 
VNV Nation By Clara Flores Pictures by Olga K. Lesson 1: Make sure to SECURE a ride. I did not want to drive alone, so I tried to get one with my friend’s ride, and ended up being late, and becoming the emergency ride…go figure…I guess VNV Nation is not that important to SOME people. Lesson 2: Make time to make it over the Bay Bridge. Due to the unreliable nature of getting a ride to the city on a Saturday night, while there was a baseball game, on Prom weekend, Graduation weekend, and fireworks made driving over the bridge SLOW, and I missed the first part of Imperative Reaction. I really wanted to catch their whole set! Lesson 3: Always check out the Opening act. When I finally get there, I caught about 60% of the rest of Imperative Reaction’s set, which was unfortunate because I would have loved to see the other 40% I missed. Their front man, Ted Phelps is very animated and has a melodically fitting voice to the inorganic nature of their sound. His presentation and his persona stood out and his voice reminded me of Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode, he was more animated than most acts I have seen lately, and he did not waste time in-between songs to chat, he continued onto the next song, and kept the crowd going. Since I got there for the title track of their latest album “Redemption,” which is such an electro dance song that is hard to imagine the dark and aggressive rhythms trimmed with enough synth pop to balance it out. The band played other songs such as “Arrogance” which was orchestrated with such an intimidating and forceful energy, that it was hard not to take into account Clint Carney (System Syn), which is the other integral part of this band; he helps create that seamless and tight sound that sets them apart from most acts out there. After their set, they also signed, hung out, and talked at the merch table: how many bands do that at the Fillmore? Definitely check out Imperative Reaction next time they are in town, they are pretty kick ass, seriously one of the best bands that will be coming from the scene.
There were rumors (on the Fillmore page describing the night…) that they had a new light show, which was supposed to be awesome and amazing, and it was. Important facts about lighting at shows, some lights (such as the ones at the Curiosa, Secret Machines/Interpol) have this tendency to blind you while you look to the stage to get your money’s worth. Well these lights do not blind you; they compliment and add to the aesthetic element of going to a show. The stage set up was consisted of three podiums set in front of a large projection screen, the synth drums were set up in the center, and the other two podiums consisted of two laptops and synth keyboards; the screens behind these two outer podiums, featured videos, and visuals to accompany their respective songs. Let me give you an advance warning about Ronan Harris as a performer. He is a bit schizophrenic: he is THE front man during songs, and then the chatty MC/stand-up comedian in between songs. It is fun, but it gets old when one minute you are dancing and the next minute you are laughing at some funny little anecdotes. VNV Nation is on tour promoting their latest fifth full-length album, Matter + Form, an album, which in my opinion is not as hard pounding and Industrial as the past four releases, and could be considered their most mainstream sounding album to date, not to mention the fact they have just broke the Billboard charts. Of course they initiate their set, by opening up with “Intro” a minute-long instrumental introduction to M+F and immediately followed with “Chrome”, which is a high energy synthpop dance track, also from Matter + Form. They of course sound amazing when played in order as they were on the album. After such a dramatic and energetic introduction to their set, they moved into some of the best songs from their past, such as “Joy” from Praise the Fallen, which is an dark & heavy classic dance anthem from their past. VNV then makes me an even happier girl, by playing “DarkAngel” off Empires, which is my favorite VNV album.
While they played nothing off their debut album, Advance and Follow, they featured the most successful and popular tracks from Empires, and Praise the Fallen, like “Kingdom,” “Honour,” and “Solitary.” The also saved many of the instrumental and ambient tracks for night two, which I love and wish they performed more frequently. They teased at the very end by playing “Airships” from Future Perfect, making me wish again I had tickets for the second show, I should have, would have, gotten tickets for that, and I recommend you do not end up in regret like I for missing out on one night of VNV Nation.
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Lessons
Learned through Experience of Going to See…
Lesson 5: Learn
about the shows aesthetics, sounds, particulars, and quirks.
For the most
part they played many of the songs from Matter +Form, including “Homeward”
and “Entropy”, the singles off the album, along with some
of the more melodic synthpop-esque songs such as “Perpetual”,
and “Arena”. Ronan Harris also informed us early on in-between
songs, that the second show would feature a complete different set list
in order to get people to get folks out for the second night. This worried
me, I think that they chose their strongest tracks, which were singles,
to do on this night, and now I am worried and upset that they will be
performing their more obscure songs at the second show. I wish I were
not broke, so I could have gotten the full VNV Nation experience.