Before my next profile, I just want to point out that my 41 Days to Dragon*Con in 2010 was all about the trailer for the last two Harry Potter movies, and those movies have happened at this point, and the movies were pretty fantastic don’t you think? My, how time flies.
Also, I’m only going to be doing musical performers–Crossed Swords is a stage combat group, hopefully that’s pretty self-explanatory!
Anyway, you probably know the next band I’m profiling, so I’ll keep this brief. The Crüxshadows have been at Dragon*Con for as long as I’ve been going (and longer, of course), and they’re one of the first bands I saw during my first Dragon*Con in 2009. They do gothy, dancey music and they have a cross-like symbol and their motto is “Live, Love, Be, Believe.” Their lead singer/organizer is a man named Rogue, who has weird hair:
The band has a lot of electronic classical instruments, in particular violins, and a posse of backup dancers in skimpy clothes, who are called the Crüxshadows fairies. The band is based in Florida–they were founded in Tallahassee (which is a terrible city) and they’re now located in Jacksonville (which is a slightly less terrible city). I’m from Florida and my mother is from Jacksonville (my grandmother still lives there), so I can say these things. You probably know the Crüxshadows from their booth in the music exhibition area of the Marriott–they’re always playing the same three or four songs over and over at top volume. They are also one of the few (maybe the only) band that has a group march in the parade.
Confession: I love the Crüxshadows. I try to see them every Con if I can. I like their music, I listen to it regularly–particularly at the gym, it is good for cardio. I like their live show. I like that everything is sort of choreographed and that Rogue has lights on his hands and also that he likes to go out and do a few songs in the center of the audience.
So, here are a few songs from the Crüxshadows, if you aren’t already familiar with them. I hope you like them, I know I do.
“Winterborn”:
“Quicksilver”:
“Sophia”:
See, I totally like this stuff.
Talking points:
-Maybe the most popular band at Dragon*Con? At least they have the loudest booth. Also a parade group!
-Lead singer with weird hair, skimpily-dressed backup dancers.
-Gothy-electronic music
-Pretty fantastic live show.
Two thumbs up, duh.
The Dilettantista 
Crossed Swords is really good. I saw them in 2010. Here’s their website if you want to know more: http://www.crossedswords.biz/
Thanks for the comment! I might go back and slot in the performers after I get through the bands. I think I counted almost 25 bands, and while I am definitely keeping with the profiling I don’t want the countdown to become just a band listing!
Oh, I didn’t mean you needed to write a whole post about them. The link I provided should give enough information for anyone who wants to know more. There are a lot of bands, that’s why I have a heard time remembering which ones I wanted to hear.
does anyone know which day Cruxshadows will be performing? I can only attend one day. thank you.
Complete D*Con schedule usually goes up approximately a week before the Con starts. For the past two years the Cruxshadows have played the late shift (1:30isham) on Sunday night/Monday morning, but that could easily change this year.
ok, thank you very much. This will be my 1st Con-very excited. (actually I went to the Cruxshadows website & it looks like they are scheduled for Fri. Aug. 31st.