May 1st: Industrial Rockers Redzone Host Music Fest in Second Life's Post-Apocalyptic Wastlelands [SLANE]

Tomorrow starting at 2pm SLT, UK industrial group Redzone are hosting an 8 hour live music extravaganza in the famed Second Life sims called The Wastelands. Persia Bravin of SLANE (Second Life Arts and Entertainment) has all the details on the show, the band, and the post-industrial sims. Click to read more! - Hamlet

Twisted chunks of rusting metal lay scattered across the scorched, arid earth and the relentless desert wind screams in from the north, carrying with it clouds of debris and choking dust. Across the plain, the jagged remnants of a plane’s fuselage lay belly up, its insides ripped open, and the wings now in pieces. It’s impossible to think that humanity can exist in this desolate, decaying wilderness where carnage and chemical warfare rule, but signs of survival are here; shelters are fabricated from wrecked vehicles and fires burn unchecked. This is a savage, brutally beautiful landscape-this is ‘The Wastelands.’

One of Second Life’s oldest and most cherished post-apocalyptic sims, The Wastelands has played host to thousands of visitors and hundreds of events over the years, but this weekend there is an extra special music event taking place which is sure to attract legions of cyber punks, vagabonds and music lovers. UK band ‘Redzone’ have organised an eight hour music event on Sunday May 1st to celebrate the official launch of their new EP 'Ultrastructure volume 1' –the first in a four part series of new EP’s to be released by the band. Redzone are no strangers to playing at The Wastelands, where their unique blend of industrial music with its droning rhythms and druidic blood chant vocals perfectly match the atmosphere of the sim, and it’s been an impressive four years now since they first arranged the legendary ‘Scorched Earth’ event here.

But using Second Life as the official launch venue of a real life CD is still a rare move, so why did Redzone decide to promote it in world? “We love the SL platform and do most of our live performances virtually nowadays. It really frees us up to do things we couldn't do in a real venue-not without an enormous budget anyway,” explains Red Xu, one of the forming members of the band. “One of the main advantages of playing live in Second Life is the sound quality; it is vastly superior to most RL live venues, in the sense that we are playing in our recording studio rather than an echoey box of a room with a cheap PA system. Having said that, SL shows do catch us out sometimes; we have had power-cuts and broadband failures scupper our plans a couple of times, but over 4-and-a-half years of playing, that's not too bad! Mainly though, we love The Wastelands crowd and we love our SL friends and fans.”

Full Schedule (all times are in SLT) - Wastelands Music Festival, May 1st 2011

Redzone are proud to present an epic music event in the oldest and best Post-Apocalyptic community in Second life. Using the two finest venues in the WL, The Junk Stage and The Atropine, the event features some of the best live bands and DJs around.

• 2PM - Krakov Letov (Live set at The Atropine)
• 3PM - The Invisible Band (Live set at The Atropine)
• 4PM - Aposiopesis Fullstop (DJ set at The Junkyard)
• 5PM - [Engrama] (Live set at The Atropine)
• 6PM - Diamanda Gustafson (DJ set at The Junkyard)
• 7PM - Redzone (Live set at The Atropine)
• 8PM - Social Security (Live set at The Atropine)
• 9PM - Karu Seetan (DJ set at The Junkyard)
• 10PM - Gomi Mfume (DJ set at The Junkyard)

Click here to teleport to The Atropine

Click here to teleport to The Junkyard

Post by Persia Bravin of SLANE, a group of dedicated writers and everyday SL users here to provide you with interesting and informative articles on the people, places and things in Second Life that we love most.

Comments

[Tateru Nino]

You'd have to work pretty hard to overcome the stigma of a name like 'redzone' in Second Life at the moment.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

It is not the band's fault that someone used their name in SL for illicit purposes.

[Tinsel Silvera]

I agree completely Ann. A lot of time and effort has been put into this event by many talented individuals. Thank you Hamlet for NOT equating this music event to past illicit activities in Second Life.

[Hamlet Au]

I've been writing about RedZone the band since 2009:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/03/red-zone-rocks-the-metaverse.html

So when people started complaining about Redzone the security thing, in the beginning I thought they were talking about the band! Like, why are so many people angry at a cool UK industrial group?

[Red Xu]

The name collison was an annoyance, I'd be lying if I said any differently, but we were in SL before the 'other' redzone and will just have to deal with it! We are NOT going to change just because of this!

Thanks to Hamlet, Persia and NWN for the continued support :)