Matrix, Bochum, Germany
1st November 2013
End of Green & Undertow
German bane END OF GREEN looks back already to a twenty years long history, celebrating their anniversary last year. In this year’s summer, the band released a new album and celebrates this event now with an extended tour. We took the chance to see the band in Bochum on their headliner tour after we watched them lately only on festivals…
Undertow
UNDERTOW, who supported END OF GREEN this evening, have quite a long history already. In Winter 2013, the first ever band rehearsal celebrates its 20th anniversary. So far, the band released seven albums and appeared on many European stages and toured with international acts and played on big festivals. In December 2013, UNDERTOW will release their new album, ‘In Deepest Silence’, having some new things in stock. Firstly, the band added Markus Brand as second guitarist, secondly the band enlarged its musical horizon. UNDERTOW is Joachim Baschin (vocals, guitar), Markus Brand (guitar), Thomas Jentsch (bass) and Oliver Rieger (drums.) http://www.undertow.de / https://www.facebook.com/undertowband
Music & Performance
When UNDERTOW entered the stage already at the early time of 7:30, the venue was not really crowded. But nevertheless, the band that toured already with END OF GREEN ten years ago, put an energetic show onto stage where they presented several songs out of the upcoming album. Since they had 45 minutes playing time, there was room to add also older stuff into the set. After the intro, the show started with ‘Barefaced‘, the title track of the upcoming album. ‘BoxShapedHeart’, taken also from this album, followed later in the set and convinced as a grooving song with a catchy refrain. I haven’t seen the band before, but I found the show quite appealing. Singer Joschi impressed with lots of emotions he was putting into his performance. All in all, UNDERTOW delivered a good show and surely found some admirers in the audience. Especially the sound of their show was much better than during the EOG show.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Barefaced
03. Stomping Out Ignorance
04. The Bitter Taste
05. BoxShapedHeart
06. Threedouble Chime
07. The Art Of Falling
08. Smoke Garden
09. These Boots Are Made For Stalking
10. 34CE
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7 / 10
End of Green
German band END OF GREEN founded in 1992 in Stuttgart and back in the beginnings they played a mixture of Goth Rock and Metal. According to singer Michael Huber, the band name symbolizes the end of hope, associated with the colour Green. A few line-up changes and demos later, they eventually signed a deal with Nuclear Blast and released the debut ‘Infinity’ in 1996. Soon afterwards the band and the label broke up again and unleash the next album on the new Subzero Records label. Constant touring with acts like PARADISE LOST, IN EXTREMO or IGGY POP provides for a growing fan base that waits until 2002 until ‘Songs for a Dying World’ is released, finally. It just takes one year for them to come up with the next record ‘Last Night on Earth’ in 2003. The seventh album ‘High Hopes In Low Places’ hit the shops in August 2010. ‘The Painstream’ is the band’s newest release, out in August 2013 via Napalm Records. The current line-up is as follows: Michael Huber (aka Michelle Darkness - vocals), Michael Setzer (aka Sad Sir - guitar), Oliver Merkle (aka Kirk Kerker - guitar), Rainer Hampel (aka Rainer Sicone di Hampez - bass) and Matthias Siffermann (aka Lusiffer - drums). http://www.endofgreen.de / http://www.myspace.com/endofgreen
Music & Performance
How was I looking forward this show, finally a long show after all those short festival gigs I saw in the nearer past. And how much was I disappointed… not by the band itself but mostly by the terrible sound during their show. Instruments and vocals were not balanced at all. During the whole set I found the level of vocals much too low, there were times I could hardly hear Michelle singing… not to speak about understanding his words. But well, of course there was more than just bad sound. When END OF GREEN entered the stage with new song ‘Hangman's Joke’, the venue was really well filled and there were many fans awaiting the show. I would guess around 400 fans were celebrating with the band from the first moment and only a few were moaning about the sound. Most of them just did not care and enriched the band’s chant with their own voices. The setlist was quite long – well, there was enough time since the band started short past 9:30 – and contained material from the whole band history. Besides several new songs like ‘Final Resistance’, ‘De(ad)generation’ or ‘Don’t Stop Killing Me’, there were a few of the old gems the fans love so much – ‘Killhoney’ or ‘Tie Me A Rope…’ are always loudly welcomed by the crowd. 
The band played really most of their well-known songs, from the calmer balladry ones to the rockier pieces like ‘Goodnight Insomnia’ or ‘Dead End Hero’. To sum the show up, people were really excited when the band had left with the last song ‘Death of the Weakender’, also taken from the new album. For my taste, the sound was too band, disturbing my concert, and there could be made more out of the provided lights.
Setlist
01. Hangman's Joke
02. Dead City Lights
03. Pain Hates Me
04. Evergreen
05. Final Resistance
06. Killhoney
07. Hurter
08. Tragedy Insane
09. Goodnight Insomnia
10. Tie Me A Rope...
11. De(ad)generation
12. Don't Stop Killing Me
13. Death in Veins
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14. Holidays in Hell
15. Weakness
16. Drink Myself to Sleep
17. Die Lover Die
18. Dead End Hero
19. Emptiness/ Lost Control
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20. Death of the Weakender
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 5
Light: 6
Total: 6.8 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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