Tuesday night, time to reconvene in Trix in Antwerp for a special night, travelling through space and time on this audiovisual masterpiece. Behind the steering wheel is the band STARSET, a 6-piece from Ohio that attempts to tell a story throughout their music.
The Immersion tour brings a lot of audiovisual and cinematic extras to help the band tell the story of a near future where rebellions have taken over and dystopia is imminent. The demonstration, as defined by the band, was initiated with a 5 minute cinematic prequel , projected on the screen behind the stage. In between songs a new scene was being revealed.
Prologue
The band appears on stage dressed in futuristic uniforms as we hear a mysterious female voice talking about a device being activated just before some propaganda like music starts playing in the background.
A first cinematic video is being projected to explain the storyline of this demonstration: there is a New East – New West alliance and its existence is being threatened by one person from a rebellion faction…
The next scene introduces us to the main character of the story called the Auditor.
The prologue ends as the first musical notes of ‘Unbecoming‘ are being played. This song gives us a first taste of what STARSET is all about: breathtaking visuals, extraordinary vocals, amazing concert music made up of drums, guitars, synthesizers, a violin and even a cello.
Big shoutout to Cory Juba who was caught playing two synthesizers at the same time while levitating.
Chapter 1: Affection
The story takes us to a place called Frost Alley, near the red light district. We see the main character, later to be called The Auditor, talking to a doorman. The doorman suggests to pick a vice and the Auditor responds he wants a girl.
Couple of minutes later we realize he is only looking for affection. This cinematic video is seamlessly followed up by the intimate sounds of the string section made up by Siobhán Cronin on the violin and Zuzana Engererova on the cello on the song ‘Carnivore‘.
Chapter 2: Hurt
We return to Frost alley where we get a flashback as the Auditor is talking to a doorman. This time the Auditor requests to be hurt.
Chapter 3: Love
The Auditor returns home to his wife who was supplicated for stealing meds. In the STARSET cinematic universe being supplicated has the meaning of being devoid of control of your own body. ‘PERFECT MACHINE‘ is therefore the perfect song to accompany this cinematic video of his wife being a machine rather than a person.
Chapter 4: Anger
Realizing there is not much he can do to bring his wife back, the Auditor bursts out in mortifying anger as we see him thrashing the place. Not a coincidence they paired this chapter with the song ‘Frequency‘. In this older song we could hear the first screams (of anger?).
Chapter 5: Trials
We go back in time to get a glimpse of the New East movement as vocalist Dustin Bates waves the notorious red flag around.
This part is accompanied with the song ‘TRIALS‘ which clearly is a fan favorite as everyone started singing along on the chorus “These Trials Make Us Who We Are”. Of course, it was not hard to sing along as the lyrics were projected on some kind of a hologram on stage; one big, happy karaoke moment.
Chapter 6: Politics
A mysterious woman appears at the doorstep of the Auditor’s home. They have clearly met before. She enters and makes an indecent proposal. ‘It Has Begun‘ is the perfect opportunity to warn us there is more to the story that we don’t know yet.
Chapter 7: Audit
The Auditor is sitting at his desk, interrogating the alleged criminal sitting in front of him. The plot thickens as all of a sudden the mysterious woman beams into his office, reminding him of the indecent proposal, to let one John Handworth off when he would appear in front of him the next day.
Chapter 8: Coercion
In this scene we get to see a hint of the power the mysterious woman possesses. The Auditor attempts to buy meds but he is denied access. Later we see the mysterious woman explaining him that taking his meds away is only the first step if he does not comply.
Chapter 9: John Handworth
Who is John Handworth and why is the mysterious woman so invested in him?
We are launched into the workshop of John Handworth, where we see him install a Brain Machine Interface (BMI) in someone’s temple. This device is a futuristic implant which enables the user to alter its personal reality, even augment its mind. Some might argue the user can get ‘INFECTED‘.
Chapter 10: Resolve
John finds a ‘TELEKINETIC‘ way to suppress the BMI signal, if only for a brief amount of time.
A few moments later we see John having a conversation with the mysterious woman, being revealed to be the leader of the rebellion, just minutes before he is being beamed in the chair in front of the Auditor. Time for his interrogation! Are you ready for a ‘Brave New World‘?
Chapter 11: Consequences
After the interrogation the Auditor returns home and get comfortable next to his wife in the couch. Next scene we see the white BMI turning red implying the Auditor has been supplicated for not obeying to let John off.
Chapter 12: Rebooting
As the band leaves the stage a 6 minutes countdown clock is projected for rebooting the demonstration. During this time we see people moving stuff around and remove most of the visual effects.
Chapter 13: Immersion 2.0
As soon as the clock has counted down till zero the band reappears on stage for a couple more songs. They reappear this time in a more worldly attire, implying the storyline is finished for now. Immersion is far from over as the band unleashes a mix of older songs such as ‘ECHO‘, ‘Halo‘ and ‘My Demons‘.
Chapter 14: The end is near
The demonstration has come to an end… or is it just an illusion? After disappearing off stage for a couple of minutes STARSET returns for one final song called ‘TokSik‘ which they only released couple of months ago.
Epilogue
The demonstration finds its closure with a 5 minute video projection. This time we see a new character talking to us from the future, warning us for the rebellion. There is still time to avoid a dystopic future, act now!
This last video clearly made us hint at the future of STARSET which will be revealed in the spring of 2025.
Curious to see what the new era will bring!
This Immersion demonstration truely was a masterpiece and exceeded all expectations, both musically and audiovisually.
Setlist: Unbecoming – Carnivore – MANIFEST – PERFECT MACHINE – Frequency – TRIALS – It Has Begun – Waiting on the Sky to Change – DEVOLUTION – INFECTED – TELEKINETIC – Brave New World – FAULTLINE – Monster – DEGENERATE – ECHO – Die for You – Halo – My Demons – TokSik
More photos can be found here: STARSET – 22/10/2024 – Trix (Antwerp) – CtrlAltMusic.