Alice Teeple
Born in the scuffed and sweating cityscape of New York, Blu Anxxiety feels like it crawled up from a subway grate with a bag full of breakbeats and bad intentions. They cherry-pick chaos and brute force, slap it against sneering punk snarl and freestyle’s feverish pulse, then spike the whole concoction with a whispered revolution. They’re as political as a Molotov cocktail. Blu Anxxiety is less a band than a batshit séance summoning the restless spirits of warehouse raves, punk dives, and busted boombox cyphers to crash the same basement blowout.
The unholy trinity of Father F, Dracula O. And Brettt Bartley blare beats over vocals that recall the volatility of a cornered Doberman. Think Nitzer Ebb on a bender, Skinny Puppy with a spray can, and the theatrics of Gwar – so don’t get comfortable. These boys ain’t paying homage…they’re breaking in and stealing the furniture. Blu Anxxiety will thrash your anxieties into submission with a strobe light overhead and a middle finger to the past.
Following sets from Blood Handsome and MIDNIGHTCHOIR, Blu Anxxiety closed the debut of New Goth New York, a brand spanking new showcase of darkwave, goth, and all things spooky in the Big Apple. Dracula O took the Alphaville stage in a nun’s habit, tossing about a rubber ribcage, screeching through his grills, and jumping into the crowd for an up-close-and-personal Marian apparition.
Soon the habit was ripped off and tossed aside to reveal O’s glorious mullet and a shirt that read ORGANIC GENOCIDE. Halfway through the set, a mosh pit formed, jostling onlookers in a shower of lukewarm brewskies (and a frantic search under the disco ball for a lost – ahem – investment).
Dracula O stalked the floor, the main character in everyone’s IG stories, bellowing out an exorcism of pure energy.
New Goth New York is happening again on Thursday, 5 June at Bowery Electric, featuring sets from Ghost Cop, Spookystack, and Holy Wire.
Do not miss this, New Yorkers! More info here.
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