Themes of love, loss, betrayal and general relationship paranoia are not revolutionary topics for pop music. It’s all in the delivery, and every generation has a voice that crosses over from a darker realm to sing about sex, desire and seduction for the rest of us. First came the Doors and the Velvet Underground, then we had Joy Division and Depeche Mode, and today we have She Wants Revenge. The California-based duo of singer Justin Warfield and musical partner “Adam 12” Bravin gave the Gothic set something to writhe about with infectious dark grooves from their 2006 debut like “These Things,” “Out of Control” and “Tear You Apart,” the video for the latter of which was directed by Joaquin Phoenix.
She Wants Revenge’s second album, This Is Forever, just arrived on October 9 and will make scorned lovers everywhere put on their finest black threads, head out to the club and dance it off. The video for the song “Written in Blood” (embedded at the top of this post) is an homage to the opening sequence of the ultra-chic vampire flick The Hunger, in which uptown immortal couple David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve scan the crowd at a club for victims while Goth-music gods Bauhaus perform. In the darkly seductive R-rated She Wants Revenge video, Warfield assumes the role of Bauhaus front man Peter Murphy—slinking and sliding behind a steel fence—as a couple picks up a young female clubgoer for some hot vampire sex and, of course, a little bloodletting.
If all of this sounds a bit morose for your tastes, you have to experience She Wants Revenge live—as I did for the launch of their current tour on October 4 at the Troubadour in L.A.—to fully appreciate the band’s appeal. “Someone’s gonna fall in love in here tonight,” crooned Warfield from the song “Just Begun” to an enraptured crowd. Warfield, dressed relatively plainly in dark jeans, T-shirt and a knit cap, clearly isn’t interested in personally succumbing to the tired clichés of this music genre. Instead he focused on serving up the best songs from She Wants Revenge’s two albums, dancing along with crowd and seeming to actually—gasp!—enjoy himself. With all the negative stereotypes associated with this dark wave of music and the clownish image sometimes linked to it (think Marilyn Manson), it’s refreshing to witness a band make jaded lovers forget about the wrinkles in their bed for a little while and find a new rhythm.
Somewhere out there maybe Jim Morrison, Nico and Ian Curtis are dancing along with them.
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