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Patronaat, Haarlem, The Netherlands
June 6th 2006
Nitzer Ebb, Terence Fixmer

It was the day after the infamous Wave Gotik Treffen and Nitzer Ebb had just had their reunion concert there. Now going on their European tour they stopped by in Haarlem for a concert. At the entrance and all over the venue people were told photography was not allowed yet through kind negotiations we managed to get permission after all. All set to go to one of the elektro classics, the one with that weird name: Nitzer Ebb.


Terence Fixmer

Frenchman Terence Fixmer has been working together with Nitzer Ebb's singer Douglas McCarthy as Fixmer/McCarthy making the choice for Fixmer as Nitzer Ebb's support act a logical one.

Music
Well eventhough Terence has used a microphone during his performance it was just to add some distant vocals to the elektro music. For the rest it was just a good set of beats with a good balance between bass and high tones. Mixing is his second nature and therefore it was good to see that all of his music had almost indistinguishable transfers in between songs. Although not knowing what exactly he did behind his equipment, we can conclude that his music is good, danceable and well balanced. And this was just the same with the sound coming from the speakers, nothing too dominating that shouldn't be dominating the overall sound. All in all a good and compatible choice for a support act.



Performance
What can be written about a man standing right behind his table full of cables, plugs, slides and the inevitable iBook? Nothing much really, Terence was very much into his music and was working hard to get it all done right. Every now and then he looked up to have a look at the audience but that was about it. The audience shouldn't stare  at artists like this in amazement, they should just dance and leave the detailed observations to RoD reporters and photographers. The light was very dim making it hard to actually see Terence on stage eventough you already knew where he was: behind that big black table at centre stage.

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





Nitzer Ebb

It is a shame if you need a long introduction to Nitzer Ebb. These two guys have been around since the end of the 80's and have put their share of influence on many music scenes as could be seen from the very mixed audience today. Maybe most gothics were still in Leipzig, but at least dance scene people filled up the venue nicely. After more than 10 years the guys are back for a one-off tour, is it still worth going to see them?

Music
On stage we see two drum kits which are in use by, of course, Vaughn 'Bon' Harris and the beautiful percussion babe Kourtney Klein. During the opening song of the festival Bon joins Douglas McCarthy on vocals but for most of the time the lead vocals are taken care of by a very expressive Douglas. The music consists of beats, coming at you like an artillery barrage, slowly peeling away the resistance to somehow move to the music. The band has chosen to play parts of all their albums except for the last one. 'That Total Age', 'Showtime' and 'Ebbhead are all represented by 3 songs while 'Belief' contributes a total of 6 songs to the setlist, leaving the audience with a nice and anticipated crosssection of Nitzer Ebb's work. The show is ended with a song ('Come Alive') that is somewhat different than the rest of the set and is taken from the single 'As Is'. Somehow it does not really fit in the rest of the setlist leaving many in the audience in doubt about how to react to it. The music was, however quite loud, in good balance and the further to the centre the better the volume was. Nice balance between the vocals, beats and melody combined with a well composed setlist and good skills by the band members made it a concert to remember.



Performance
Stars and banners on the back of the stage, Bon looking like he's just done a photoshoot for a communist party poster, a very sexy blonde girl on drums and a singer with your every day US police sunglasses, that's Nitzer Ebb live in 2006. Behind their drum kits both Bon and Kourtney made sure the beats were taken care of. The same goes for the electronic component in the music which momentarely changed the cool and hard hitting drummer babe into a carefull lady softly touching the laptops mousepad to start a new track. At the same time Bon managed to combine frantic beating with doing some vocals to go along with the singing of Douglas. Douglas was all over the place trying to make contact with the audience at one time, totally living in his own world just moments later. Dramatic poses and fast moves followed each other quickly but it was a rarerity to see Douglas standing still. It all showed these guys and girl have quite a bit of experience in performing live on stage. It's just that it was hard to see the expressions of Douglas due to very poor front light. Strangely enough both drum kits had plenty of light while the lightning fast singer was left in the dark most of the time. And to answer that question in the intro: if there's still a chance to go see the band live, by all means do it, just do it.



Setlist
01. Getting Closer
02. Let Your Body Learn
03. Shame
04. Hearts and Minds
05. Lightning Man
06. Captivate
07. Family Man
08. Godhead
09. For Fun
10. Blood Money
11. Ascend
12. Murderous
13. Control I'm Here
14. Join the Chant
---
15. Fun to be Had
16. Come Alive

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 8




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More photos on page 2

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