Type O Negative

So, as I was saying…a few weeks ago, I was going to see Type O Negative at Columbiahalle in Berlin. And see them I did. And it was one of the strangest gigs I’ve ever been to.

I suppose the clue should have been in their surprise opening track, a cover of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. Not many bands would open on a cover, least of all one so far away from their own stylings in its original form, but then, Type O Negative aren’t many bands. They proved this further by continuing at full pelt (if the term truly fits) through songs mainly from their new album, Dead Again, for 40 minutes before disappearing off the stage without having spoken a word to the audience.

This turned out to be a theme for the evening. Whereas most bands, when doing a headline gig, would go out onto the stage and play for 90 minutes to 2 hours, briefly disappear and then return once, possibly twice for an encore of no more than 3 songs, Type O disappeared off the stage no less than four times throughout the evening, each for about 5 minutes, and only once at a point in the set where one would traditionally expect an encore. To be honest, I found this a little frustrating, though it didn’t seem to unduly bother most people. I doubt very much whether anyone else would have got away with it though!

Another thing that was strange was the fact that Kenny, the guitarist, seemed to be singing a lot more than he does on the records. He actually has a very good voice, so I didn’t mind at all, but it was strange nonetheless, especially as I don’t remember him singing much, if at all, the last time I saw them. What was also funny in this respect was that, last time I saw Type O Negative, I knew none of their material, whereas this time I was quite familiar with most of their back catalogue, but still didn’t recognise a lot of what they played. Nor did they play the songs I expected off the new album, save for The Profit of Doom. Still, Type O Negative have never really been a band to do the expected, and they pulled off a good gig in spite of it. As only they could.