Grausame Töchter at Backstage, München

Neoelectro-girl-band

That is how Grausame Töchter describe themselves on the official website. It is a very apt description, although you have to be aware that they are more on the darker side of the electronic music (think something you could hear on the Communion After Dark podcast). If that is what you are into, then you are in for a treat.

I had tons of fun at the concert. Both the music and the performance on stage were totally worth the drive. Grausame Töchter are one of those bands that can't really be known just from their albums, and whose concerts are more than the sum of the parts.

I am not sure how to exactly describe it. Sometimes a concert just... falls flat, and you think to yourself that you would rather have stayed home and listened to the album. At other times you go to a concert, and think to yourself that you made a great decision to come, because—holy fuck—did the band deliver.

The Töchter are the second case, no doubt about it. As always with such bands, you just have to go to a concert and experience it yourself—it can't be experienced by proxy.

My advice would be to give them a listen on YouTube, or buy an album on Bandcamp; and when you get a chance, go to see them live. It will be worth it!

Nana Nocturnal

The band is the creation of Aranea Peel, but (with her impressive credentials) she is not the only interesting persona you see on stage. The other person who caught my attention was Nana Nocturnal. Why, one may ask? Well, she has a way of making herself difficult to overlook:

Take a moment, take a look, and try to see beyond the obvious.

What I saw was an strong, interesting contrast between the clown make-up and the nudity. Both the make-up and the nudity can be seen as costumes, as masks, but it is a curious choice—instead of wearing latex, leather, or some other type of uniform (a signal of belonging to a particular group), wearing nothing at all.

I am no psychologist (Nana is studying it), but I have some psychology-adjacent experience, mostly from psychotherapy. We all wear masks, whether we want it or not. However, the masks are usually something; they are built from clothes, make-up, jewelry, language and choice of words, attitude, etc. What makes someone choose to make a mask out of... essentially nothing?

I would love to know that!

Is it because it is our faces that show emotions, and covering up your face while at the same time creating a distraction by putting every other part of your body on display creates a more powerful mask than the "typical" uniform?

The thing is, why would you go on a stage and put yourself in front of people, just to hide? Why would you engage in performance art, of all things, if you want people to see just your mask?

I know my answer to this question, but I think everyone who does this has a different one. These differences are what makes life interesting; and finding people who despite the ever-present differences are similar enough to us that we can understand each other is what brings joy—at least that is what I think.

Of course, all these quasi-deep and faux-philosophical questions always come too late, after the fact. (And even if they came to me right after the concert, there is not enough time to talk about it—what with all the people wanting to buy merch, take photos, get autographs, and all.)

The question that came to me immediately when Nana showed up on stage, and the one that I managed to ask, was stupidly simple:

"Fühlst du dich nicht kalt?" (Don't you feel cold?)

With disarming honesty, she gave me a straightforward answer: no, she dances so much she is actually sweating on stage.