Abney Park

Abney Park has some great songs. What is Abney Park, you ask? Abney Park is a Steampunk band. For someone new to the music, it's a little more punk, but I learned to love them pretty quickly. Not only is their music good, but they are the kindest people. My husband was lucky enough and surprised to learn he'd just spoken with Captain Robert's in the restroom before the concert. He hadn't realized who he was speaking with until he came out on stage.


They had gotten about half way through the second song of the night when Captain Roberts had the band stop because of a little girl in the very front of the stage. She had her hands over her ears and was screaming because it was too loud. He asked her if she was alright, then called the parents to try and move the kids away from the speakers. She fought her parents from taking her away, but was happy enough once she was set onto her father's shoulders.


It was great to see them enjoy not just their music but the people dressed up and dancing. After the concert they signed everything from shirts to cd's and even signed my wind-up doll box and stood and posed for pictures all with a smile and a laugh.

I highly recommend if you ever get a chance to attend one of their concerts. If you can't at least try out their music. You can find it on youtube, just search for Abney Park. My all-time favorite song by them is "She".
"She" is about a man who has the sudden realization the woman he loves has always done whatever she can stand behind him, even when he forgot that she was there. "She" is very much a song of my husband and I and we listen to it just about every day.


What music or band do you enjoy the most? Why?

Abney Park

Why is Steampunk so Popular?

As most of my readers and acquaintances know, this last weekend was the 3rd annual Gear Con in Portland, OR. As usual I attended along with my husband. This year not only were there great costumes, but all three days held martial art classes concluding in an exhibition. The highlight of the weekend was the concert by Abney Park Saturday night, but I'll leave that to my post on the 29th.

One of the workshops I attended was an author panel and one of the questions asked, "Why do you believe steampunk is so popular today?" came up. One author said something along the lines that the Victorians were dealing with financial difficulties, as well as social and ethical questions and linked it to what we are going through now. I had never really thought that through before but as soon as she spoke I realized she was correct. People are looking into the past to try and figure out what to do about the future. The Victorian period was such a large and very fast growth of not only technology but social and ethical thought.
In the late 1800's if someone called for help it was socially and morally expected for you to go help them. The same was true if someone yelled, "Stop that man". Technology grew so fast that in a matter of a couple of years transportation, how people communicated with each other, and even fashion and civil rights were drastically different. Sound familiar?

Today we've seen the music industry go from cassette tapes to CDs to MP3s. The book industry hasn't gone through as much transitions, but it has gone through a major shift to include electronic books. We can now take people who are not astronauts into orbit and have wireless networks built into a jet. What else might come to pass?
Tesla developed several designs of generators that people could build and operate without a lot of money, the radio and even a device the size of a small box that could shake his whole house and then the neighborhood.

What would you like to see happen in the future?

I have more photos of GearCon 2013 posted to my website
www.maepen.weebly.com