Trauma 2006 @Promowest, Columbus, ohio Review by Royce Icon
Trauma 2006 review
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a pretty anti-social person. Hell, that’s being too nice. In all honestly I’m a misanthropic asshole. I really loathe being in groups of people and as a result I don’t go to a lot of gigs and I don’t usually dig clubbing either. But I was attracted to the BDSM nature of the Trauma event, so I decided I’d give it a chance. And I am happy to report that I was only somewhat disappointed.
It’s generally known that you don’t really show up on time for most gigs or events because they usually don’t actually start until at least an hour or two after the listed start time. But regardless, my friends and I arrived early anyway. Because of this, I spent the first hour and a half or so just kind of sitting around listening to the shitty EBM music they were playing, amusing myself by playing balloon tag with my friend Alyssa. There was some shitty rock band playing below in the basement, but I wasn’t bored enough to willingly digest their asinine soulless music. I mean, they really sucked. They were like pop punk metal. There wasn’t one moment where the vocalist didn’t have a beer in hand during their set. No thanks.
By around 10:30 or so, things started to kick off a bit. More people showed up and the bondage began downstairs. The shitty band was still playing, but I didn’t mind as much since I got to see some femme domme spanking a girl’s bare ass. The bondage was definitely one of the highlights of the event for me, though I have to say I wish things would have gotten a bit more kinky, intense and sexual. The atmosphere was pretty open to sexuality, and I really wanted to see more than whipping and ass spanking. Not that I didn’t enjoy seeing girls and dudes being whipped and spanked, I was just hoping for some insertion or something a bit closer to sex. It was still pretty cool though.
By around eleven or so burlesque performers began to do their thing on the upper floor stage, and that was definitely another highlight of the event. I got to see a lot of people on stilts, the most noticeable was a couple who did a really cool marionette performance, with the girl being the puppet and the guy on stilts controlling her movements. It was very well executed and rather remarkable. I really loved the way the girl danced in a jagged, almost contortionist manner.
But there was more than people on stilts going on on the top floor for sure. There was a couple of pretty burlesque performers that were rather spiffy too, though unfortunately I don’t remember their names. The first girl I saw did a nice routine with an umbrella that was cute in a cheesecake kind of way, but I unfortunately only got to see the end of it.
The second girl started off her routine with hoola hoops and a guy in a gorilla costume. She and the gorilla messed around for a bit and then the gorilla went away and the focus was put on her. I had never seen anyone perform with a hoola hoop before and to be honest I always thought it would be kind of boring and silly to watch, but she completely proved this assumption wrong with her set.
This girl knew what she was doing and I was fascinated by watching her move in and out of the hoops and then by her ability to twirl the hoops on her torso. At some point she took off her bra, which of course made it even more entertaining than it already was. I really admired the muscles of her body, and it really was cool to watch her work them. As a finally of sorts the hoola hoop girl was joined by a girl in a sheer pantyhose suit who started twirling some neon ball thingies. They played together for awhile and then their performances sadly ended. One of my main beefs with the event was that they didn’t have a bit more of this stuff going on, because I was really into it.
After the burlesque performance was over I went back downstairs and watched more of the bdsm action. Then Only Flesh started to play. I had read a lot about the band and heard a lot, but this was the first time I had seen them. I was kind of disappointed by the lack of suspensions, since they’re notorious for doing them onstage, and that’s partially kind of why I wanted to see them. I guess they couldn’t do it due to the set up, or they just didn’t feel like it or something. Regardless, they were still pretty cool to see, especially due to Rev. Lower’s GWARish costume that was full of spikes, especially in his crotch region.
The band did two sets, one set of their more EMB-electro material, and one of their more metal/punk stuff. During the former set I made the somewhat uncharacteristic decision to start dancing in the little area that was full of balloons. Within a couple minutes of doing so, I found myself dancing with a pretty goth girl and was were more or less dry humping for a couple minutes. It lasted basically one song and then she went away, but it was definitely rather enjoyable, even if I did feel kind of silly walking around with the massive boner it gave me.
I ventured back upstairs for a little bit during Only Flesh’s second set, but then I came back down and watched the last half of it. Musically it was okay, but not exceptional to be honest. A mixture of punkish stuff and a bit more metal parts. Rev.’s vocals kind of reminded me of Marilyn Manson at times, if he were more garage rock. I enjoyed their performance overall though, and the fact that they did a medley that combined Quiet Riot’s Bang your head with the Misfit’s Halloween made me dig them even more.
After Only Flesh’s set I ventured back upstairs to watch the halloween contest. There were some interesting costumes, but nothing that I thought was super cool, save for the hitleresque/ Ilsa girl and the dude who was dressed like a Centauri diplomat from Babylon 5. The drag queen who hosted the event was cool as well, she had a very divaesque charm to her that I normally find repugnant but with her I liked.
After the Halloween contest (which turned out to be a five way draw or so), I went back downstairs to watch the Bondage 101 seminar, which was an older man with a blue beard demonstrating how to properly tie someone up. I thought it was interesting, but you could barely hear him because they were still playing music loudly and he had no amplification and a naturally low voice. I was a few feet from him and he was still rather inaudible.
When the bondage seminar was over the girls of Evolved began their set, and I have to say it was by far the most disappointing thing about the night. It was just a bunch of girls having a food fight while semi-naked. And half of the girls had an icky kind of Suicide Girls thing to them anyway. My friends and I got pretty damn bored by them and we went ahead and left about five minutes into their routine.
All in all it was a pleasurable experience, more pleasurable than most public outings tend to be for me. I definitely intend on going to the event next year if possible.