Pulp, Duisburg, Germany
6th September 2013
Emilie Autumn - Fight Like A Girl Tour
If you are going to a show of EMILIE AUTUMN and expect to see a concert you’ll be probably disappointed. So you better forget about the idea of a concert in a classically sense as you will experience a kind of Victorian- Punk Burlesque/ Vaudeville show with music from the playback except a short play at the keyboard or violin. And if there hadn’t been some problems with EMILIE AUTUMN’s headset you could suspect that even the singing came from the playback. The show is part of the “Fight Like A Girl” (F.L.A.G.) world tour promoting her correspondent album which was released in 2012 based on her autobiographical novel ‘The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls’.
It is also a kind of appetizer for the upcoming musical in 2014. The American artist is a kind of phenomenon with many talents: singer- songwriter, violinist, poet, a kind of fashion icon and probably one of the very few performers who expose herself as being bi-polar. Obviously she handles her handicap very successfully with her creativity and gained some recognition as she did not only release three studio albums, two instrumental albums, several books and poems, she was also guest star at Jay Leno’s and David Letterman’s TV shows, appeared on several magazine covers, as well as some guest appearances on albums of musicians like Billy Corgan, Courtney Love, Otep. The special relationship and communication with her fans is also quite interesting. Related to her artistic concept of an asylum in Victorian times she calls her fan base “Asylum Army” and the members themselves “Plague rats”. And she communicates a lot with them via Facebook, Twitter and of course her homepage. Thus it is no wonder that you see a lot of fans dressed up in Victorian or Burlesque outfits at her shows. http://emilieautumn.com / https://www.facebook.com/emilieautumnofficial
Music & Performance
EMILIE AUTUMN’s music can be described as a mixture of Gothic, Glam Rock, Industrial, Burlesque and Classic. She herself calls it Victorianindustrial. The venue on that Thursday evening was not sold-out, but 400 faithful fans came to see their idol. Personally I was glad that the venue was not packed as it was a hot day and it was still very warm. There was no supporting act but instead you could hear several soundtracks of films from the 30’s/ 40’s. This took a bit too long for my taste but finally the show started with the Intro ‘Best safety lies in fear’ where Captain Maggot and Veronica Varlow appeared on stage and took position at the gate and then EMILIE AUTUMN herself entered the stage. Their outfits were really remarkable with corsets, torn stockings, lots of glitter and feathers, interesting hairdos (especially EMILIE AUTUMN’s fake Mohawk) and the mask EMILIE AUTUMN was wearing during the first songs. The show is a kind of rollercoaster of emotions with high and lows, fear, anger but the laughter and a wink as well. 
Captain Maggot and Veronica Varlow are not only the background singer or a kind of nice looking assistants but had their own appearances, too, like Maggot was reading kind of erotic fan letters which were performed by EMILIE AUTUMN and Veronica in a funny way. And not to forget the rat game show of Veronica where she chose a lucky young lady of the front row, who had a sign with ‘Corrupt me’ on it, to come up on stage to do the kissing scene. As mentioned before EMILIE AUTUMN’s fans are quite special. You might think that rather the guys go crazy for the attractive artists but it’s more the opposite. Here the young ladies are freaking out, clinging to EMILIE AUTUMN’s lips and one was even throwing a bra where a card fixed on it with a lipstick kiss. After the kissing scene there was an intermission for the change of costumes before the show went on with a powerful and uplifting ‘Girls! Girls! Girls!’ before it went up and down again emotionally. 
The show ended with a kind of pantomime and then EMILIE AUTUMN, Captain Maggot and Veronica Varnow took leave with the song ‘Always look on the bright side of life’ played in the background – a perfect song to end this kind of psychotherapy musical. Definitely an entertaining evening not only because of the show itself but for the interaction and reaction of the fans.
Setlist
01. Best safety lies in fear
02. Fight like a girl
03. Time for tea
04. 4 o’clock reprise
05. What will I remember?
06. Take the pill
07 The art of suicide (Introduction)
08. Dominant (Fan fiction, rat game, Maggie introduces intermission)
---Pause---
09. Girls! Girls! Girls!
10. Dr. Stockhill (Speech)
11. We want them young
12. How to break a heart (Poem)
13. Scavenger
14. Gaslight
15. The key
16. Hell is empty
17. Gaslight reprise
18. One goot in front of the other
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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