From Night 2
From Black Rose Burning through to Night Sins. Light Asylum gets their own follow-up next week.
So, if you were around these parts over the last 2 weeks, you’d know that I’ve been struggling with device storage issues, which have been the result of several factors. But, as of Monday night, I have everything. It shows that I’ve had these missing for quite some time.
This seems to have been an issue as far back as the Black Rose Burning and Double Eyelid pieces, but I also have fewer extras of those 2 bands because I was really tired and processing.
If you’re confused about what this is, go here: Post 1 of Absolution Fest 2023.
Each title is a link to the post in question, with a catch-up post specifically for a conversation about the Light Asylum piece from last Wednesday.
The week after, we start night 3 until we’re done.
For The Strange: Black Rose Burning and Double Eyelid at Absolution Fest 2023
Black Rose Burning
“Waking up and crying over your coffee is peak self-pity.”
“I didn’t want to put on flats or a pair of leggings; I wanted to look vaguely like a sexy spy.”
“I didn’t come here to plink my two coins in an animated jukebox—it’s offensive to musicians and other fans. Don’t you want some strange?”
“I came for the strange.”
“And now….you see where this began: a hyperactive mind, a hyperactive nervous system, and C-PTSD that complicates everything.”
Double Eyelid
“When the band ends one set, another band opens another.”
“If you’re the kind of reader that thinks I’m making it more complicated or dramatic than it really is, I have a really nice coloring book you can use at shows.”
Waiting In the Chateau of Hope: Astari Nite at Absolution Fest 2023...and The East Room in Nashville...and New World Brewery in Tampa...
I don’t have that much more of Astari Nite’s Absolution Fest 2023 because, as it turns out, I have a lot of live photos as opposed to regular photos or videos. Kinda weird, past me.
“I think our moment of astrology fixation is about looking for guidance outside of institutions as we know them, or, as far as we can, outside of them. When academia, science, psychoanalysis, capitalism, and whatever else, feel incomplete, we look for something else in the painful experiences—something that doesn’t break down our need to live in the present, but finds a way to reflect on our past and impact our future.
I know. It sounds like therapy and some people treat it as such, but this post-pandemic world has us feeling around in the dark, and many people have found themselves thinking: well, this is spooky as hell.”
Self-Control: Panic Priest and Night Sins at Absolution Fest 2023
Panic Priest
Y’all, I was crying during Panic Priest’s set. I didn’t mention that because it’s Mercurial Me.
“I wish I’d gotten more of Panic Priest and Night Sins because, to some degree, they were the two most relevant acts, considering the issues I had in my mind—and my mother is not a side-issue to the night I ate dirt.” I still wish I’d gotten more. HE IS SO GOOD.
“But…during his set, Panic Priest’s cover of ‘Self-Control’ reminded me of something that I’d forgotten: my mother’s taste in music.”
“I can remember being in the car with her and she’d perk up when a song played that struck her—and she LOVED Laura Branigan’s song “Self-Control”…but you know what else my mother liked? Depeche Mode—more specifically “Enjoy the Silence.”"
“She also just loved topics that leaned more mysterious, so guys, I’m thinking my mother was a lil goth.”
Intermission between Panic Priest and Night Sins where I chat a bit
“And you’re gonna learn real quick why I do the things I do, why I refuse to handle toxicity, and why I am as protective as I am: because the good in the world can swallow men like That Guy or be swallowed by the bitter beasts of their natures.”
“We can have more in October 2025 if this anti-hurricane spell works. So…have some Night Sins and relax, but also….go see them. I’m so serious, go see them. A friend of mine popped in to ask if I’d heard them before, and I was like OMG YES. I’d love to see these guys again.”