The month of June was a great concert month. It started out with Ghost House being completely off the chain, with a huge number of people joining the dance. We are consistently amazed by how large and wonderful our community is. Gothic gratitude.

Zola Jesus played a solo show with just her and a piano at the Holocene. It was the perfect setting for Nika, whose stature is tiny and voice huge. The white walls fading into sunset light were a perfect backdrop. She is one of the few singers who brings me to tears. If you have not listened to her album Okovi, wait for a blue hour and put it on.

The very next night we saw a stacked bill of amazing bands, starting with Soft Vein, who I was unfamiliar with previously. New favorite. Forever Grey were an old favorite and were very good also, nice to see The Style Is Death performed live. TRAITRS slayed. Twin Tribes— OMG, wow. The Wonder Ballroom sound wasn’t great this night, and I wish that the bands had had better because their performances were entirely captivating. Managed to pick up a double album of TRAITRS remixes that are damn tasty.

For something different, several of us went to the Cottage Grove Theater to see Nevermore. This is a musical play that is based on the life of Edgar Allen Poe. I didn’t have high expectations from a small town playhouse production but the costuming and execution was very well done. There was definitely a goth/emo look to most of the players and they traded characters through his life with a lot of skill. The set design was minimalist but not much was needed. As someone who normally breaks out in hives at the thought of a musical, I was most surprised how much I enjoyed it. The arc of Edgar’s life was tragic; nearly everyone he loved died or disowned him or went mad. And a giant raven puppet with red eyes? Sold.

Arkham Sunset and Doomed Romantics at John Henry’s were new to us. I really liked Arkham Sunset’s cover of Photographic by DM, but the originals are lovely synthpop as well. I’ve listened to that album a few times since. The Doomed Romantics are less my thing, but still fun to watch these skilled players. With Rabyd Rabbit and some other band, I forget who.

The 21st was supposed to be a Summer Solstice show featuring the Gypsy Queen doing covers of early nettwerk era songs from Lords Of Acid and the like. Shivering and Tethys were the openers. It was getting closer to showtime, and people showed up, and then the manager got a call that The Gypsy Queen had had a flight snafu and was unable to play. But, Shivering had already set up and sound checked and so had Tethys. Given all of the time they wanted to play all of their music, both bands played great sets to a nearly empty WOW Hall. One very good thing about the WOW Hall’s all ages setup is that one younger family member got to see a Shivering performance for the first time and realize how much thought, filmwork, and skill his dad truly has. Tethys is always good.

To close out the month I got to DJ with two of my favorites from the crew, Jozhur and Virtual Violence, as we put on Goth Prom. Vampire Sister and Rabyd Rabbit played great sets and the club was fairly packed, though I’m afraid I killed the floor by following Prince with Bauhaus, leading to a non-goth exodus. It was GOTH prom after all. Really fun night.