Press Release
Vampire State Building: A stunning visual rock/techno hybrid!
Vampire State Building are not afraid to mix genres. The music can vary from almost "pure" techno via heavy industrial metal with a strong guitar flavour, to film score type sound pictures or more melodic sequences.
With a lineup consisting of guitar, keyboard, drums, a male and a female vocalist, VSB creates music that is hard to classify. Through its three releases the band has presented everything from sinister and dark sounding underground productions to the spring '95 Norwegian radio hit "Smalltown Boy". That they have the audacity to shake the dust from Bronski Beat's old hit says a little about the band's lack of respect for musical boundaries.
1996 was spent preparing for their second full-length CD, to be released in 1997.
Vampire State Building represented Norway at the Roskilde festival of music in 1994. More than 5.000 people crammed themselves together in a tent only supposed to house 2.500 to see them, which was the audience record for that stage. VSB have also toured Sweden, Denmark and Germany apart from Norway. In a concert situation, Vampire State Building feels it is important to come across as a "real" band. Consequently they perform all songs with live instruments, without playback tapes etc.
What makes the band's live concerts stand out from the ordinary is the fact that they will always provide a visual show to compliment the music. Extended use of computer-generated video graphics and dance makes a VSB performance into something different. The band doesn't hesitate in using "cheap" space effects mixed with more advanced video graphics to create the ambience they want, and the dancer's costumes can also vary from the conservatively neutral to the baroque. The band isn’t afraid to experiment with visual effects — so far they have (with varying luck!) presented things like Japanese buto dancing, burning hands, theatre sequences, latex suits and horror film effects.
The element of surprise has so far been paramount in VSB’s performances, and you can never be entirely sure what you're in for on one of their concerts, except that you are guaranteed not to get long guitar solos and lighter waving ballads. When VSB use a cliché, they will do it with such pompousness that you understand that there is a certain ironical distance involved.
Very few people remain neutral to what Vampire State Building are doing. The only way to find out if you are irritated or entertained by them is to attend one of their concerts when you get the chance.