B^Froth

icy hands will never melt away

so you know when you finally catch a show of a band that you’ve liked for some time but never before seen, in photograph or otherwise? it’s strangely revealing…

for instance, you might come to the startling conclusion that what you had thought for so long were female vocals, are really those of a male vocalist with a somewhat high-register singing voice. you see, among the few things about the band that i’ve known (or thought i knew) was that it had a female member (laura carter). now, i don’t actually know very much about her, and after the show on tuesday i’m likely to disbelieve anything that i think i do know, but i was operating for some time under the impression that she was the band’s lead vocalist. bear with me here; i want to try an experiment. listen to a bit of an elf power song, and do try to pretend not only that you don’t know the band has a male lead vocalist, but that in fact the lead vocalist is a woman with a low-register singing voice:

elf power - when the red king comes - 01 - step through the portal

well? am i insane, or can you hear how that i might have been confused?

at any rate, after most of their set i finally got my mind around the gender confusion and worked up the nerve to confirm some other rumors regarding the band. i’d heard years earlier that elf power derived their name, as well as most their song subjects, from fantasy role playing games (dungeon and dragons, etc.). it turns out i was wrong there as well; apparently Andrew Rieger simply saw the words “elf power” written in some cement and liked the sound of it. i forgot to ask about their Conservation Community, but after having my happy illusion shattered of them sitting around stoned, playing D&D, and writing songs about it, i just didn’t have the will to ask anymore questions whatsoever.

many of us are out here, thinking of you, chaining arms, hoping for you during this crucial lifechange. it can be hard when a person questions their own gender, but it can be ten times harder questioning the gender of a person who is distant, who is singing and who is not really playing role-playing games.

i just want you to know, from my heartest of hardy hearts, that i am really playing role-playing games. let us massacre and lay waste to this molten lair!

(-: !! now that's what i'm talking about.