Die Mannequin – Live (November 27th, 2009)

Have you ever flipped through any of those old photo history books that studies the evolution and rise of punk rock in the UK in the late seventies? Any picture of Die Mannequin‘s Care Failure would look right at home amongst the pages of a book like that because Failure is a new age representation of that style and culture. Afterall, Care Failure is a woman possessed by the punk legends of old.

From the look of her, Failure recalls the chaotic nature of early punk. Her hair is disheveled and covers her face. She wears bright red lipstick that becomes slightly smeared by the end of the night. Her eyes are dark and menacing, covered in messy globs of black eye shadow in the same style as Alice Cooper‘s eye makeup. Her neck is held down by countless oversize necklaces and her arms are tattered with tattoos.

She looks like the re-incarnation of punk of old, mixed together with some early nineties grunge elements for good measure and she acts the exact same way.

As Die Mannequin played the Brixx last night for their first ever headlining show in Edmonton, Failure put that persona into action. Battling a cold, her vocals weren’t spot on but the sickness didn’t hold her back in any other way. She was, to put it bluntly, chaotic. She hung off pipes, she smashed glasses against the ground, she climbed on top of the crowd to play guitar and then climbed onto the back amp and played guitar with with a beer bottle before chucking it across the stage to someone. She jumped into the crowd and played in the middle of everyone, she climbed the tables and in the final song of the night she wandered off and played on top of the bar.

She did all this while still playing songs like Do It Or Die, Miss Americvnt, Bad Medicine (with a megaphone), Locking Elizabeth, Hand in Hand, Saved By Strangers, a Turbonegro cover and more. When her cold did become too much for her vocals, she invited the energetic – and drunken – crowd on stage to help sing Autumn Cannibalist.

So while Die Mannequin may not be the band that will change your outlook on life, they know how to put on a frenzied punk show and last night was no exception.