As a musician, film maker and performer, renaissance man Voltaire has a flare for the theatrical.
His live performances, which are best described as a kind of campy gothic carnival, have been known to resemble a vintage cabaret show that revels in the macabre. On Thursday, October 6, he'll be bringing his vaudevillian antics to the Martini Ranch in Scottsdale. The show will also feature This Way to the Egress, Hellblinki Sextet, and local darkwave rockers, Bella Lune.
Bella Lune shared the stage with Voltaire in a 2009 visit to Arizona. Up On the Sun spoke with guitarist Kal3id and singer Fuchsia to get an idea of what the band hopes to bring to the table.
"It's difficult to describe a Voltaire show," Kaleid explains. "He is very animated but there is also something very antique and timeless about his appearance and performance."
"We got a great response the last time we played with him," Fuchsia says. "His fans who hadn't heard us before came up to us after the show and let us know they really liked our sound."
The event will serve as the CD release show of their nine-track Maxi-single EP, Ophelia, so the band will have new material to draw on as they continue to refine their on-stage sound.
"Ophelia was initially meant to be a love song about how you can be in a relationship with someone and have a sinking energy where you feel lost in them," Kal3id says. "[The song] is very much like a modern interpretation of Shakespeare's character in the classic play."
"We're releasing a music video for Ophelia in the next two weeks as well," Fuchsia adds.
As we discovered in our July video interview with the band, studio production of their music falls on the duo but when they perform live the presence expands to a sextet. "Our live setup is a constant work in progress and we're always working to make the sound better and the performance better and we recently made some changes that's going to take our shows to the next level," Kal3id says.
Bella Lune will take the stage at 6:45 p.m. so you'll need to get there early to catch their set Thursday, October 6 at the Martini Ranch in Scottsdale. The show is an all ages event and tickets are available at 13thfloorentertainment.com.
