Well, once upon a time on the Phoenix tour (1991?), Xymox came through my
town (St. Louis). Alas, back then I was young and me mum wouldn't let me
go see them. So I never got to experience them with their original
line-up.
However by some bizarre twist of fate I was somehow able to catch them on
the Hidden Faces tour. This is the fabulous tale of my trip:
Hmmm....where to start....well, like i mentioned earlier i live in St.
Louis. I was all distressed cuz Xymox weren't playing anywhere around
here. Not even Chicago..what's up with that? Anyway...at the last minute
i decided to drive to Columbus, Ohio to see them. Since I missed them on
the Phoenix tour, i wasn't about to miss them again... So throwing
caution to the wind i
drove the 7 hours all by myself to Columbus. (bear in mind this was a
Tuesday--I missed a day of work and 2 days of school...) Once in Ohio I
met a very nice guy via the Xymox mailing-list, Dave Stack, and we went
to the show together. [check out his webpage where you
can buy/sell cd's at great prices.]
The venue was this tiny, tiny bar called Outland. They didn't let anyone
in until after 11pm. It was rather strange. While waiting outside to get
in tho, i got to meet another person from the Xymox list, Christopher Gray (Adagio). He has a cool band called Gossamer.
Incredibly enuff, admission was only $5 (!) Anyway we finally get in and
i went and bought a shirt and the new cd.
With a quick scan around the place I saw Ronny Moorings sitting at the
bar(!). I went and tapped his leather-jacketed shoulder and asked nicely
if he would sign my cd. Which he did. I gushed on a bit about his
infinite fabulousness. He said something like, "yeah i just hope we can
pull it off tonight..." as if he had his doubts about their performance
or something. He went back into the backstage area after this.
We all milled about for a long time. Finally at midnight, the opening
band, This Ascension, came on. I thought they were alright. Around
one-ish Xymox took the stage... It should be noted that the "stage area"
where you could actually watch the band was just tiny. Which was perfect
for this show. I was about four feet away from Ronny during their
performance. (I still can't believe how great this all was). The set list
was as follows: Stranger, Cry In The Wind, Muscoviet Musquito, This
World, Out Of The Rain, Louise, Craving, The Story Ends, Back Door, A
Day, Michelle, and Going Round '97.
According to the setlist they had taped to the stage however, we were
supposed to get 2 or 3 more songs for an encore. But the encore never
came. This had something to do with the fact that they hadn't even gone
onstage till 1am. I was quite dismayed that they didn't do the
encore.... But what they did do was all very very good!
Cry In the Wind is one of my superfaves. I took several pictures. :)
I'll jump on the bandwagon here and say that, yes, Mojca, their new bass
player and Ronny's new girlfriend, was some sort of goth goddess. Could
she have been any more gorgeous?
After the show i got Ronny and Mojca to sign my promo pic. Ronny was even
nice enough to pose with me for a picture. Hans are you reading this? I
mentioned to Ronny that i had been talking to you. He was
like, "Oh yeah Hans does our webpage.." I
talked to Mojca a little about
her song, Hypocrite, which is only on the import release of Hidden Faces.
She has a very thick accent. :)
[ Ok, for future reference, don't ask Ronny about Anka. ;) ]
I had heard various things before about Ronny and Anka being a couple but
i had never read anything official about it. Anyway...I rather nervously
inquired, "Do i dare ask about Anka? I heard she moved to
New York or something, do you know anything about it?" He got kinda
defensive and a bit surly and said, "No..she moved back to Netherlands I
don't know...i don't give a shit about her...why should i give a
fuck, you know...? she's my ex...i don't give a shit..." At which point i
changed the subject ;)
Anyway overall it was a really good show at a really good price. I'm very
glad i made the trek :) It was totally worth it.
Feel free to mail me with questions or comments.