The inaugural Ritual Noize Fest!

I took last weekend off to go to Ritual Noize Fest! I've been excited for it since it was announced last fall. There was a bit of a lineup change, as I'd said before, which was a shame for multiple reasons, but the excitement remained!

It was an excellent time!

The venue is "ReelWorks" which is a large venue attached to Tracks, a fairly well-known gay club. We used to be down there fairly often, back when Tracks had a regular goth night. (It was also baby's first club when I went out to celebrate my 21st birthday!)

...yikes has the whole area changed. We'd noted that the most recent time we went there for a concert, which was a couple years ago. That was the first time we'd been down post-Covid, so it was kind of a big shock to see a bunch of pricey condos had replaced the old warehouses.

At that point a couple years ago it felt like it had maybe become maximum bougie, but it has gotten so much bougier. There are basically no warehouses left at all, and all the weird little art studios and makerspaces and mostly-illegal housing collectives are long gone. Patagonia and Arcteryx have competing storefronts across the street from each other now. There's a bank. Everything has a fucking QR code. There are $750k condos. We parked in the bougiest parking garage I have ever seen in my life. (The whole thing locks down completely, you have to scan your ticket QR code to get back in (god help you if you don't have it), there's a lounge area?? though it was closed for the weekend. Like... I AM glad to not have my car broken into or the catalytic converter stolen, but...)

BUT. We did make it down there, and did quite a bit of pre-gaming in the car before heading in, anticipating fuck-off expensive well drinks.

It turned out that well drinks were not nearly as expensive as anticipated, which was dangerous. I had... more to drink than I've had in the last five years, pretty sure. Delightfully, I was able to stay pleasantly drunk for much of the show, but never got to the point of feeling sick or like I was missing what was going on.

I swore that I would just... magically remember the setlists. I did not remember the setlists. I was quite drunk.

We arrived partway through Hex Cassette's set (two pictures):

Hard to tell when he's on the floor, but he is very tall. I hadn't ever seen him, though I know I've seen him listed as an opener before! Wasn't my favorite sound, but he was good. It was still clearly early, and not much of a crowd had shown up, but he did start the slowest mosh circle possible, which was entertaining.

I could not find his setlist posted online.


A net full of blow-up dolls lurks ominously above the pit.

Then it was Whorticulture's turn, which was probably who I was second-most-excited to see!

Two more pics of Whorticulture, plus Plack Blague:

During "Faust."


It's standard that at some point he will end up stripping down to the crop-top, which he will generally acknowledge. So we did get "YES, THE CROP TOP COMES OUT NOW!" shouted before they started playing "Crucify."

As our local openers, they only got to play four songs (;_;) which I DO actually remember:
- Within/Without
- Faust
- Crucify
- Make Me Dead (live debut of their new song, just released a couple days before!)

"Within/Without" is an older one, and I was glad that they played it! One of my favorites, and I think it got the slot that "Benefits of Torture" would usually get, but I like it a little better. "Faust" is new-ish, and quite possibly my favorite of all their songs, so I was very glad it got played. "Crucify" is a cover of the Tori Amos song, but I think one of their most popular (and always comes with the crop top, so.) "Make Me Dead" is brand new, and I forgot to go listen to it in advance, so it was my first time hearing it!

I'm not unbiased, because they are a local group that I really like, but I think Whorticulture deserved higher billing. They're damn good. (Not that any of the other groups AREN'T good, or didn't deserve their spot on the bill. I just think Whorticulture deserves more, haha.)

Then we went over to Whorticulture's merch table, where I was delighted to discover that they did a new run of their "Goth as Fuck" shirts. (It's a play on the "Queer as Folk" logo, and I love it.) They sold out of those long ago, so I was glad for another chance to get one.)

Our time hanging out by the merch and then heading to get drinks meant we missed most of Plack Blague's set. I'm not familiar with him, but what I heard was good! Gay leather industrial-style, ha.



I didn't find his setlist online either, though as we were heading past the floor to get another drink, he did announce something to the effect of "You know what turns me on? MAN! ON! MAN!" so I do know that was one of his songs that got played!

Refortified with drinks, we managed to get back up toward the front-ish for Julien K. They were great! Ended up being one of my favorite sets from the night.

Three more pictures:

His goggles were so bright. Blindingly!



I am frustrated that I wasn't able to find their setlist either!

They did close out with Blue Monday, which surprised me, since I just sort of assumed they wouldn't want to hearken back to Orgy, but I was certainly not disappointed!


Their much better picture, ha.

Then, Aesthetic Perfection! (The other group I was most excited to see.)

Three more pictures:

I DO have a setlist for them!
- Gods & Gold
- S E X
- Rhythm + Control
- Antibody (call me a basic bitch, but this is one of my favorites and I basically knock myself over jumping to it every time.)
- Sorrow (huge tonal shift from Antibody, but also a fave)
- Summer Goth (Alex hates this song, lol. I find it terribly relatable.)
- Self Inflicted
- Into the Void
- We Bring the Beat
- Never Enough (another fave)
- Schadenfreude
- The Great Depression (I still think this was a perfect opening song, per the previous show I saw them at. Starting off with "HEY YOU MOTHERFUCKING SON OF A BITCH" is just so good. It's fine as a later song, too.)
- Love Like Lies (This one we got to pick between two choices. I was rooting for Spit It Out instead, but ah well.)

Lords of Acid!

Five more pictures:

Okay, maybe this is an unpopular opinion... but I think Lords of Acid is better in recordings than live. Their live shows are fun, and energetic, and they do a lot of stuff, but the showmanship is more of a draw than the music when they're live. The sound seemed muddled (which I don't think was a sound issue with the venue; none of the other acts were hard to hear), so other than a few words, it was hard to really hear them, even though it was all very loud. Alex saw them a few years ago, and he had the same impression that time. But! It was definitely fun!

Alex did turn to me and ask "So... do they just replace the frontwoman every couple years?" as this is a different singer than the last time they came through.
I told him "Yeah, they need a New Designated Hottie!"

(That is me being a little dismissive. It's not untrue, but all the Designated Hotties are also very talented!)

Current Hottie Carla Harvey can headbang like a motherfucking champ.


(Thank you, nameless support roadie.)
(The net of blowup dolls lurks ominously.)


Inviting women up on stage for "Pussy," of course.



And then it was time for "Rubber Doll," so...


THE BLOWUP DOLLS RELEASED!


Except this one. :'( The saddest story: For retrieval: Blowup doll, never fallen.

The Lords of Acid setlist:
- Scrood Bi U
- Do What You Wanna Do
- Lover
- Drink My Honey
- Mister Machoman
- The Most Wonderful Girl
- Pussy
- The Crablouse
- Rough Sex
- Rubber Doll
- Encore: I Sit on Acid

And finally, She Wants Revenge.

(Still wish it had been VNV, even though that would have been even more dramatic whiplash after Lords of Acid, lmao. Glad we did have another headliner willing and able to step in! First chance I've had to see She Wants Revenge, so that's cool, too.)

Two more pictures:

I was suddenly struck with "Wait, shit. How many She Wants Revenge songs do I even know??" Turns out, a lot more than I thought, ha.

I've never been super into them beyond what got played at the club, though I was happy for them when they had a sudden surge of popularity after American Horror Story: Hotel.




Very red.

She Wants Revenge setlist:
- Black Liner Run
- Sister
- Written in Blood
- These Things
- Sarah Says
- Someone Must Get Hurt
- A Little Bit Harder Now
- Your Love
- Rachel
- These Things Happen in Threes
- Red Flags and Long Nights
- Do No Harm
- Black Wax, Our Love
- Gossip & Drugs
- Out of Control
- Tear You Apart

The most difficult part of leaving was the damn parking garage, lol. Several people were struggling to get their QR things to scan, or having a hard time paying, and it held up the whole line quite a lot, lol.

The show was very fun, but man was I tired. We headed home, tossed a frozen pizza into the oven, and devoured the whole thing. Drank some water, took some preemptive ibuprofen, and went to bed, lol.

Also extremely glad that I had taken Sunday off as well, because other than going to Bella's FastCAT, I pretty much wanted to spend Sunday asleep too, haha. (Though considering how much we drank vs. how little we typically do, neither of us was at all hungover, which was a pleasant surprise.)

This did really make me miss going out clubbing, which is usually my feeling after going to concerts of this genre. Alex... not so much. He said he had fun this time, aided by the alcohol, but his anxiety has gotten worse to a point that he dreads trying to go out. That's a shame, because I'd love to go out at least once a month or so, but I don't want to coordinate going solo, and I don't want to drag him out to be miserable. Alas!

I really do hope that Ritual Noize Fest continues beyond just this first year, and if so, I really look forward to future lineups!