The Last Dance is an American

dark wave Dark wave (also typeset as darkwave) is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics and have been perceived as be ...

band from Southern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

that was for several years signed to the now-defunct

Dancing Ferret Discs The Dancing Ferret entertainment group is an unofficial collective name for Dancing Ferret Discs and Dancing Ferret Concerts. It was started by Patrick Rodgers (a.k.a. DJ Ferret) in 1995 with the formation of Dancing Ferret Concerts. The company ...

label. Formed in 1990, they have released five albums, an EP, a remix album, and a documentary film was made of them in 2007 titled ''Almost Beautiful''. Along with former labelmates

the Crüxshadows The Crüxshadows is an American dark wave and dark synthpop band currently based in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. The band has an international following of fans and has toured North America, Europe, and Asia. History The band was o ...

and Ego Likeness, the band remains one of the more popular groups associated with the third wave of the

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...

movement.

Biography

Jeff Diehm (vocals), Rick Joyce (guitar), Tony Tullai (bass) and Ian Haas (drums) formed the Last Dance in the early 1990s in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. As a small local band for several years, the Last Dance released two

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

albums, ''Everyone'' and ''Angel''; in 1995, they released an EP, ''Tragedy''. By the mid-1990s, they had crafted several club favorites, including "Fairytales" and "Do You Believe in Angels?" "Fairytales" was the title track on their first full-length album, which released in 1996. This was followed by their first US tour in the summer of 1997. Their next album, ''Perfect'', was released 2001. By this point, Hauus had been replaced by Ivan "Lucky" Dominguez on drums. The band toured the US again and Europe for the first time with

Switchblade Symphony Switchblade Symphony was an American rock band from San Francisco, California. Their music combined orchestral sounds with heavy synth sequences and ethereal vocals to create a union of classical music and gothic rock. History Switchblade S ...

. In 2002, tragedy struck the Last Dance. Dominguez died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

on August 3, while the band was touring in Europe. The last show that he played with the band was on uly 31in

Leipzig, Germany Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's L ...

; the last song that he played with the band was a cover of "Dead Man's Party" by

Oingo Boingo Oingo Boingo () was an American new wave band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a surrealist musical theatre troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, that Elfman had led and written material for in the ye ...

(coincidentally, it was also the last song the band recorded for ''Whispers in Rage''). The band played a memorial show for Dominguez 15 days later and replaced him with Tom Coyne, who had played with Rick Joyce in the Prophetess from 1993 to 1996. However, even as of 2005 the Last Dance lists Coyne as a "performing drummer", a role also shared by Stevyn Grey (Christian Death, Faith and the Muse, Frankenstein). Ivan Dominguez is still listed prominently among their members as the band's "Friend and Brother". The last track of the Last Dance's 2003 album, ''Whispers in Rage'', contains Dominguez's drumming, and Dominguez's death played somewhat into the writing of the album's other songs. Over their career, the Last Dance has toured the United States,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

. Starting with their 1999 album, ''One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine'', they have released several albums that they only sold while on tour; these albums most frequently contain

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

es of songs that appeared on their most recent full-length. Their most recent remix album, ''Reflections of Rage'' (2003), contained remixes of several songs from ''Whispers in Rage'' as well as songs dating from earlier in their career. Cyrusrex, collaborator of

Skinny Puppy Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial music group formed in Vancouver in 1982. The group is among the founders of the industrial rock and electro-industrial genres. Initially envisioned as an experimental side-project by cEvin Key (Kevin Crompton ...

, Thomas Rainer of

L'Âme Immortelle L'Âme Immortelle (French for "the immortal soul") is an Austrian darkwave duo. Many of L'Âme Immortelle's songs feature melancholy or lovelorn lyrics in German or English, and juxtaposed harsh male and emotional female vocals. In 2004 they sw ...

, and Rachel McDonnell of

were among those who appeared on ''Reflections of Rage''. Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of ''Reflections of Rage'' was that the Last Dance did a darkwave-tinged cover of

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...

' song " Oops, I Did It Again". The Last Dance released their next album, ''Once Beautiful'', on September 20, 2005, on

. A music video for the song "Once Beautiful" was shot by Sandy Collora, the director of '' Batman: Dead End''. In September 2005, the band toured the U.S. for six weeks with a film crew in tow. A documentary on the tour was filmed by LifeLine Entertainment, produced by Roy Thomasson and directed by Rocky Costanzo. The documentary, titled ''Almost Beautiful'', was released in 2007, and it was shown at several film festivals before it was released on DVD. In 2007, the band did tour in favor of playing sporadic festivals around the US and Europe, including the Wave-Gotik-Treffen Festival in Germany and

Dragon*Con Dragon Con (previously Dragon*Con and sometimes DragonCon) is a North American List of multigenre conventions, multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia ...

in Atlanta on September 28, 2006. The Last Dance got a sponsor deal from the

Bleeding Edge Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized. These technologies are generally new but also include older technologies finding new applications. Emerging technologies a ...

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

line of merchandise. As of 2015, after a nearly decade-long hiatus, the band released the album ''Ruins''. Their single "Cages" makes appearances on several compilation albums.

Members

Current members

* Jeff Diehm - lead

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

* Rick Joyce - solo-guitar * Peter J. Gorritz - leader

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

, synth bass * Tom Coyne -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(performing member) * Stevyn Grey - drums (performing member) * Simon Rippin - drums (guest drummer)

Former members

* Ivan Dominguez - drums * Ian Haas - drums (1990–96) * Tony Tullai - bass (1990–93) * Robert Schott - Synth/Guitar (1997-01)

Discography

Albums

* ''Tragedy'' EP (1995, Apollyon Records) * ''Fairytales'' (1996) * ''Perfect'' (2002, 7 Sin Records and Apollyon Records) * ''Now and Forever'' (2002, Mystine Records and Apollyon Records) * ''Whispers in Rage'' (2003, Dancing Ferret Discs) * ''Reflections of Rage'' (2004, Dancing Ferret Discs) * ''Once Beautiful'' (2005, Dancing Ferret Discs) * ''Ruins'' (2015, Mystine Records)

Videos

*''Almost Beautiful'' (2007, documentary film)

Remixes and special releases

* ''Everyone & Angel'' * ''Staring at the Sky'' (1998) * ''One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine'' (1999) * ''Duo-Milia'' (2000) * ''Now and Forever After'' (2006)

References

External links

Official website

Reflections of Rage album site

*
Almost Beautiful Imdb page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Dance Rock music groups from California American gothic rock groups American dark wave musical groups Musical groups established in 1990