SONNTAG, 11.05.2008
Sunday I decided to visit again the Agra hall. Difficult sound enviroment, again, but I had expierenced some surprises here in the past. I entered while FLIEHENDE STÜRME played their last two songs. Melancholic punk. It was interesting, but well, I was to late. I was afraid that FLIEHENDE STÜRME may not go very deep with their whole set, but I cannot say that after just two songs. I will check em out next time I get the chance.
Some people were confused by the name C.D.1334. It’s a long story: in fact this is CHRISTIAN DEATH, the second. After Rozz Williams left CHRISTIAN DEATH Valor, his friend, continued. He soon made Williams angry cause he reserved all rights to the name CHRISTIAN DEATH. Some fans saw Williams betrayed and refused to listen to Valor-CHRISTIAN DEATH. Long time passed and some old comrades of Rozz Williams and eremited CHRISTIAN DEATH Members founded a second CHRISTIAN DEATH band. They called it C.D.1334 cause they didn’t want to confront with the rights reserved by Valor. This is the Band around Eva O.. In my opinion this is the CHRISTIAN DEATH band which is next to Rozz Williams. However, good reasons to check em out. It was scary to expierence the vibes coming from C.D.1334. It was weird. The music is full of errors, dirty and creepy. Altough this is a fact, it was perfect. If you are directly in front of Eva O., you just can ask: who old is this girl?? And after that: maybe she is dead? Songs were perfect but presented in a way, some of these music-must-be-presented-error-free-musicians must have had a heart attack when they were listening. 
There was a deep emotional binding between the audience and the band. I can’t tell you more, and there are no reasons to do. Why? You may know the songs, everybody knows. And the power these band has to dominate the audience cannot be telled. It must be expierenced. The announcment told us that these may be one of the last gigs C.D.1334 perform. Eva O. wrote at their website taht this project is some kind of an farewell for Rozz. If that was a funeral gig, than this was the most perfect funeral gig Rozz could have. I believe that you can appreciate this concert only if you grew up with CHRISTIAN DEATH, or got deep into it later. This concert wasn’t only the funeral for that C.D.1334 project, it was also a death-watch for Rozz Williams. Damn cool that I could see this.
A totally different world entered stage when SAMSAS TRAUM was beginning. The drummers back was inured not long ago, but you wouldn’t think it if you didn’t knew. SAMSAS TRAUM was good for a surprise. Extremly compressed guitar sounds made a very fat and thick sound. This made the SAMSAS TRAUM concert to a plain Heavy-Metal-Concert. When Alexander cried “Let you hair flow” he supported my impression. Flying hair – headbaning – that wasn’t what I expected. Even songs like “Stromausfall im Herzspital” which wasn’t metal-related in any ways sounded like a heavy-metal song. That all wasn’t bad but it was surprising. Bad was that the mixers compressed not only the guitars but the whole stereo sum (guessing!!). 
This leaded us to the fact, that the higher frequences – like synthesizers – were cut off. You could hear lots of guitars, a very dry drum with nailhead kick and the powerful voice of vocalist Alexander. Perfect for metal. But did these guys really wanted to have a heavy metal show at the Wave Gotik Treffen? It has been gone better slowly to the end of the set. However, most fans could have their fun I guess. Hope the band had their fun too.
Compression went loose and LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT climbed the stage. This is a band which means very much to me. They had the usual performance and a videoshow, which was very impressing and emotional. I liked it. Impressing songs have been played very perfect. A dreamy set with imposing effect. Altough Sean didn’t hit all tunes correctly, this wasn’t bad. In fact i felt this helped this scary atomsphere more than it was bad. This band is one of the best acts I know, even when they haven’t too much releases. The mix was very dynamic and would brougth all audiophiles tears into their eyes: this was quite an oldschool mix! One had the feeling that this band doesn’t need help from the mixing engineer. Nobody could have destroyed these songs. For me, one of the highlights of 2008 Wave Gotik Treffen. Even a few hours later I could hear the wonderful harmonies LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT created. I knew I wasn’t the only one, it was clear when I saw into the faces of the people around me. 
