I was catching up on the Trouser Press forum last weekend and saw one member discussing the Rebellion Festival held three weeks ago in the UK. The writer of the post, being American, concentrated their attendance on bands who weren’t American, yet noted [with irony] that The March Violets had announced a US tour after they played the festival. It was to their benefit that they caught them since The March Violets tour was coming nowhere near where they lived. So no real loss for them, but I might be getting lucky!

I jumped to The March Violets website and saw that, yes indeed, I was! They were playing at my local emporium, The Grey Eagle Music Hall on September 12th! Better still, the Grey Eagle revealed that, sacre bleu, a band I had recently discussed were the opener, and that I would have been happy to have gone to the Grey Eagle just for the chance to see opening act Rosegarden Funeral Party. I would have gone to see either of these bands but a twofer? That’s a huge win.

The March Violets are a band barely represented in my Record Cell through unfortunate happenstance. Namely, my inability to find any of their albums. I saw the occasional single, 40 years ago, but that was it. Any albums I saw were US compilations and I was wanting a CD of something. Little did I know in the pre-internet era was that was all that was available from The March Violets! And I only ever heard the band on the generally great “Some Kind Of Wonderful” OST which probably showed the Gothic foundational band at their glossiest and poppiest. In fact, in 1986 while buying that album and liking them, I could not even perceive the band were Gothic in the slightest! I liked the Pop I heard, but in the 90s when looking into their history, I was taken aback so find that they shared origins [and drum machines] with The Sisters Of Mercy.

The Violets have had lots of turnover through time, with periods of non-existence, like so many others. In 2007, the band reformed with original lead vocalist Rosie Garland but no sooner did that happen when Ms. Garland was diagnosed and treated for throat cancer. Fortunately, her care was a success, and the band was back on track from 2010. Since then they have self-released two albums: 2013’s “Made Glorious” and 2015’s “Mortality.” Next the band signed to Metropolis Records for their brand new album “Crocodile Promises,” released on July 19th of this year, and that brings us to this large US tour.

THE MARCH VIOLETS | N. AMERICA 2024 – LEG 1

• AUG 23 | New World Brewery | Tampa, FL
• AUG 24 | Respectable Street | West Palm Beach, FL
• AUG 25 | Conduit | Winter Park, FL
• AUG 28 | Metro Baltimore | Baltimore, MD
• AUG 31 | A Murder Of Crows Festival | Brooklyn, NY
• SEP 01 | The Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub | Cambridge, MA
• SEP 03 | Foufounes Électriques | Montreal, QC – CANADA
• SEP 04 | Velvet Underground | Toronto, ON – CANADA
• SEP 06 | Small’s | Hamtramck, MI
• SEP 08 | Empty Bottle | Chicago, IL
• SEP 10 | Rumba Cafe | Columbus, OH
• SEP 12 | The Grey Eagle Music Hall | Asheville, NC

THE MARCH VIOLETS | USA 2024 – LEG 2

• OCT 28 | Santos Bar | New Orleans, LA
• OCT 29 | Numbers Night Club | Houston, TX
• OCT 30 | Three Links Deep Ellum | Dallas, TX
• NOV 02 | The Whittier Bar | Tulsa, OK
• NOV 03 | Record Bar | Kansas City, MO
• NOV 05 | HQ | Denver, CO
• NOV 06 | The Urban Lounge | Salt Lake City, UT
• NOV 08 | Funhouse | Seattle, WA
• NOV 10 | Star Theater | Portland, OR
• NOV 12 | The Starlet Room | Sacramento, CA
• NOV 13 | The Chapel | San Francisco, CA
• NOV 14 | The Echo | Los Angeles, CA

The first leg is what we’ll be catching on the last date on Sept. 12 and for these shows in August through September, we’ve got a treat: The Dallas-based Post-Punk band Rosegarden Funeral Party. They recently came to my attention via their linkup with Monastic favorite Peter Godwin. Peter and Rosegarden’s lead singer Leah Lane have written an album together as Re/Generation that’s still in gestation, though we reviewed the single this month. I’ve not yet sampled Rosegarden’s music but their new album, “From The Ashes” has been recommended to me from commenter SimonH so I will be gunning for that scarce CD on the merch table. Rosegarden Funeral Party have had five releases since 2018 so they are really laying down a patch! Of special monastic note is the “Take Cover” album covering artists like Danny Elfman, OMD, Roxy Music, Peter Gabriel, Sparks, Bowie, Duncan Browne, and Metro. It was on that 2022 project that Ms. Lane first linked up with Peter Godwin in what’s turned out to be a fruitful side partnership in Re/Generation.

Join us in a few weeks when the inevitable concert review will probably happen. In the interim, if either of these bands are congruent with your personal Venn diagram of taste, their latest offerings are in their respective Bandcamp stores. March Violets have their CD @ $14.00 and their LP @ $25.00. Ironically, Rosegarden Funeral Party are American, but seem to be selling to an overseas audience. Their CD is €14.50 with the black LP @ €20.00, the blue LP @ €23.50, and the [very cool] black and gold LP @ €25.00. DJ, hit those buttons!

THE MARCH VIOLETS | Crocodile Promises

ROSEGARDEN FUNERAL PARTY | From The Ashes

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