Intergalactic Summit

I have rarely been impressed when public figures use their status to try and get a head start on their music careers. In almost all cases this means mediocre music permeates the aether fueled almost entirely by a pre-existing fanbase that cares little about the actual quality of the music but more about a particular name or face attached to the product. I can't exactly claim Sarz'namarr, (a remote dialect of a bastard low Amarish/MSM language word, meaning various things depending on context. Mostly used as "Shadows of the Amarr" or "Shadows falling upon the Amarr".) have entirely broken the mold in this regard but they have piqued my interest nonetheless.

One fairly public capsuleer and three normals appearing almost out of nowhere with a giant public relations and advertising budget, deals with some of the biggest names in New Eden publishing and a tour schedule taking them through all four nations, including the Empire itself, is in and of itself proof that the capsuleer herself has poured enough funds into this project to rival the military spending of entire planets.

This is what caught my interest, however. This is clearly not a cash grab. Some quick napkin math will show that this first tour alone is going to cost more than can be recovered in two years from concert attendance and merchandise sales, largely because their music, videos, concert recordings and such are all free on Galnet. The same goes for their merchandise, as some enterprising fans on the largest unofficial Sarz'namarr discussion forum on Galnet calculated that the cost of production and distribution actually exceeds what the customer pays.

There is a purpose here and my curiosity about this is what made me leave my home office at a dead run when free tickets and travel arrangements for their latest live concert landed in my inbox. I can't say I regret it. My doctor says I should, but having to spend the next two months yelling "WHAT?!" when people speak to me is a small price to pay.

Let's get this out of the way right now: They are incredibly loud. Somehow the fact that their attendance tickets also count as covering any and all medical treatment required from injuries sustained during their concerts have gotten them immunity from persecution when they blatantly break all laws and regulations regarding public performances.

That or the fact that during one concert they actually used orbital bombardment as their pyrotechnics. I'm not sure I'd want to try start waving citations under their noses after that.

So who are Sarz'namarr?

Mizhara Del'thul, a Sebiestor capsuleer and apparently vocalist. An outspoken freedom fighter or terrorist depending on who you ask, with a sufficiently attention grabbing rhetoric to have gained a fairly significant following among normals, along with just as many detractors among Imperial loyalist normals. I'm not too well versed in capsuleer history myself, but she has been involved with some of the more public corporations and alliances out there, including Star Fraction, the terrorists in Du'uma Fiisi Integrated Astrometrics and seems to have found a home as an officer in Ushra'Khan.

Varg, last name unknown, is a Sebiestor normal who has been part of some fairly major band names in modern Minmatar history. While usually a guitar player of metal fame, he has also been known to dabble in a wide variety of other genres. An accomplished artist and quite likely one of the artistic drivers of Sarz'namarr.

Arashan Kalill, a Vherokior wind dancer that took up drum circles almost eight years ago and is now considered one of the fastest and skilled practitioners of this new art. She has many detractors though, claiming she is losing touch with the wind dancer artform as she continues to explore new heights of drum circle complexity and brutality. I can't say much about wind dancing, but I can say she's definitely on the right track when it comes to pushing the bounds of her chosen artform.

Dread is a Thukker. He plays an instrument I don't know anything about, but I suspect is birthed from the unholy union of an eight string bass guitar and a Sansha's Nation Nightmare. Whoever he is or what he's playing, I don't really want to meet that man. I'll kill to watch him on stage again though.

So what was the concert like? I couldn't tell you in any detail. I am a veteran of the metal scene throughout New Eden and gigantic crowds are pretty common to me now, but when the crowd is nearly blown on their backs simply by the entrance of the bandmembers and their howled greetings dynamics have suddenly changed. From beginning to end the concert was largely the crowd pushing towards the band and the band pushing back with equal or greater force.

In retrospect, when the endorphin and adrenaline fueled frenzy has abated somewhat, I can say they certainly do have a purpose. While I have zero doubts every member of that band believes a hundred percent in their music, their lyrics and message, I can also say with a hundred percent certainty there's an enormous amount of work gone into every facet of their artistry.

... that'd be a great venue actually. A disintegrating carrier in a planet's gravity well. In combat.

I'm calling the company, excuse me.

An Amarrian one, maybe? I'll have to think about this one. Would need to have some fairly robust escape capsule options for my bandmembers and the audience, or at the very least some exceptional safety waivers.

Besides, can't even fly one of those things yet and a Naglfar doesn't have the internal venue space a carrier would. Well, except for the gun barrels.

Which gave me another idea for a venue.