|
|
Archive for the ‘Concerts’ Category
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
FRIDAY – 29. May 2009
We write the year 2009 and it the fifth time for me driving to Leipzig. My dear friends in Leipzig are surly glad that I am getting on their nerves again. The already small flat which could be labeled ‘higher than broad’ feels a bit smaller as I put all my technical devices on the table. And the worst of all, I fill up the kitchen with true bavarian food as a present. Well, I will buy everything in Leipzig, but bavarian taste is bavarian taste. Some days later I should regret, cause the half of it has been brought back to my car. Some food for the travel home, they said.
However. The journey was good this year. At least for me. Usually there were hundreds and thousands of cars blocking the highways. This year was a traffic jam too, but no problem. I was up so early that everything happened behind me. I asked myself: what’s going on in the other german states? Either german people have a travel to some foreign, sunny countries or they are having party with some Gothics in Leipzig. Are the other states actually empty?
But there was a bitter end. Some kind of traffic jam happened in Leipzig again, after I got my concert card and reached the WERK II. Hundreds of people here, cause everybody seemed to want to watch DIE FORM. I was accompanied by a friend and so I decided to wait with her till they’ll let us in. Usually I could go directly through the controls, since I had a photo pass, but I didn’t want to leave her alone (between all those evil looking people).
After 40 minutes of waiting time we got closer to our goal – the first gothics left crowd of waiting masses. DIE FORM would play in just a few minutes and so I left my friend and tried to get into the press pit in time. I felt that there were much more people at the WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN than ever. But that’s just a guess. Well, my friend made it into the hall too, only two songs delayed.
I managed it (and that was quite hard and rough) to get into the presspit in time. As soon as I was there, hall went dark. Somebody with gasmask entered the twilight stage and hided again behind his computer. Well, thats the thing with electro bands. Then heavy bass opens the sceen, a beamer was turned on, bringing light and movies on the wall. A dancer, dressed all in white, entered stage. Soon we knew how this show will go on: the dancer danced in a spectacular way to the atmospheric music of DIE FORM.
I mean this without any sarcasm: the arrangment was very detailled and told us about scary happenings: first the story of a dying butterfly, then the story of an undead. That peformance was great and really well done. It was a surprise and I forgot that there is just a man on the computer doing some playbacks. It’s theatre.
After the first dance, Éliane (vocalist) entered stage and began to sing in an utter darkness. It was good luck that her voice was mixed into the background. She would sing without pressure, with some wrong tunes. I wasn’t too impressed about that. Maybe the mixer should have turned on some compressors and maybe a harmonizer, but that way… no good.
Lucky as we was, the dancer safed the evening – at least mine. Cause there were some bitter pills here too. If you were somewhere in the back of the hall you couldn’t see anything from the performance. I guess, most people won’t have seen too much.
DIE FORM had some good ideas, a very good sound (surprise, it was playback) but could have used a better stage – a theatre stage, not a rock convert stage. Well, at least for me it was very good and will stay in mind for a long time.
SATURDAY – 30. May 2009
I was up extraordinary early on saturday. I wanted to check out ATARGATIS who played on the WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN for several times. Happening was in the Kohlrabizirkus. I know this band for quite a long time and wanted to see how they envolved myself. They call their music DARK GOTHIC METAL.
First tunes started, and vocalist Stephanie was on speed immediatly. She is wellknown with her second band DARKWELL too. With unbeatable positive attitude she jumped from the one corner to the next. She made up the songs with “Leipzig – how are you??” or “LEIPZIG ARE YOU STILL THERE???”. That kind of entertainment reminds me on rock vocalist DORO. I really think that Stephanie Meier can have the chance to walk in DOROs footsteps one day. But she needs to tell some more on stage besides always the same motivation cries. After a while those kind is getting a bit boring and male visitors concentrate more on the beautyful dress of Steffi. Female, so I guess, too.
 Songs were mixed very well and band played in routine. But besides Steffi, there was less to see on stage. Her musicians hided behind their star and that was dissapointing. If they would have more action on stage, this would be great. If ATARGATIS feels the need to play more in the evening hours next year, they should invest some cycles in stage action.
On a sidenote, Drummer Shadrack was very impressing: he played with a click in the ear and managed to handle the synthesizer where other bands need a keyboarder. Well maybe Shadrak has been played by the syntheziser – who knows 
Surprising is how ATARGATIS works with their fans: directly after the concert Steffi jumped in her shoes (she was on stage with bare feet) and met up with all the lads on the merchandise basar where she signed cards. Well, as already said, ATARGATIS could do much more than that, even when this is still a great band!
Afterwards – and not with bare feet – MEGAHERZ were on stage. Hall was quite full, even in that early hour. Thats maybe cause of MEGAHERZ, a band which is quite famous these times and is called as the heritage or even replacement of RAMMSTEIN some day. On the other hands it’s maybe cause of the much more people attending the festival.
MEGAHERZ had their guest under control immediatly – ok, nearly immediatly. Cause MEGAHERZ Frontman Lex struggled with some cables and went to the ground, ass first. But nothing happened, audience was under control. Very impressing songs and very competent musicians delivered a compact arrangment. Refrains was made to sing along with, and people did so. Loudly one song by one hit us directly in our face.
At some time the belt of Lex felt down, suddenly damaged. But he managed this problem like a pro: he asked the audience if somebody has problems with him, standing in underwear on stage. All the woman cried out loud expecting… well whatever, you know! While the concert goes on, the guy usually would come back to this little story and after a while I was bored of hearing all about his underwear – same thing like ATARGATIS before. Since MEGAHERZ is from bavaria too, maybe this a regional problem? Well, but the musical side of the show was very tight and good. Everything was mixed well, with a clear sound (as good as possible in the Kohlrabicircus). At least, hard drum kicks and precise riffing gave a straight and hard feeling for whole the time.
At the evening, Felsenkeller called. This one is a new location to the WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN. Its build in the architectural style called “Jugendstil”. Experts, forgive me if I am wrong. What I mean is high walls, wide rooms, huge lusters. It was a perfect ambient for that kind of bands and brought up a great atmosphere. The best one this year and I really would enjoy to watch concerts of this kind there on a regular basis. Even if I was a Werk II addicted before.
FANGS ON FUR opened the evening. That means very straightforward, oldschool Gothic Punk fronted by a female vocalist who dresses in arabian wear and bone chain. Besides that, she looks totally weird  Her band mates do not wear arabian dresses, but look quite strange too. Lucky as we was, that music is really cool and made me thirsty for more. Song structures were quite simple, but immediatly blowed your mind after you heard it.
Show was presented competent and rocked like hell. No big surprises here – sound was very, very good and nobody could think bad about it. All instruments were crystal clear to hear. However, this band will definitly impress the masses again in future. But to make people totally crazy about them, that needs a bit more time. Music should go more under the skin. At the moment we speak of a gothic punk band, nothing more. Well, it worked for me and suddenly saw myself going directly to the merch basar and buying a FANGS ON FUR CD. This band has made it to my personal watch list. Thanks guys, for opening that evening so tight!
Afterwards THEATRE OF HATE: at the beginning of that show you may think on grabbing a beer. After two songs you get used to that sound. After five you are moving your old, decaying body to the vibes and afte eight you find yourself sing along with the band, even if you don’t have a clue bout the text.
THEATRE OF HATE is a rock band which was long on duty. Its fronted by SPEAR OF DESTINY vocalist Kirk Brandon. And to make it short, guys who like rock like JOY DIVISION played should urgently check out THEATRE OF HATE. Chances are, that songs like WESTWORLD already have taken place in you music mind and you already have heard of that band.
Like FANGS ON FUR THEATRE OF HATE had a very good, warm sound. Songs came like they are playing it five times a day. Just on the vocals sometimes one could reckognize some misleading tunes. But that wasn’t a problem, it just gave more charisma to the band.
Summed up, this was very tight, nobody can complaing about this show.
On a sidenote: the guy playing bass is the first lad I know who enters stage with a bottle of wine – and a glass! Jörg, the guy from german gothic rockers THE HOUSE OF USHER drank his stuff directly from the bottle at one of the past WGTs. Well, i guess Jörg is younger
The SCARY BITCHES was one of the must have bands at this years WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN. I own all CDs of em and meanwhile I even bought a t-shirt. That three old frumps just entered stage and start rocking like hell. No big deal, for them. Presence on stage of them is really incredible. At least the dresses are fascinating: spiders, bones, ankhs everywhere. And about music I don’t need to speak lots: nasty lyrics together with simple, buy straight-into-your-mind rock music.
The bitches came, saw and gained victory. Even with some technical problems (guitar muted while concert) were people catched immediatly by the songs. Just one drawback: the chicks played mostly stuff from their new CD THE ISLAND OF THE DAMNED. That album was available just a week before the gig and the songs weren’t reckognized by the audience. That was a bit bad fo the overall atmosphere. But here and there the bitches then came up with old songs and refrains like “piss all over your grave” which lead to immediate cauterwauling of myself.
Again, the Felsenkeller team presented a crystal clear sound, very warm. A bit more bass wouldn’t do any harm, but well, so be it. Lyrics were very good to understand, and thats more important if you want to enjoy the SCARY BITCHES.
The SCARY BITCHES btw are part of the phenomen of “not moving rock stars”. That are people of that kind who don’t move at stage, but still draw full attention of the audience to themself. Why that is- just the gods can know.
Having that said – you shouldn’t bother to let a concert of the bitches go if you have the chance to attend. Esspecially if you want to see Almas Doppelgänger live in concert. Fantastic band, thanks!
On Saturday SPECIMEN was the last band. SPECIMEN have invented the word BATCAVE since vocalist Ollie Wisdom founded the wellknown and legendary club THE BATCAVE in 1982. Meanwhile the term batcave describes quite a whole music genre. Guess, one can say that everything can call itself batcave if it would have gathered a concert in that holy halls. Well, philosophical debate.
SPECIMEN entered stage, audience went insane. The mixer gave the last decibels he had (unfortunatly). Actually the whole gig was a damn loud thing.
Who doesn’t know SPECIMEN should know, that at least everybody of us must have heard the one or other song somewhere. I thought myself that I don’t know a song of em as I decided to attend the concert, but in fact, I knew EACH song, which suprised me lots. SPECIMEN is rock music, sometimes with glammer, sometimes a bit punky. It’s extraordinary played, with guitars doing strange screams and feeeps and such. For 1980 times it could have been called industrial aswell. Extraordinary in the past, but still extraordinary good rock today.
Ollie Wisdom was happy with this evenings audience and smile friendly to the people at the beginning – that was the first time this year a musician at the WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN has been seen smiling. The show was incredible, with much action and movements, jumpings and even climbings could been seen. Great shit!
Air was full with expierence and the joy to play live – that is, what SPECIMEN of today differs from so much other bands today. This made me walk to the agra the next day, where I bought the brandnew SPECIMEN live recording ALIVE AT THE BATCAVE. Besides the high volume, this one was a really enjoyable gig with great special moments. Yes!
After the concert, saturday ended for me. I had fever again. Is this cause of the masses of people? Outdoors of the Felsenkeller, people cuted themselve on their nacked ass – with fly flaps and others. But maybe this was a fever dream. Was it?
SUNDAY – 31. May 2009
Fever was more worse, but shit happens. Punkband FLIEHENDE STÜRME would play in the Agra. I missed them last year. I promised myself to attend next time and so I decided to ignore all the heat in my head and attend.
The FLIEHENDE STÜRME are a punk band of the old school. Raw, melancholic, critical. If you know CHAOS Z, this band is the follow up band.
The melancholic thing is, why they play at the WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN. If this would be missing, they would not really fit to this festival. But well, people loved those guys. For me it wasn’t the thing I would love too much. Sometimes the sound remembers me to the other german punk band which were in trend in the 90ties, like BÖHSE ONKELZ, TOTEN HOSEN and more. FLIEHENDE STÜRME are more serious of course, but sometimes it simply remembers me that bands.
With 14 euro the CD prices were actually to high – on the left side of the FLIEHENDEN STÜRME CDs was SPECIMEN for just 10 Euro. That one and the fact that I grew up at the wrong corner of musical earth prevented to much enthusiasm. And that even when the sound was great, the songs well balanced and the atmospere very tight agile. Well, so be it. I am more into FANGS ON FUR kind of punk music. I think, only british punk is true (not always, haha).
Straight after, the meanwhile some pounds grown Frank entered stage: FRANK THE BAPTIST. This is another one of the best bands this year and I recommend all rock fans out there his music. A very good vocalist with plausible, sad melodies and down-to-earth gothic rock riffing.
FRANK THE BAPTIST have one of the rare vocalists who can -really- sing (OK, Stephanie Meier of the band ATARGATIS can sing too). The guy is a true rocker, and proves that: after the third song Frank told us that a guy called X is in the hall and would like to ask his girlfriend Y a question. Its silent for some seconds, then Frank told us:”Hey, X has just asked Y to marry him, and she said yes. Now, kiss the bitch, we would like to play along!”.
Isn’t that cool? Time is expensive at a festival, but Frank sacrifized it for his fans. On the other hand, who is really such a cool ass and names the freshly engaged lady a bitch?
Then a very atmospheric evening with the most cool songs from BEGGARS WOULD RIDE, DIFFERENT DEGREES OF EMPTY and THE NEW COLOSSUS happened. But not too much people would sing along with FRANK THE BAPTIST, which made me feel the even when FRANK THE BAPTIST has become a really successful band the should play in smaller halls. Frank needs direct publicum contact, that’s for sure. And people are far away in the agra.
Well, but that doesn’t prevent ME to sing as loud as I could. Hope, people weren’t to annoyed from me Great gig, and one of the best together with the SCARY BITCHES.
As already announced fever was even more worse. Even beer didn’t help. But UMBRA ET IMAGO must be watched. This is a hate it or love it band, and there was much chattering about this german sadomaso freaks. They were loved by the audience, thats for sure. And one could see that Mozart meanwhile seems to love food in return.
On stage there was a quite old guy in front of me, completly dressed in roman legionnaire armory, including helmet. There was much fog, much light, somewhere in the corner a girl with less clothings. After the first song Mozart explained to us, that he has become an old man and put down his helmet. I guess, you need to be completly into UMBRA ET IMAGO to enjoy this. Later this corpulent lad did some pole dancing, but failed to climb up on it. He stayed with both feet on earth and posed a bit. But audience – they were screaming for joy! Why – don’t have a clue, even when I was impressed by the light show.
Afterwards Mozart said that he has been reading on the WGT, cause he is an book author too. Before 10 years or so, it was trendy to be intellectual and an musician at the same time. Of course you needed to write some books. Think on GOETHES ERBEN. After he said that, the dialogues between Lutz and Mozart are to be considered as strange:
“Lutz, all our friends have come.”
“You seem to be a nice guy.”
Hope he doesn’t have dialogues like this in his books. I know I repeat myself. But why the heck are all announcements so odd this year? Is this me? I mean, SCARY BITCHES announced the song DOPPLEGANGER with “this is my best friend” and and pointed to a hand puppet. Thats cool! But:”Lutz, I daresay, Lutz, blablabla….”
Well, however. There were more sexual things on the show. Not bad, but nothing which makes me crazy about it. Sound was good, and the light show too. Atmosphere was great and all the songs were performend very well. Actually the music isn’t bad – its straightforward, well composed and very earthy. But just this typical german stage thing, that doesn’t rock anymore to me. Confused I left the hall. I tried beer against the fever, but it failed. My brain cooked up like some milk in several breakfast occasions.
THE END
Monday I broke down. My friends didn’t have a good announcement too, before they brought me to my car. Bye, till next year, they said. I have colded more and there was no more energy left for music. But after a few days, it came to my mind how a high neveau the WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN 2009 had. Even if there were so much more people and it has been sometimes needed quite a long time to enter halls and so, it was a really fantastic festival. Sound was very good all the time, even when the rooms where huge.
But sometimes I had hard times to get good photos, cause either the lightshow was to bright or to dark. In the Werk II i had to deal with a nearly complete darkness, while in the Felsenkeller it felt like normal daylight. Just the light in the agra was perfect.
Having that said, this was a very good and enjoyable festival. Bands were killer, and I will worry about my fever for a long time, which made me miss INKUBUS SUKUBUS, NOSFERATU and UK DECAY on monday. Last announcement: good night Leipzig, see ya next year.
Posted in Concerts, Ghul Productions, Scene | No Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Dear friends,
all went well and I am just heading off to Leipzig now. Stay tuned for some more photos in the SCENE section. Will see you there!
Best,
Cy Ghul
Posted in Concerts, Cy Ghul, Scene | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
We are writing the year 2009 and its the 18th time when Leipzig will expierence latex miniskirts, incredible long haircuts, billions of skullsymbols, pentagrams and other scary badges put on leatherjackets. The smell of Leipzig will hide behind a mix of patchoullie, incense and – fried sausage. It will happen on the 29th of May 2009. From this date on till the first of June dark folks will rule the city. And this happening has a name: its called the WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN. 
Its an hospitable enviroment at the WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN. And besides that, you can watch more than 150 Bands on 20 different locations! Additionally people can listen to the loud messages of club DJs or enjoy the sun in the city park after attending incredible concerts.  The others – I mean the Leipzig natives – are glad about the festival too. One enjoys to trainspot the insane guys with the strange haircuts. Others enjoy the cash: tons of hair gel will be sold again. Or – as I allready told you – fried sausages, fried directly in the gardens of several house owners. I am sure, it will happen as usual: everybody will feel good in Leipzig. Everybody.
Lets speak about facts. 20.000 visitors are expected. Just 66 Euro is the charge of the ticket if you preorder. Its a magic number I daresay You’ll be lucky if add 60 cent tip 4 Days, 20 Locations, 150 Bands – its not expensive, I am sure. For the additional fee of 25 Eur you get an Obsorgeticket. This way you get rid of searching a hotel and can build up your tent on the campground. Additonally you get the Silberscheibe and the Pfingstbote, the official WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN manifesto. 
For me the Heidnische Dorf (Pagan Village) is of interest mostly cause of the great food. But as every year I will recon that other visitors come to this place out of more reasons. Thousands of other beeings in full plate, archaic musicians and much more turns the biggest fan of modern art into a pagan worshipper. Besides the Pagan Village you can enjoy Readings, Theatre, Exhibitions and much more. Of course the fetish night is on the bill. And last but not least you can have a great shopping experience at the Agra, where I usually loose the money of a years work.
Well. Speak about the music. And this year I am fascinated beginning with the first newsletter. The SCARY BITCHES are back! The band i missed so hardly, since they even do not own a website. A recommendation and a must have for everybody who likes scary shock rock music. 
MY DYING BRIDE is playing. They have new, very promising album in their back catalogue and I am sure they will perform songs out of it. Great stuff, cause they have so much influence in todays doom scene. My friends of ATARGATIS may perform some new songs (hopefully). And BLITZKID is another band I missed somewhere else and I can now enjoy. Last WAVE GOTIK TREFFEN i missed the FLIEHENDEN STÜRME, a great Wave/Punk band with cool atmosphere – definitly a newcomer who has to be checked out. QNTAL, INKUBUS SUKKUBUS and SAMAEL and SPECIMEN (if you are older than 30, you should cry out loudly now) are also booked in my scheduler. NOSFERATU allready have played in the past, a very great Goth Rock band. And of course there are lots of smaller acts I always wanted to see, but never managed it.
 I was shocked that the first Info about the WGT booked me out completly. This may be the best billing ever – I will enjoy it for sure, thats allready a fact. Who isn’t to deep into that oldschool rock acts like me will enjoy the festival too, since the WGT is also well booked in the EBM/Elektro section: Bands like DIE FORM, FEINDFLUG, VNV NATIONI or WINTERKÄLTE are wellknown for their great music and performances.
There are more styles and genres. Bands out of all genres will play in Leipzig. You should probably subscribe to the Wave Gotik Newsletter for more information.
A perfect music mix! I recommend you not to wait for my photos in the future. Just take your money and order your card. Such a billing should lead to an immediate sell out.
Posted in Concerts, Scene | No Comments »
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Well, after Gumo decided to quit with THARGOS and continue with GumoManiacs we all knew why that happened: my lack of time for playing concerts and several murder threats made it impossible for him to perform a professional thrash band.
Well, his music was always very cool and professional. But now he was astonishing us! Gumo Maniacs play live as a support act together with Blaze Bailey in Ingolstadt in a few month. Holy mother! This is pushing the band forwards a lot!
I will try to contact the organizator of the tour and hopefully I can take some photos. We’ll see. Usually I am sick like hell with flu when some cool concerts happen.
However – lets hope Gumo puts a good website online soon. The old one is horrible!!
Posted in Concerts, Scene | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Dear friends,
i just have added a new festivity report to ghul.org
Please enjoy!
Posted in Concerts | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
PROJECT MES
While I watched the slowly increasing number of visitors this evening, Project Mes made it’s way on stage. This means some kind of Trip Hop, Wave and Industrial. I was curious about the mix. The Apple computer was ready and so was the fanclub of that guy. Project Mes is just one guy, you should know. Well, the Augsburger Kantine gives young and regional musicians a fair chance and heavily supports the local scene. But this evening Project Mes could not give shivers of excitement to me. This One-Man-Band tried to overwhelm us with several accessoires, but well, One-Man is just One-Man, and finally it didn’t work. Project Mes is a project with some good musical ideas, but the live show must envolve more – sorry to say that.
AKANOID
 AKANOID entered the stage and I didn’t know anything about them. The four musicians were routinated and I hoped the best. In fact I could hear after the first tunes that the band played some kind of a brilliant and modern gothic rock (todays it’s called Electro Pop ). These lads, fronted by the singer Hilton are supporting the whole CRÜXSHADOWS tour and let me hope of following: first they need a website – myspace is to less . Second I really hope this band makes its way to the Wave Gotik Treffen soon, cause I would like to view them on a more big stage. They are great and deserve that. Unfortuneatly not all of the audience recognized that fact. Altough they get much applause, I was very alone in front of the stage – nobody except me and two other photographs were there. The Audience kept an 8 metre security space. This couldn’t happen for 20 years, I thought! Hiltons voice, even when a bit croaky, is very impressive and professional, deep and sympathic. He pushes his songs forward in a very energetic way. Phil convinces with an precise guitareplay and a whirlwind show. In fact I felt remembered to the extremly cool psychobilly band STELLAR CORPSES, even when Phil is younger and the CORPSES still have more movement on stage. However, thats not a bad thing, I think nobody on the world can compete in that point with STELLAR CORPSES as of today.  Dirk supported the band with a very precise drum tough, and Daggy, even when looking a bit bored this evening, helped at a competent level and at the end we had a very compact package. Just the everything crushing bass guitar wasn’t there – and that was very bad indeed, cause I am a bass fetishist as some of you know. Everything sounded very well, just a bit to much at high frequencies. Maybe that lack of bass was the reason why the people didn’t go in front of the stage, who knows?  The musical style remembers me on different bands, sometimes Depeche Mode, sometimes modern Silke Bischoff, sometimes it was very unique. It was a diversified set, all songs were composed very good and had a great arrangment. I guess, this band is the one to support Wolfsheim on tour. Altough Hiltons voice overturned sometimes in the high regions, this concert was played very well and I was the opinion this one was a good one. Who likes groovy Electro Pop should support AKANOID from germany – and maybe step directly in front of the stage and have a party.
CRÜXSHADOWS
 When the CRÜXSHADOWS slowly entered the stage, the Audience jumped suddenly directly in front of stage. It felt like an dark wave coming together over my head. Now, beeing so close to others, it was a bit more difficult to take some photos. The first tunes made all of the silent Swabians scream: Ok, i thought, easy game for CRÜXSHADOWS. In fact the CRÜXSHADOWS have most success in germany. Who sees them, knows why. 7 guys entered the stage an start with plausible songs, much of boum boum and naked woman. It’s some kind of a dark techno music. And hej, meanwhile this is now todays state of the art i guess, at least in europe. Well, I never did see a band with such an perfectly arranged live show.  Did I mention routine in the same sentence with AKANOID? Compared to CRÜXSHADOWS that was a chaotic fly hustle and bustle. Now every grip was perfect. Even at the mix Rogue, Vocalist and Boss of the CRÜXSHADOWS, had a huge impact. At the beginning he stepped several times to a box, did something and at the end lots more of for example basses were to hear. Well, this does not surprise people who know that the CRÜXSHADOWS are playing 100 concerts in a year. You could feel it. Two dancers could be seen on stage, sometimes wearing flags or bondage tapes, sometimes just dancing without accessoires. We are not talking about some kind of ‘hey we have some girls here, they are sexy’. We are speaking of real dancers, who really know how to do their job. We are speaking of bent bodys, arrangement and moves which are perfectly in sync with the songs. We are speaking of an absolutly professional level. You had the feeling that those girls were part of the band, and i swear, some of the younger lads must have sleepless nights by now.  Also talented as a dancer was Valerie, the guitar player. Beautyful as all the ladys, she couldn’t decide between dancing and guitarplaying, and that was good. Here you couldn’t see heavy metal solos, but a very unique kind of playing guitar. A lot of female charms here which filled the gaps of the very plausible but simple compositions of CRÜXSHADOWS. I enjoyed that show, really.  But Rogue excelled his front ladys. Wildly he jumped into the audience, wearing a headset, jumped upon high tables, danced arm in arm with some visitors or climbed some loose stools. Wearing some lightening assecoires he knew what he would did this evening, and I know this kind of show you see often at the CRÜXSHADOWS. Audience was fond and the party grew from minute to minute. Some people say, that Rogues voice isn’t the best. Well, some tunes he didn’t manage, but you can only hear that, cause his voice is a very dominant one. Other bands may sing like him, but they have an guitar carpet behind them, nobody recognizes. However, sometimes it was a bit not perfect sometimes it was very cool. He doesn’t have much octaves, but hej, we shouldn’t care. It’s the same with the great SISTERS OF MERCY. Both violins of David Wood and Johanna Moresco which were always located in the background created a very together with mastress of synths Jen Jawidzik a 100% perfectly together working team. The set has been played very tight and precise. Sometimes you were stunned how precise this all was and sometimes I couldn’t simply believe how this could be so much perfect. However, party was great. And meanwhile i think, this is todays music. Gone are the times of Batcave, Pogo and The Cure or 45 Graves. Todays music is like CRÜXSHADOWS play.  As you could read, this concert was very great. This year some more interesting concerts will happen for the dark audience. Next time I’ll visit CINEMA STRANGE, maybe ANNE CLARK and of course DER FLUCH which I allready saw at the WGT. The Kantine is the right place for those bands and has lots of parking areas right before the door
Further reading
ORIGINAL TEXT AT GHUL.ORG
BERICHT AUF DEUTSCH AUF POSSESSED.DE
http://www.cruxshadows.com/
http://www.myspace.com/cruxshadows
http://www.akanoid.de
http://www.myspace.com/projectmes
Posted in Concerts | No Comments »
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Dear Friends,
last thursdasy I visited CRÜXSHADOWS and this week I will see CINEMA STRANGE. Of course I’ll take photos and of course you’ll see them in my gallerys. For CRÜXSHADOWS, i took roundabout 1000 images, and of course I will throw away 950 However, it was fun – stay tuned, I will post them this week.
However, I decided to put more efford in finding musicians for CULTES DES GOULES. If you are living near Augsburg or Munich, please get in touch with me. I am looking for a Keyboarder and two bassists. If a drummers comes his way, I will enjoy inviting him or her
Please read more here:
http://www.cultesdesgoules.org/musikergesucht.html
If you know some interested person, I would be glad if you could get me in touch with him/her.
Thanks!
Posted in Concerts, Cultes des Goules, Scene | No Comments »
Friday, July 18th, 2008
Dear Friends, living or dead,
i finally managed it and put tons of photos from the Wave Gotik Treffen 2008 online!
Enjoy images of: Unheilig, Tragic Black, Tiamat, The Spook, Stellar Corpses, Samsas Traum, New Days Delay, London After Midnight, Goetterdaemmerung, Dragons, Bloodsucking Zombies From Outer Space, Der Fluch, C.D.1334 and Cauda Pavonis.
Yesterday I saw CRÜXSHADOWS in Augsburg, Kantine. You’ll get some Images from this gig and review next week.
Direct Link to the gallerys
Yours,
Cy Ghul
Posted in Concerts, Scene | No Comments »
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
MONDAY, 12.05.2008
I guess everybody stood up with some kind of melancholic vein this morning. Some of us left Leipzig in the early hours and tried heavily to surpress their exhaustion. This year for me everything was different, cause I stayed to watch some bands. That was bands I could have looked at at the last Wave Gotik Treffen, but didn’t. Now was the time.
 The BLOODSUCKING ZOMBIES FROM OUTER SPACE opened and the Werk II suddenly was full. One glance at the stage showed why: into one row all musicians of this band were positioned. Including drums, of course, cause drummer Dead “Richy” Gein is not only founder, drummer and biggest fan of the BLOODSUCKING ZOMBIES FROM OUTER SPACE but also responsible for the vocals. With scary accessoires like severed arms at his instrument or open wounds in his face he and his band gave a rocking hell to the audience. Horrorpunk at it’s finest! It was fascinating to see how Dead Gein used his instrument – singing, drumming, posing. Only if you would have seen that, you can believe that this unusual line up works perfectly.  Precise and grooving fills proved in any case that this guy is not overcharged. Ok, he didn’t play very complex rolls from a drummers theory book, but hey, this is horror punk! Rock’n Roll guys, and this band rocked! His colleagues Rev. Bloodbath, Mr. Evilize and Dr. Schreck did the rest to make everybody clear that this band is a cool one. Even when the big drum used a lot of the space on stage, the guys had something like show. Not so much movements like you are used to get from rock band, but there was a show and that rocked. However, BLOODSUCKING ZOMBIES FROM OUTER SPACE are a very funny band and prove that good horror punk can even come from such a beautyful city like Wien. Who likes fun, horror-trash and an entertaining evening should check out this facetious zombie-guys immediatly.
 THE SPOOK was a bit dissapointing to me. In the twinkling of an eye the hall was a bit more empty. The aura of the band was a bit strange. It seems to say, that this day wasn’t a good day to play live. Maybe THE SPOOK doesn’t want to play such early. It was contrary to what happened before. However, the outfit of the selftitled grave-rocker was vrey nice. One of these guys looked like undead elvis presley with one metre high black hair. All the musicians where very sly. Some of the songs you would have remembered, they can been heared at several samplers. They are pushing forward, and the mix is straight and good too, but they couldn’t catch me. After a while I was bored. It was a strange feeling to me, cause I can’t find anything which could be called bad, but they simply didn’t rock to my ears. THE SPOOK was one of these bands i really wanted to see, but after expieriencing this left the hall and ate some sausages. Well, I am undead of course, but I was human before years and so I am driven by my likings. Mr. Freud knew that before years.
 Nobody knows STELLAR CORPSES in germany. But in the US they are always on tour and I guess they are wellknown by everybody. This may be enough for an tour through germany thsi april. Of course they played at the Wave Gotik Treffen. STELLAR CORPSES are the long awaited new discovery of the Wave Gotik Treffen 2008. They have a contrabass, whos player looks like James Dean, a hurrican on the guitars (who seem to think that it isn’t necessary to keep the guitar constantly nearer to his body than 30cm), a damn good voice and a heavy and tight drummer. The rock’n roll of that people rocks like hell.  Call it Psychobilly, Horrorbilly or whatever, STELLAR CORPSES are an unbelievable cool rock band. At the moment they unfortuneatly have released only one 6 track ep. I bought that, and what you hear there, you can see on stage. They dominate the scene like no others. This band is really excellent, have a very great and imposing show and at the Wave Gotik Treffen an incredible and excellent sound. Nobody who likes this genre should miss that band.
DER FLUCH ended this evening. Another scary rock band which had a gangster outfit from the 20ies and funny songs. They call them B-Movie songs, and they are right. Lyrics are as simple and straight forward as Night of the Living dead or other movies in that genre, and you simply have to smile about it. Even when the lyrics are so funny, the musicians presented everything in a serious manner and I really think they have done a very good job.  If I would play in that band, I can imagine that I laugh to death when performing this songs. It’s a very special kind of humour, and I am think that more people should have it. Classic songs like “Halb Mensch Halb Tier” (translated: half human half animal) tell you something like:”I am a young werewolf, half human half animal, nobody understands it, killing is fun”. This is gothic humour, really. If you don’t like DER FLUCH and that sense of humour, you probably a super-gothic who NEVER laughs. It was a funny, weird and well performed set. With the less instruments it was mixed very good and cause of the lack of complexity in the songs perfectly played. Atmosphere was great, music is fine and lyrics funny – my dark heart, what else would you want? I bought the CD even if I am not a fan of… humour! 
The end
It was the last tram drive this evening, and the tram was allready empty. It was great, as usual. When the more than 20.000 gothics are gone, you recognize the native psychos. “Are you thinking i am an autonomic!!!” the guy without shird cried loudly, drunken like hell, “If a woman want to fuck me, it will be different!!” he told us then. Well, sure. He doesn’t care about his jeans, which didn’t completly cover his ass anymore. No problem, nobody didn’t care about him. Nobody really like autonomics, do we? Confused about the sudden arrival of reality I left the tram and tried to find some friends of mine, who awaited me with some dark beer people named Köstritzer. At the Wave Gotik Treffen 2008 were no looser; but some winners. The very best act was STELLAR CORPSES. They surprised me and I will follow the path of that band. LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT won the price as “Best Big Act”. BLOODSUCKING ZOMBIES FROM OUTER SPACE got the price as “most strangest act ever” for the insane line up and the funny show. NEW DAYS DELAY make me proud, cause they are simply great and they live in germany. It’s a bit more easy to attend concerts of NEW DAYS DELAY, so you will see me there, if they play in the south.
The Wave Gotik Treffen remains big, will be bigger and damn, even when other people think it was bullshit, for me it was great and will stay great! 2009 are only 260 days left… 359… 358…
Posted in Concerts, Scene | No Comments »
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
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.   
Posted in Concerts, Scene | No Comments »
|
