• NEW YORK, NY- What do electric violins, Victorian fashions, burlesque showgirls, and asylums, have in common? Well, they are all mind-blowing elements of a basic Victoriandustrial concert by Emilie Autumn and her back-up girls, the Bloody Crumpets.
    On November 10th Emilie Autumn had her first American show to once again to put on a spectacular show for all of her little “muffins” and “plague rats” as she did the prior week in Hamburg, Germany. The concert was held in Club Madison, a small bar located at 27 West 24th St. There was a moderate amount of people who attended- just about two hundred or so.
    The concerts of last winter and spring had been the Asylum: the Plague tours however; this concert along with the others from this summer and fall is a part of the Asylums: the Gate tour. The names of her tours are a string of teasers leading to the release of her novel, The Asylum [For Wayward Victorian Girls].
    The songs performed at the Asylum tours are from her most recent album Opheliac. Opheliac is a fictional word coined from the name of Shakespeare’s Hamlet character, Ophelia. She was the basis of this album since it is mostly about mental health and suicide. Even though those themes are heavy, she pursues them with a sarcastic demeanor. She does, though, feel no better than any Pre-Raphaelite artist who painted a pretty picture of Ophelia’s death. The genre which they are all in is something she calls Victoriandustrial. Even though Romantic music was the genre of the Victorian era, her music builds around a baroque style (by using a lot of harpsichord and stringed instruments) and so the term “Victoriandustrial” can be misleading. Since Opheliac she has come out with two other albums and two EP’s.
    Emilie Autumn writes and produces the music and lyrics for all of her music excluding “Largo for Violin” which was composed by Bach and was one of the classical pieces in Opheliac. Some of her songs are mixed by Inkydust. Each of her concerts opens to “4 O’clock” from her EP 4 O’clock which makes use of the synthetic sounds of a clock ticking loudly. The melody and lyrics, which are about insomnia, are sung by Emilie Autumn and she accompanies herself on violin using only pizzicato.
    After entering the stage, one of the Bloody Crumpets, the Blessed Contessa, introduced herself, the other Bloody Crumpets, and EA herself while Emilie improvised tunes on the harpsichord appropriate for each lovely lunatic. Emilie Autumn has many Bloody Crumpets from around the world and the ones who joined together for this New York show were Veronica Varlow, the Lady Aprella, and Captain Miss. Maggots. Sadly, they had to leave behind their cellist, Lady Joo Hee, in Germany so all cello parts were prerecorded. This was especially missed in their fifth song performed, “Misery Loves Company” which has an introduction with a few measures of cello solo as well as a lot of solo cello accompaniment in the middle. The song also concludes with an electric violin and cello duet.
    Another thing that listeners may find interesting about the Opheliac album is Emilie Autumn’s frequent use of ending songs in incomplete cadences. Songs such as “Marry Me”, “Opheliac”, “I Know Where You Sleep”, and even her encore song of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Teatime Remix)” all ended in an abrupt way leaving the audience hungry for more.
    It is not easy to describe this concert, musically, because each song is so very different. Taking a step away from the average “cookie-cutter” bands of today, Emilie Autumn likes to change her music as her interests change from day to day. Heavy sounds of drum machines and synthesizers as well as shredding electric violin solos and a lot of dissonance as found in “I Want My Innocence Back”, “I Know Where You Sleep”, and “Gothic Lolita” is enough to keep you awake all night. On the contrary, gentle harpsichord solos filled with trills, classical violin, tinkling bells, and upbeat synthesized rhythms, can turn songs about death such as “Marry Me” and “The Art of Suicide” into addictive pop songs.
    One thing that an Emilie Autumn concert is very well known for is its use of spectacular lighting, special effects, breath-taking costumes, and intricately absurd set designs. The set is meant to reflect a women’s asylum during 19th century, Victorian England. Since most people would not be able to visualize this immediately, it basically includes lots of ripped cloth everywhere, dismembered baby dolls, delicate tea sets, and tons of rats- fake rats, of course- which symbolize the plague and the poor conditions of the asylums. The lighting is very important since it is the first thing you see other than the set and they succeeded at capturing the crowd even from the very start. When the Bloody Crumpets first crept onto the stage, the lighting was green and there were also strobe lights being used. The lighting patterns were not intricate or planned out, but the lights did change color from song to song (usually in pink or red- like Emilie Autumn’s signature hair) and were sometimes normal. But where the lighting lacked, the special affects went above and beyond. First of all, the fog machine was always on throughout the show. Second of all, there were many uses of fire on stage. The Bloody Crumpets were fire dancing, eating, and playing. If you play with fire, you will get burned, and exactly this happened to EA on a number of occasions, but she never let it make her skip a beat. One new thing that they tried out was the combusting teacups. On occasion, the Crumpets would dip their teabag into their cup to the rhythm of the music and then they would spontaneously shoot flames up to the ceiling. Various props are used by the Bloody Crumpets to dance with, as well- particularly during “The Art of Suicide”. One effect that they use in nearly every one of their performances is the paper screen where EA makes her entrance starting out as just a silhouette. They weren’t able to use it in this show, though, because of the restricting size of the stage. Lastly, the costumes are made to reflect the music- Victoriandustrial. The costumes used (which are actually their normal clothing) are in the style of punktorian. An example of this would be a vintage Victorian corset combined with a shredded-up hoop skirt and spiked choker.
    If someone were to walk into that concert, they would plainly be able to see how pleased the audience was. There were screams and shouts throughout the entire performance and, occasionally, someone called out a smart comment to which Emilie immediately responded. The audience wasn’t always this content, though. The concert was scheduled to begin at 8PM; however, due to technical difficulties and problems with the set, it was delayed until about fifteen after ten. So when audience members grew tired with the concession stands featuring t-shirts, CD’s, and original creations by EA herself, they began to become a little rowdy.
    Two last downsides of the performance were the poor acoustics of the vicinity and the tuning of Emilie Autumn’s violin. EA’s concerts are famous (within the Gothic/Victorian community) for their element of Visual Kei (rock concerts that are intricate and visually pleasing) but they are also notorious because her violin always seems to be out of tune. The acoustics were not the fault of Emilie Autumn or her sound crews, however, mixed with a blaring, out-of-tune, electric violin, it was not pleasing at all. Had you not been an avid EA fan and known the words to each of her songs by heart, it would be nearly impossible to make out the basic ideas of any song.
    Unfortunately, Emilie Autumn will not be returning to the Americas for some time. She is scheduled to be performing in Amsterdam next on March 20th of this spring to start off her Asylum: The Gate tour part two. She hopes to, one day, do a whole US and Canada tour but for now, while away from her home in Chicago, she tours mostly in Germany and other parts of Europe. But remember, there will always be a spot open in the Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls for any muffin who wishes to enter.