Incus

at Ceremony
by Angela Dauthi

Hmm. Just another Monday at the Goth Club. But there’s something different tonight. The stage is filled with… Drums. What’s going on? It’s a performance by Incus. They come on stage, wearing total Goth and fetish gear, six of them, and they get behind their instruments. Bells start jangling. I step back and take in the look of the band as they start a low, plodding, deep seated groove. From the back: A young woman wielding a big drum stick, tight body in tighter clothes; a man in leather pants and a loose shirt with a drum between his legs; another (hey, do I know him?) with long hair and a skin tight rubber suit on a set of floor toms and congas. A timpani stands in the corner opposite a tree trunk with a drum head on it. Next to that is a lagre metal sculpture/object. Up front: A woman behind a set of keyboards, looking elegant and ready; a bassist in a silver coat and wrapped in Saran Wrap; and a man made up like a rabid Geisha girl, a mic at his lips. No guitar. They continue playing, and the rhythm becomes solid. A wave of trance sweeps through the crowd. The lead singer commands presence as he move like the double incarnation of Gavin Friday and Jim Morrison. The band suddenly breaks into a sweaty up tempo groove as Jason (the singer) continues to bellow out the words. With three drummers, Incus is totally about rhythm. The crowd begins moving, and Incus keeps feeding the feeling. They start banging on the sculpture, and Neubauten clangs chase each other though the club. Although they are all dressed as such, they’re going for more than just Goth. There’s a spiritual and tribal feeling to the music, like an orchestrated drum circle, or a shamanistic ritual. Energy flows from the band into the crowd, causing us to dance like dervishes, oblivious to the world. The tempo keeps building throughout the set until Jason introduces a song “that’s not finished yet. We’re going to finish it right now.” This rather mild introduction left us unprepared for what came next. They gave us a song that was some sort of organic Underworld. It wasn’t a cover, they just played like it was organic techno. Hmm. Organic techno. Tribal industrial? Ethno-Goth? Whatever, the labels aren’t important. They obviously have an appeal beyond the Goth circle, even when Goths are swaying around like drunk kittens. Incus closed the show with an incredibly heavy, pounding beat, each drummer slamming against their drums like the world was about to end. Jason sang about a people who had nothing. “Now we have rhythm, and we have much.” We agree.