The Birthday Massacre will have the audience on pins and needles at Irving Plaza
Irving Plaza
17 Irving Pl. at East 15th St.
Monday, December 12, $41.50 – $63.50 ($29.50 – $51.50 without fees), 7:00
www.thebirthdaymassacre.com
www.irvingplaza.com
Touring behind their first album in three years, Dum Spiro Spero (the End, August 2011), Japanese heavyweights Dir En Grey arrive in New York City on Monday night to headline Irving Plaza, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t get there early to catch the opening act, Toronto goth rockers the Birthday Massacre — and not only to get the biggest bang for your buck, since the relatively high ticket prices reach up to $63.50 for VIP access. On such discs as 2004’s Violet, 2007’s Walking with Strangers, and last year’s Pins and Needles, Chibi, Rainbow, M. Falcore, Rhim, O.E., and Owen play it hard and loud. Their latest EP, Imaginary Monsters (Metropolis, August 2011), features three new tracks, the soaring power ballads “Burn Away,” “Forever,” and “Left Behind,” along with five remixes of older tunes: Tweaker’s “Control,” Kevvy Mental & Dave Ogilvie’s “Pale,” Skold’s “Pins and Needles,” and Combichrist’s and Assemblage 23’s dueling versions of “Shallow Grave.” As we’ve said before, TBM know how to rock out live; just don’t be put off by the gothic metal makeup, black costumes, black hair, tattoos, and demonic signage. At heart, they’re just a bunch of pussycats. Well, maybe.