On September 20, 2008…me and Jaison Stefaniak (of Dragon Girl Noriko) had the privilege of attending The Cruxshadows concert (as part of the Immortal tour) at Reggie’s Rock Club in Chicago.  Overall, it was an incredible show.

The concert was put together by Demons and Darlings out of Chicago for their Gothtober Fest, and I have to tell you that they were incredibly on the ball.  They did a great job with everything.

As for the bands?

The opening acts were I, Scintilla, and Ayria.  The two opening acts did 45-50 minutes apiece, and were definitely on top of their game.  I’d previously been unaware of either one of them, and they left me stunned with just how good they both were.  I, Scintilla are based out of Chicago, and gave a stunning show to a home town crowd, and have a new album coming out in October of 2008.   The Ayria set was composed of largely new material from their just released album “Hearts and Bullets“, and kicked major ass.

Buy their stuff…I command it.

And The Cruxshadows were absolutely incredible.  I’d been wanting to see them for years, and they most certainly did not disappoint.  Their show lasted just over two hours, and for the first hour of it, it was nothing but music.  After the first hour, Rogue took a slight pause to say hello to everyone, and talk to the crowd for a little bit…and then they were right back into it.  They opened with Immortal…and for the encore they did “Monsters”, “Tears” (my favorite song off of Wishfire) and concluded with “Marilyn, My Bitterness”

Highlights of the evening?  God, there were so many…seeing Jessica Lackey and Sarah Kilgore of The Cruxshadows dancing to Ayria’s “Analog Trash” stands out :).  Getting to meet Ayria’s Jennifer Parkin (who hails from my favorite city in the Western Hemisphere, Toronto), who is an awesome lady BTW, is another; as was talking Guitar Hero and Rock Band with Johanna Moresco outside before the concert started.

Rogue linking arms and dancing with the crowd during “Deception” will be something I will always remember, not to mention him singing from on top of the bar at one point.  And the encore, which concluded with about half the audience onstage with the band by the time it ended.

And of course Rogue announcing that “Immortal” had just debuted at #2 on Billboards Dance Chart, and #6 on the Hot 100, beating out Madonna.  I remember one member of the crowd yelling something about how they were better than Madonna….and Rogue replied that “I think she has bragging rights on us though, (pauses and holds one finger up in the air), but not this week (and smiled)”

Just an incredible night all around.  I would have posted this earlier, but Youtube finally has some footage from the concert that me and Jai were at which I have linked to below.  Enjoy!