With a band like Zeigeist
- whose act is more like didactic theatre than gig, abounding in
buckets of fake blood pouring from the ceiling like the final reels of
Carrie, elaborate Count Dracula Victoriana costumes with billowing
fabrics, capes that descend across the entire stage and hooded, masked
figures forever looming in the background - it comes as no surprise
that, rather than a list of everyman bands, their inspiration lies
elsewhere. Matthew Barney, Comme des Garçons, Peter Greenaway, Andy
Warhol and Alexander McQueen all get a nod. And Lynch? "Oh we love
David Lynch, he is very special to us," says singer Mattias Brun,
touching his maroon fingers to a carefully-tapered fringe before
noticing the sticky fake blood on them and pulling away sharpish so as
not to stain his dirty blonde mane an unseemly sunburnt flesh colour.
And
the Lynch influence certainly shows. The opening credits of Zeigeist's
The Jade Motel tour are full of intriguing yet sinister characters,
over-the-top sets and deathly black comedy asides. The Swedish trio's
live act is just that, an act. A play. An aesthete's feast. But ask
Mattias to discuss Zeigeist's performance at length, and he is lost for
words. How do you explain an enigma?
"See us live and it will become obvious. There is no other way to
explain Zeigeist," he laughs. "For those who don't know about us: we
are a creative project with music performed with visual elements as a
fundament. We're best described as 'a degenerated children's party with
paint, blood, feathers and confetti, mixed with haute couture, video
projections, strobes and punchy pop'. But that doesn't even begin to
explain it."