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As Time Goes by
In 2002, things in the ‘last world’ changed - a beloved member, Ivan "Lucky" Dominguez, passed away during a tour, and it wasn’t sure that things ever would be the same again. But time goes by, and The Last Dance are as active as ever. The album "Once Beautiful" was released in august 2005, and now when they came back to the Wave Gotik Treffen we thought that it would be perfect to do a follow-up to the article we wrote when they were here in 1999.
When Lucky passed away things changed in many ways, one of them was how The Last Dance worked together. Earlier, their creative process of writing lyrics and music had been a teamwork, but after the death of Ivan it has become more of a single person’s work. They are working on things one by one, and then present their work to each other. If everyone likes it, they continue to work with it, together, and it becomes a new song.
- It has been a hard time for everyone, and it wasn’t even sure that it would ever be a new album, Jeff tells me.
But a new album, "Once Beautiful", saw the light of day, and The Last Dance went on tour once again.
The Last Dance on Tour
- Later this year, we are going on tour in the states, and maybe we will do a European tour as well, says Jeff
They sure want to do a new European tour if it’s possible. But it depends on the interest, if there is enough demand to get shows for a tour. The last times they have been performing in Europe before the Wave Gotik Treffen, were a small tour in the UK 2005 and some gigs in 2004.
According to Jeff, The Last Dance are doing better performances in Europe then they are doing in the US, and they like to play in small places rather then large ones. The audience in the US are harder to please in one way as well. Most people there don’t really want to go and see a band when they are going out; they rather go out and dance instead of going to see bands play live. That’s a difference from the Europe, where people love and appreciate what they see.
Support the scene
The Last Dance are using a myspace web page as a compliment to their official one. It’s a good way to get the band more publicity. They have some mp3 files you can listen to and download for free. But the publicity will be worth nothing, if the fans choose to not support the bands, in ways like buying the records, and come to the shows.
- The goth scene is a hard area to work in, the fans doesn’t really care.
If people keep on downloading the records instead of buying them, there soon won't be any shows to go to. In the goth scene, the bands don't get much money from their live performances, and at WGT many of the bands play for free.
But this is not only about supporting a special band but the whole goth scene. As an example, if you don’t come to the show with The Last Dance, there will be no show with the next band either.
Forever after
The gothic music is and has been developing - there is old school goth, and there is "new" goth. If you ask Jeff, he would definitely say that the The Last Dance still are an old-school band - at least when they are performing. And that is exactly what they want to be.
- I miss the organic music; I miss the times when goth music was rock music.But still, it’s fun to perform with The Last Dance. Sure, there will always be old songs that they will be tired of, but they know that the fans still love them, and they are going to keep on playing them.
- There is a song on the "Whisper with Rage" album that was written by Ivan. When we recorded it, we just did it. That song will never be preformed live, it is too private.
Even if The Last Dance is a band that have been working together for a long time, they never seem to get tired of doing it, and the answer to the question: "Is this something you still feel like doing forever?" the answer is: "Yes, if it’s possible!"
/Sara Oskarsson & Johan Astemark
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The vocalist Jeff Diehm
Jeff Diehm
Peter Gorritz in action
Bass player Peter Gorritz
The last crowd (Parkbühne)
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