BrightestYoungThings: LiveDC: Observing Lasers w/ Ghostland Observatory

all words and photos by Dakota Fine

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I first heard about Ghostland Observatory last year when Joel Didriksen shot them for BYT. At the time I was kicking myself because Joel had offered me to shoot them, which I passed on for some other opportunity, but when I saw what he came away with, I was so jealous because... the lasers! Whoooa, the lasers.

Well, fast forward, over a year later, this past Friday night, Ghostland returned to a sold out 930 Club. The thing is, and the thought occurred to me before I showed up, as I am sure it is occurring to you right now (dear reader), that what with all the lasers and the fog... are they maybe overcompensating for something? I mean, don't get me wrong, I LOVE me a band that puts on a good show (see Peaches), but at some point you have to question the music behind the planetarium theatrics.

I am sorry to say this, but as much as I was anticipating witnessing the Ghostland lasers-in-the-jungle-type-experience, in person I think I was distracted by how annoying I found lead singer Aaron Behrens' voice to be. His vocals were screechy and his wails were more like man screams (we all scream for ice cream Aaron, but you should be singing for yours).

I like Ghostland Observatory, and and I LOVE me some lasers, but seriously, I can't help but to wonder whether these guys have gone a little soft, relying too much on their performance aesthetic and not enough on their sound. Yes, their recorded songs sound better than they do live (which is not the end of the world, the whole point of a recording studio is to make us sound better, right?), but the disparity was more than I had expected. There were some moments during the performance where Behrens' voice can only be described as yelling into the mic.

Unfortunately, I left before the encore. Would I see them again? Yes, for the lasers. For the lasers and the fog, and their pop-ish electro dance music that makes me smile when I listen to Ghostland online, and Behrens' awesome braids, and Thomas Ross Turner's awesome capes... maybe Friday was an off night or something. Well, it was definitely something. See for yourself next time they come to town.

DF09_9.10_GhostlandObservatory@930-101