Voltaire has packed every room we’ve put him in – packed to capacity, no matter how large a room it was. This year, our new Main Stage can hold 1200 people. And he’s going to fill it.
Why?
It’s not just that, in a Steampunk culture whose Renaissance has been in the past five years, he’s an elder statesman. Though he is – Voltaire was wearing his jaunty top-hat before Abney Park had ever uttered the words “Airship Pirate”. Some of it lies in his extraordinary talent as a musician; he wends his voice adroitly through a song, catching you, adding spice and flavor and impact. His guitar work is simple, clean, and elegant. But more than that, as a performer, Voltaire is simply mesmerizing. He holds a stage, he captures attention – and he does it casually. We know few musicians who are so comfortable having conversations with the audience, and then blasting into a song at full throttle. Check out this, for example:
Mr. Aurelio Voltaire has seen unusual people doing unusual things for 20 years, and been commenting on it the whole time. I’ve seen literally hundreds of people cracking up to his description of how goths dance – I’ve seen it happen at Goth shows, I’ve seen it happen at Anime conventions, I saw it happen in a little café in New Jersey once – the audience didn’t matter, his sense of humor and timing were too impeccable to resist.
For me, it’s about the songs. It’s safe to say that few artists of the past 50 years have touched the sensitive subject of brain-eating with such grace as in the song he did for “The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy” – you can see the whole short film here; his song starts about 90 seconds in. And even the wisest diplomats are challenged by the battles between Star Trek and Star Wars, but Voltaire did makes an eloquent bid to bring them together in “Bitreksual.” And finally, there’s the song I plan to sing to my own niece, when she’s just a few months older, the song Voltaire wrote for his own son- “Goodnight Demonslayer:”
(Note: Voltaire handles many subjects, some of which have some adult content. We do not recommend him for children, unless you want them to grow up weird.)