Live Review: [:SITD:] - Bochum 2011

Written by Sebastian Huhn Monday, 28 November 2011 11:43

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Matrix, Bochum, Germany
25th November 2011
[:SITD:], Architect, SAM

15 years of [:SITD:] are more than a good reason to start a celebration and where else could the band start it than where it all started many years ago. In the meantime they’ve become quite an influential factor for other bands. On that special occasion the band’s invited two guests to warm-up the crowd a little.

SAM

After their demo ‘Demo Lition’ took the dance floors by storm, SAM was born. They swiftly found a label with Pro Noize, who released their self-titled debut in November 2006, comprising ’24 Stunden’ (24 Hours) which became a club hit and cracked into several charts like the German Alternative Charts. In June 2008, the follow-up ‘Destruction Unit’ sees the light of day, followed by ‘Brainwasher’ in 2010. SAM is Daniel & Joe. http://www.myspace.com/projectsam



Music & Performance
First of which were Daniel & Joe of SAM who made it very clear that in their opinion it was way to early but anyway started relentlessly rocking the stage. Actually, it’s a bit of a tough thing to write much about two guys hopping around on stage or behind their synth tables. The tracks hardly had any vocals but if they were any these were mostly commanding backstabs to rile up the crowd. One prominent feature of the tracks was their insane use of bass; sometimes you would think your hear was close to stop beating.

Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 5
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 5.3 / 10




Architect

ARCHITECT is yet another face of Daniel Myer who’s most notable being a member and creative force of HAUJOBB, who finally released their new album, and DESTROID. ARCHITECT’s tracks remain strictly instrumental. Daniel once described he’s working on those tracks like a real architect, putting layer on layer. Since its inception the project released five regular albums with ‘Consume.Adapt.Create’ being the latest one, released in 2010. A remix collection of the latest album, entitled ‘Upload Select Remix’ dropped earlier this year on Hymen Records. http://www.architect-music.com/



Music & Performance
Instrumental electronic acts on stage have a tendency to bore you to death sometimes, because there’s hardly anything happening except a guy twiddling knobs to sounds actually coming from a tape or HDD. If you like to get a feel of live electronics you usually have to look far. ARCHITECT is a welcome exception though. Of course you can’t avoid having some backing tracks playing, but you can at least try to do something not to make it look too boring. This is where Daniel Myer comes in. He’s actually doing live manipulation of the songs he’s playing, adding glitches and noises and screams on the fly which gives it a whole different feeling. When playing ‘Unhuman’ he added live drumming. If you heard that track on the album you know it’s got some punch already, but he went one better with the live performance. Last track ‘For you’ made a rather calm end to an exciting live performance.

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8.2 / 10




[:SITD:]

The band exists since 1996, but the big breakthrough came with the ‘Snuff EP’ with the hit track ‘Snuff Machinery’ which, from there on, couldn’t be missed out on any DJ playlist and is now a real classic. The first album ‘Stronghold’ continued the path of combining club orientated beats with hymnal melodies and dark vocals and was the most successful band album in 2003. With ‘Coded Message:12’, [:SITD:] released their second album, containing several new club hits like the preceding single ‘Richtfest’ and the German-tongued ‘Wegweiser’. The third album had to wait until 2007 aptly titled ‘Bestie:Mensch’; the album shed some light on the deepest abysms of the human soul. With a new album ‘ROT’, the trio soon unleashed its next strike on the clubs in October 2009. Two years later ‘Icon:Koru’ is presented. [:SITD:] is Carsten Jacek (vocals and lyrics), Thomas “Tom” Lesczenski (keyboards, programming, sampling and backing vocals) and Francesco “Frank” D'Angelo (keyboards and backing vocals). http://www.sitd.de / http://www.myspace.com/xsitdx



Music & Performance
Preps were almost completed by the time ARCHITECT’s equipment was taken off stage. Just a little re-decoration, a little waiting and then a strange intro (‘The Ecstasy of Gold’), by [:SITD:] terms, opened the show. After that disturbing few minutes we finally had some rather conventional stuff with ‘Laughingstock’ kicking off and Carsten entering to an excited audience. The crowd was on fire right away and danced as if there was no tomorrow. Since there is a new album out now for a week with ‘Icon:Koru’ we wouldn’t have to wait long for the first track to appear. The track of choice was ‘Code:Red’. New or not, the fans ferociously chanted along the lyrics as if it were one of the classics. Speaking of which, we were treated to a slightly updated ‘Rose-Coloured Skies’ next. Hell, how long didn’t I listen to that song, certainly one of the highlights on ‘Stronghold. Straight downwards now into the shadows with ‘Kreuzgang’ and heavy head banging, as in head banging for metal heads just the electronic way. Briefly Tom would take on the position as fronter now for ‘Sonic Barrier’ and ‘Suffering in Solitude’, especially the first one being one track I’d hoped to hear live.



‘Silent World’ is originally a track by DESTROID, [:SITD:] have made a remix of once. Since Daniel Myer was already there why not embracing the opportunity and having him sing the track, a lot of screaming parts included. Performing with COVENANT has taken its toll it seemed… On the other hand you get simply blown away by those unbridled emotional outputs. ‘Lebensborn’ and ‘Wegweiser’ are classics’ and I can’t recall any past show I’ve witnessed they weren’t part of. The frigid ‘Rot’ ended the first part of the show. There would be a second part soon with the audience not stopping to clap for an encore. The first of which was a tribute to a band most of us know I think: EDITORS! Their recent album had that enormous club hit ‘Papillion’ which we now were presented in [:SITD:] style sung by Tom, to go straight back to the band’s roots with ‘Atomic’, featuring a performance of old companion Thorsten Lau. ‘Herbsterwachen’ then ended the second part of the show, but the audience still didn’t show any signs of weariness, so they called them out for a third one.



This one was dedicated to ‘Richtfest’ and their breakthrough hit and club evergreen ‘Snuff Machinery’. At the end of it all you just realized how amazed the band was by the overall enthusiasm about the show and didn’t forget to thank everyone for being part of this. My short but concise summary: A worthy anniversary show. To the next 15 years!

Setlist
01. The Ecstasy of Gold
02. Laughingstock
03. Code:Red
04. Rose-Coloured Skies
05. Kreuzgang V.2
06. State Of Tyranny
07. Sonic Barrier
08. Suffering In Solitude
09. Silent World (RMX for Destroid)
10. Lebensborn
11. Wegweiser
12. Periculär (Richtfest II)
13. Rot
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14. Papillion (Editors Cover)
15. Atomic
16. Herbsterwachen
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17. Richtfest
18. Snuff Machinery

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8.6 / 10



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