During the middle of this work week, the boys and I took a road trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to see Starset perform live at the Varsity Theatre. The boys being Joe, Richard, and myself. Plus we met up with our friends Luke and Matt once we had arrived.
There were a cool few openers to the show but Starset blew them away. Who is Starset? It’s fine if you don’t know them. I wouldn’t say they’re a small band by any means but they’ve only been around since 2014. Starset recently just released their third album, Divisions. The other two being Transmissions and Vessels. If you haven’t guessed by now, their music is space-themed. They’re a hard rock band but their music is also considered electronic rock or alternative rock. Their music does include violinist and cellist, which really works well for the space vibe. If nothing else, they are great entertainers with their performance telling their lore from the Starset Society. Yes lore, they have an actual novel called the PROX transmissions.
Varsity Inn Theatre
After we checked into our hotel and grabbed a bite to eat, it was time for us to head to the Varsity Theater. Which was not too far from the LSU campus! In fact, we parked at LSU, though I’m not sure I can recommend that. I don’t think we were supposed to do that. The Varsity Theater I would describe as a small dark bar with a stage and a concert floor for the audience. That may not sound too appealing to some, but for us, it was amazing to see Starset that close! According to the band, this was the smallest stop, venue wise, on their whole tour.
The Openers
By the time we made it to the Varsity, the first band was already wrapping up. It wasn’t a long walk from LSU. We just spent too much time at Walk-Ons restaurant. No one was to blame for that, isn’t that right RICHARD? Jokes aside it really didn’t matter, because I was only there for Starset. The first opener was called Brilliant Lie. They sounded pretty good from the little I heard. I’m sure I would have enjoyed their performance.
The next opening band to perform was Hyde. They caught my interest immediately. All the band members, besides the lead singer, had LED masks on with black / Goth attire. The lead singer came out with crazy blonde hair, a weird masquerade mask, white makeup similar to the joker, and what looked like a dark old English style set of attire. Picture the fictional character Dr. Hyde at a masquerade party and that would probably be the perfect description of him. With his crazy outfit, we couldn’t tell his nationality, but he had a thick accent. I began to suspect he was Japanese, and I know that it should be easy to pick up on, but it’s a lot harder to narrow down at a rock concert! In the end, they did confirm that they were indeed a Japanese rock back.
This Japanese rock band’s entire performance was very entertaining and strange. The used purposeful creepy movements and their accent enhanced the theatrics of it all. They sounded good to me, but I am no music critic. But I don’t think anyone could complain about the performance, as a whole, since it was great entertainment. A cool side note that we learned later, is that they were the author of the song Red Swan. Does that ring a bell? Then how about the Attack on Titan song, Red Swan. Still doesn’t? Don’t worry about it then, only anime fans would understand and their bells are ringing!
Up next to bat was Palisades. I don’t have much to say other than I felt very bad for them. I don’t know if it was the venue’s audio engineer or one of their team members, but it was awful. There was nothing but bass drowning out every sound. I don’t know if they were trying to give you a heart murmur or perform the infamous brown note from the movie Hot Rod. It was intense and awful but I pretended to enjoy it. So with all that noise, you could not hear any lyrics, nor could you hear any of the guitar. It was sad to see because during slower, non-bass parts I could tell they had talent.
Starset
Now it was time for the main dish, Starset. Thankfully the audio was fixed by then! Like I said earlier the band had recently launched their 3rd album, Divisions. As far as their lore goes, from what I gathered it delves into a story of a rebellion. So like in good space rebellion members, they came out rocking apocalyptic desert space attire along with violinist and cellist. The outfits were somewhat similar to Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens if that helps. The two string players came out first and onto the edges of the stage. They aren’t band members but two talented model-like female musicians who are touring with them. The whole audience was going crazy, singing along and I’m surprised I didn’t lose my voice. It was intense just to be that close to the action. I don’t have the setlist for the performance of that night. However, if you listen to all three albums, Transmissions, Vessels, and Divisions, you won’t regret it.
After going through most of their Divisions album, they did an intermission. Joe was becoming hopeful. I had heard him talking about their previous Baton Rouge performance, where they rocked out wearing spacesuits. He was right. They came out again, but this time rocking in their new attire, futuristic spacesuits! They started performing songs from all the albums now. Shredding on a guitar while wearing a LED spacesuit is one of the coolest things I’ve seen at a rock concert. Don’t forget that you can’t have a space rock concert without a phenomenal light and lasers show to go along with it.
I do want to mention the one hiccup they had. During one of their more well-known songs, Carnivore, the lead singer came out with a dead microphone. He was NOT happy about that. He walked off stage got another mic and the same thing happened. Again he looked like he was losing his cool, and I don’t blame him. Little does he know that the small hiccup was my favorite moment. The audience had started the song without him and it was just a fun experience!
To wrap it up, we jumped, we screamed, and we threw our fist in the air until we crashed hard for the night before the uneventful drive back to work the next day. As long as you enjoy rock music, go check Starset out in concert! It will be a blast (space pun intended)!
