Covenant Concert & Makeup under a Motorcycle Helmet

Because we are Gothic Granola, we go to concerts for Goth, Industrial, Synthpop, Alternative, Electronic, and more, as the entertainment budget allows. That's a royal "we." On Tuesday we went to see Covenant at Casselman's in Denver, hosted by Club Sanctuary.

We rode on sportbike to Denver, and having seen few practical posts for wearing makeup under a full-face helmet, I decided to experiment. As I said in this post, I don't wear makeup often and I don't think it adds anything to my appearance. Most message boards I read for female riders focused on the hair, and I happen to like helmet hair (I also have short hair and a low-maintenance deathhawk, so there's not much to "ruin"). 

 

Pre-trip, no makeup

With makeup (eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, lipstick, lipgloss). I look like a Dresden Doll. No concealer since dark lipstick always makes my face look paler and there's no point in hiding freckles. Or dark circles.

Helmet on, no smudges. The cheek pads of this AGV helmet are still stiff, even after a year of wear and tear.

Bike parked and locked.

 Helmet off, makeup still looks good. I didn't put on a lot of lipstick and it faded a little bit. But that's not due to the helmet!

This should be my LinkedIn picture because I'm all dressed up in makeup and Goth uniform...just like I'm all dressed up in makeup and corporate uniform on the professional social networking site. Neither of which forms of dress I wear on a daily basis. WHAT NOW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because women's college basketball is so Goth. So synthpop.

Kill Minus Nine, one of the opening bands. Pretty good, pretty cohesive, neat Tron-style costumes, but wouldn't look them up on YouTube. Didn't listen to most of it as I hung out with TC and Jason outside.

I don't remember this band's name, but they will remain nameless nonetheless. GET A TUNER. LEARN HOW TO TUNE YOUR VOICES. Dissonance is only so acceptable when bands are couched with the term "experimental," and these folks were not.

Yay, Covenant! At 23:15! The lead singer had to ask the techies to change the lighting to backlighting after the first song. Also, whoever was on the sound board needed to actually do work and adjust the channels for the different band members since the lead singer got drowned a few times when it was obvious he shouldn't have been. I felt embarrassed for a band that performs internationally and has a large following in Europe, that they should be subject to a poorly-managed concert, both in terms of theatrics and logistics.

Did I mention how sketchy the PayPal system for purchasing tix was done? That we'd all lose our money if the show was cancelled, unless Covenant cancelled? That the admission was done as a "guest list" and so my guests had to be with me when we arrived? Yeah. Since my face is all over this post, if I get denied entry from Club Sanctuary for making legitimate criticisms of their event management, it'll only uphold TC's assessment (experience) of the Denver Goth scene as cliquey and juvenile. We don't even attend events at CS anyway. And no one reads my blog!

I wasn't even that much of a Covenant fan before the concert. As with much electronic music, my expectation was that they wouldn't be as good live as the studio albums sound. Wrong. Every member is technically skilled, both vox and electronics, and ignoring the light and sound issues, the songs really "came alive" for me. Bravo.

TC pointed out recently that many synthpop/goth/industrial songs involve water (waves, ocean, river, rain), signs and symbols, and Biblical-sounding verses (see the end of this article). Covenant is no exception. I don't know why it happens, but so it goes. 

Left early because there was no energy in the room and I had to work the next morning. Very tired, had a cold ride and arrived home after 01:00.

Eye makeup survived! All I had to do was be careful when putting on and taking off my helmet.