Alte Eisenbahnhalle, Losheim/Saar, Germany23rd October 2009
ASP & Mono Inc.
Being a fan since ‘Weltunter’, I was quite excited what surprises the evening would bring up to me. First of all, gathering all my friends at the railway station and driving roundabout 120 kilometres from my hometown, it was not so easy to find the place “Alte Eisenbahnhalle” in Losheim, where the magic should happen. But when we caught sight of the first wagons, relief took place…
Luckily I was to bring up my camera, because only two days before we had chance to inform the organizer - without any problem. That’s what I call service!!! Well, not all things should go easily like this; I had to experience just a few moments later. One of the ticket distributors had a wrong print on his tickets concerning doors open and beginning of the concert. Due to this reason there was a delay of nearly 45 minutes when the support band on this tour – MONO INC. - went on stage.
Mono Inc.
Although the band was kicking ass from the beginning, the audience seemed to be very cautious during the first song. Supporting such unique acts like ASP is a lot of hard work, especially when the audience only awaits the main act. Maybe most of these people are used to listen to boring support acts or bands they never heard of… well forget about that time! MONO INC. did not lose heart and played one of their classics ‘Temple of the thorn’ and - for God’s sake - the spark overleapt to the audience… Since 25th of September, Mono Inc. are promoting their recently released album ‘Voices of doom’ and so it was clear, that the next songs should give a taste of their really great skills in composing solid Gothic Rock songs.
After ‘Voices of doom’ and ‘Gothic Queen’, there was my personal first highlight at this evening: ‘If I fail’! In my opinion the best songs on the new release; I was quite flashed. Not only by this wonderful masterpiece of music which was introduced in an interesting way and Martin Engler’s dramatic voice which fits the song very well. Moreover it was Katha Mia’s voice that caused me gooseflesh. I heard quite a lot of “Heavenly voices” all over the years, but more or less it was all the same. But this voice is very unique and shattered me to the bones, honestly… Not only that Katha Mia is the only female drummer I had seen in this business for years, she is also capable to support their mastermind Martin Engler with a soft and clear voice. Two songs more to come with two beautiful voices - ‘Forgiven’ and ‘Bloodmoon’ - when it was time to experience the drum skills of the only lady between all of these manpower and Hell yeah I guess, she can handle with it!
And it seemed to me the audience agreed to that. The band was pulling the strings and caught the atmosphere in an awesome way. A proof of that is their special kind of a “Tour Diary” - a short video clip of every day on tour and impressions from above the stage during the concert. The last two songs of MONO INC.’s great performance and therefore an excellent support for ASP were ‘Sleeping my day away’ and ‘Get some sleep’ - especially with their last song, they captivated me as a new fan… I’d like to hear more on their promoting tour coming up in December! http://www.mono-inc.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/monoincmusic
Setlist
01. This is the day
02. Temple of the thorn
03. Voices of doom
04. Gothic Queen
05. If I fail
06. Forgiven
07. Bloodmoon / Drum solo
08. Sleeping my day away
09. Get some sleep
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 8.1 / 10
ASP
After a short break due to reconstruction of the stage, the “papilio niger” ASP entered the stage with ‘Ich bin ein wahrer Satan’ - one if the most powerful songs their mastermind ever wrote. Surely the audience was freaking out right from the beginning! No time for breathing at all, because another one of the classics that should never be missing on a concert was ‘Weltunter’. Then there was time to calm a little bit down. ‘So viel tiefer’, a very beautiful song, released on their retrospective ‘Horror Vacui’ fitted the atmosphere very well - especially for the ladies, it seemed! It’s quite remarkable that a lot of female gothic fans are listening to ASP, although they are playing some rough songs. But without doubt, it’s the mystic and varied voice and not at least the charisma of ASP’s mastermind Alexander Frank Spreng causing some sighs, I heard among the audience. Although ASP was afflicted by flu, he spared no efforts to satisfy his audience and for his own declaration it was worth taking all the meds…
So he went on performing a song of their most impressive album in my opinion - it was ‘Krabat’. The fans started yelling again and were in high spirits. Followed by ‘Im Märchenland’, one song of their recently released single ‘Wer sonst’, there was coming up ‘Schwarzer Schmetterling’. As one of the oldest songs of ASP, it’s impressive to hear it all over again - well, some songs really should never be missing on a concert… Luckily ASP’s voice was not so affected by the flu and so we had the pleasure to listen to two “Club Hits” - ‘Raserei’ and ‘Kokon’. Meanwhile temperature climbed up towards boiling point, every song was followed by extraordinary cheers and jubilations- it was time to calm down again. Playing an Unplugged-Tour with their Album ‘Zaubererbruder - Der Krabat-Liederzyklus’ on last winter and therefore playing in small locations, ASP tried to captivate their fans with two songs played on acoustic guitar as a gift to their loyal fans who had no chance to visit the Unplugged-concerts (really, it is a pity, because in my opinion the “Zaubererbruder-Tour-Shirt” is really amazing and was only sold on tour) and so they performed ‘Zaubererbruder’ and ‘Nimm mich’. There’s only one word for this: Awesome!!! What a great performance!!!
Three classics again followed the “unplugged section”. It was time for ‘Sanctus Benedictus’, ‘Demon Love’ and ‘Me’. At any time ASP understood pulling the strings and keeping the audience in mood. ‘Wer sonst’ was the next song, declared with a political comment by ASP remembering the discussion of the symbol-conflict at WGT… and accusing radicalism. After ‘Besessen’ it was time for THE great song of ASP’s career, the only one that started everything: ‘Und wir tanzten (Ungeschickte Liebesbriefe)’! Supported by everyone in the audience, the mastermind had obviously forgotten his illness and seemed to be overwhelmed. Pleasure was mine, because we were awarded with two really powerful songs again: ‘Denn ich bin der Meister’ and ‘Schwarzes Blut’. Really satisfied and exhausted ASP left the stage…
No way thinking about that! The audience started yelling out loud “Wir wollen brennen!!!!” over and over again… so coming back on stage again ASP was quite stunned, meanwhile marked by the flu. Nevertheless, the two encores ‘Sing Child’ and ‘Werben’ were the straw that broke the camel’s back. In the end there was only one highlight left to be played: ‘Ich will brennen’! Now the audience completely went overboard and the band left the stage obviously impressed and overwhelmed due to the continuing applause and yelling… After all, ASP really kicked ass from the first minute and left no doubt why this band is so successful! http://www.thetalesofasp.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/thetalesofasp
Setlist
01. Ich bin ein wahrer Satan
02. Weltunter
03. So viel tiefer
04. Krabat
05. Im Marchenland
06. Schwarzer Schmetterling
07. Raserei
08. Kokon
09. Zaubererbruder (semi acoustic)
10. Nimm mich (unplugged)11. Sanctus Benedictus
12. Demon Love
13. Me
14. Wer sonst
15. Besessen
16. Und wir tanzten (Ungeschickte Liebesbriefe)
17. Denn ich bin der Meister
18. Schwarzes Blut
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19. Sing Child
20. Werben
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21. Ich will brennen
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 9
Total: 9.4 / 10
ASP pictures by Martin Black (http://www.art-in-black.com/) / Mono Inc. pictures by Björn Butzen
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