De/Vision - Bielefeld 2007

AKANOID

The evening started with AKANOID who have released already three albums and a compilation. Several records with different solo- and side-projects in the genres Dance, Electro and Rock can be added to their discography. Their new stuff proves once again that the Germans have multilateral talents: already known for their hypnotic grooves they now enrich their electronic sound much more with atmospheric melodies, emotional voices and accentuated guitars. Their current album ‘Cocktail Pop’ has been released in April 2007; the upcoming EP called ‘On Air Again’ and will be released end of October this year. Uwe Lübbers left the band short time ago and three new members joined the band. AKANOID now are Hilton Theissen (vocals/guitar/FX), Phil Weyer (guitar/vocals), Daggy Fischer (synth/vocals) and Dirk M. Berhorn (drums). http://www.myspace.com/akanoid / http://www.akanoid.de/  



Music
The sound of AKANOID was a unique mixture of modern Electro Pop with 80s reminiscences and danceable Indietronic rhythms. The voice of Hilton sometimes remembered me to CAMOUFLAGE. The set ran about 30 minutes and consisted of seven songs mostly out off the album ‘Cocktail Pop’ and the upcoming EP. 

Performance
The dedicated performance was taken in well-disposed by the scanty audience. Hilton dominated the performance with his charismatic voice, Daggy - the bewitching beautiful keyboard player - pleased the eyes on the left side of stage, in the background Dirk did his job behind the drum set and on the right side Phil rocked the guitar. Sometimes the performance seemed a little bit inhomogeneous, surely due the fact that the band in the current line-up plays together just for a short time. Altogether it was a good start with a developable band. Too bad that we could not see again the video projections the band usually uses. 



Setlist
01. Intro
02. Under The Line
03. Nexx
04. On Air Again
05. Caught In Sphere
06. I Swear
07. Game Boy
08. No Matter 

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.7




MICHIGAN 

After a very short change over break the show went on with MICHIGAN from Sweden, formed in the early 90ies when Jonas and Peter met up with Jesper to share and talk about "Synth music". They got together, started writing songs all just for fun, and recorded some demos. They did their way over the years and finally in 2003 they had released their first album ‘Graceful and in Sin’, followed by the second and current album ‘Ultimate Sky’ which was released in 2004 (2005 in Germany). The upcoming album is called ‘Pulse of Pain’ and will be released at 5th October 2007. MICHIGAN usually are Peter Ehn (vocals), Jonas Öberg (keyboard, backing vocals) and Jesper Ljungberg (keyboard, programming). This time they played only in two, Jesper missed. http://www.michigan.se/ / http://www.myspace.com/michiganmusik  



Music
The set of MICHIGAN consisted of 11 songs and ran about 50 minutes. They started with ‘Pulse of Pain’, taken from the upcoming homonymic album, followed by ‘Shine in Silver’ and ‘Juveniles’ taken from the upcoming album too. After it followed some older songs like ‘Sad Queen’ or ‘Sorrows’ and after about 50 minutes the set finished by the current single ‘The Nomad’. 

Performance
The music of MICHIGAN was beautiful melodic Synth-Pop, but the performance seemed a little bit boring and static to me, not much action on stage and the spirit didn't went over to the crowd. Altogether it was a simple show, it didn't hurt but it didn't satisfy me. Jonas was most of the time far back on stage behind the keys hardly to be seen and only cam front once to present ‘The Nomad’ together with Peter. 



Setlist
01. Pulse Of Pain
02. Shine In Silver
03. Juveniles
04. Sad Queen
05. Sorrows
06. Valley Of Death
07. Demon's Inside
08. Decadence
09. My Own Denial
10. Hang On
11. The Nomad 

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.1




DE/VISION 

After a short change over the headliner DE/VISION entered the stage. The crowd was quite manageable up but the present people were in a good temper. DE/VISION stems from the Darmstadt area and have been busy playing their predominantly electronic pop music with melodic English vocals since 1988. These professional musicians have long been considered a quantity to be reckoned with on the German music scene.



They did their way over the years and had released a lot of albums and singles. The current album is called ‘Noob’ and was released in August 2007. DE/VISION are Steffen (vocals, synths, composing) and Thomas (synths, backing vocals, lyrics). On stage they were supported by Lars (guitar) and Markus (drums). http://www.devision-music.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/devisionmusic  



Music
The set consisted of 20 songs, starting with ‘Deep Blue’ and followed by a good mixture of songs taken from different periods of band history. The main set culminated with ‘Your Hands On My Skin’, sang by DE/VISION of course, but then the chant proceeded by the crowd after the band had left the stage, and finally the band came back on stage and finished the song themselves, followed by 2 more songs for now. But after ‘I Regret’ the crowd requested another encore and it was given with ‘Re-invent Yourself’ and ‘Try To Forget’. Again the band left the stage, but the crowd wasn’t tired at all and so, the band had to come back for the ultimate last song ‘Strange Affection’. 



Performance
The stage was dominated by the charisma and the very expressive dance style of the lead singer Steffen again. Thomas behind this keyboard was arranged in the middle back and the both additional live musicians were placed at the both sides, the low drum set on the right side and the guitar on the left side of the stage. In the background you could see large LED-Pads which displayed several symbols, letterings and light effects what was just great.



Some people in the crowd and the band too had to smile at the beginning when they read the posters on stage "You are in Bielefeld" because at one of the last gigs Steffen messed up the cities during the welcoming. The show was carrying away you quickly and very fast the spirit went over and the whole crowd was dancing and singing along. After about 100 minutes the show was over and the people left the location happy and satisfied. 



Setlist
01. Deep Blue
02. What I Feels Like
03. Obsolete
04. Addict
05. God Is Blind
06. Freedom
07. Dress Me When I Bleed
08. Life Is Suffering
09. New Drug
10. Nine Lives
11. Love Will Find A Way
12. The End
13. The Far Side Of The Moon
14. Living Fast Dying Young
15. Your Hands On My Skin
---
16. Flavour Of The Week
17. I Regret
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18. Re-invent Yourself
19. Try To Forget
---
20. Strange Affection 

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 9
Total: 8.6







All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
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