Diorama -Arnhem 2007

As soon as I entered the venue, which was around 30 minutes past eight, the front part of the Willemeen was already filled with people that were waiting anxiously for the bands. As everybody will agree with me, this weekend felt like summer holiday in Holland. It was quite warm and the Willemeen really wasn’t any better, the air-conditioning either isn’t there, or wasn’t turned on. And well, you know, with bands like these there will be a lot of dancing and partying going on… time to see how this evening would involve into one big dance and an even bigger sauna!

I’ve seen Faderhead perform before at the Summer Darkness festival in Utrecht in 2006. I remembered the incredible energy and positive vibe blowing through Tivoli that day. The band formed around singer/songwriter Faderhead, is based in Germany. Faderhead puts a lot of effort into this band, and won't release or perform without knowing what he is talking about. Their music has its pumping beats and live the electric guitar support the synths that will make the sound fuller and raw. Their sound is strong and experimental. In some of the guitar riffs you can hear Faderheads Metal roots.

Music
As said their music is electronic. Alex Montana hypes the beats up with his drums, making their music every now and again almost ritualistic. Besides this most of the songs aren’t to fast. The set list was build up with old and newer tracks from FH1 and FH2, mixing the faster beats with some more experimental slow tunes. New on the keyboard there was a girl nicknamed Dr. T. (nicknamed, because I’m assuming her parents didn’t actually named her Dr. T. when she was born.). She was making one show of her own. This was the second performance of Dr. T. with the band, yesterday they could try out in Leiden. Tonight she was greeted with loud cheers from the audience.   

Performance
The stage of the Willemeen is about average, its not to small, but it definitely ain’t big. Faderhead himself uses up just about all the room he can get on the stage. This time as well, I was looking forward to his performance because of the great energy that this man has on stage. Even though Dr. T. was set behind her keys and could not leave those alone, she was dancing very wild every now and again and singing and cheering along with the music and the crowd. On the website I read she used to be a dancer and poi artist. She moves very smooth and is bursting with energy. The performance was a delight. During Burning/dancing and especially Dirtygrrls / Dirtybois the crowd went crazy, and some were dancing so wild I was afraid people were going to faint. I mean It really was 40 degrees Celsius or more inside! Well, I enjoyed their 45 mins on stage, according to the photographer their was no stage, only smoke, and the sounds was remarkably bright.

01. Intro
02. The Protagonist
03. Break Apart Again
04. Burning / Dancing
05. Girly Show
06. Houston
07. Vanish
08. Bassgod
09. Losing For Real
10. Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois
11. Naughty H
12. Noisebastardz
13. O/H Scavenger

Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 8
Performance: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.5

Diorama, they have been working together for over a decade now, and are still going strong. Their latest album ‘A different life’ is a big success again. ‘Synthesize me’ made it to the number 2 of the German alternative charts. ‘A different life’ seems to be slower and more mystical then the last album. The band was formed by Torben Wendt, who is the lead singer in the band. Wendt is also active in Dairy of Dreams. The key player I have seen perform before when Vassi laid eyes on him, when Vassi decided Felix would make a great lead singer, Felix joined Frozen Plasma and the rest is history. But tonight these boys (who seem brothers from a distance), and the rest of the band were in Arnhem.

Music
There is not one genre that can be used when describing Diorama. The slower dark electro beats are mixed with mystical tunes and the guitar, played by Sash Fiddler, and the drums, played by Marquess, will rough everything up a bit. The emotional voices of both Torben and Felix make the music sound complete. This seems like a big mouth full, but Diorama knows how to mix this all together without making the music to massive and heavy. The opener of this evening was ‘Her liquid arms’. During the intro the band walked on stage one by one, already greeted by a loud cheer from the audience. The tracks I have heard from the new album are slower then what I know of Diorama. They impressed me very much, but I was wondering if all these slow, almost ballads, tracks were very suitable for a live performance. During ‘Synthesize me’ the crowd was clapping and cheering, it was quite clear this song was well known. 

Performance
As well as Faderhead's gig, the sound was mixed very well. I could hear the different tones and parts in the music without trying to hard. On stage the band was all dressed in black. It looked as if Torben was wearing one of those cyber vests, which look like bullet proof vests, but with nothing underneath. He was really going for it, on stage. His voice sounded very well and singing together with Felix sometimes sounds like there is a strong echo in the microphone. There voices are very much alike. With a lot of red light and smoke, the band created their own different little world on stage and this was enhanced by the way Sash Fiddler would hold his hands up, when he didn’t need to play, over the crowd like he was blessing them. The audience loved the performance and really got sucked into the vibe Diorama was creating. What I think was really cute, it that the entire venue got thanked by the band in Dutch, more then one time. This created a more intimate atmosphere. After over one hour the dancing audience and all the members were soaking in sweat. So almost at the end of the evening Torben walked of stage and he came back a few minutes later with a few water bottles to hand out to the people in front of the stage. The encore ‘Erase me’ was played and the encore also contained the more folky sounds where Marquess switched to acoustic drums. The show was lovely, but I didn’t like the amount of smoke that was used. I know the band cannot fix the heat, but this sure wasn’t helping! What struck me again, about this band is the confidence and emotion they know to show on stage.