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Live Music Hall, Cologne, Germany
24th October 2006
ASP & Dope Stars Inc.

On a dark rainy autumn-evening we went to Cologne to visit some kind of shooting star of German gothic scene - ASP. Already on arrival, outside the venue we could note that not much people are in the house because normally it's very difficult to find a parking place close to the Live Music Hall. But this time it was easy to do and really the venue was only half filled. May be it was due to the ice hockey game of a famous local team at the same time or an other reason could be that ASP should also play three days later on Friday evening in close-by Bochum. Anyway, just in time at 8 o'clock the support act Dope Stars Inc. entered the stage to warm the audience up.


Dope Stars Inc.

Dope Stars Inc. are an Italian industrial rock band formed in the spring 2003 by Grace Khold and Darin Yevonde, joined later by Brian Wolfram and Victor Love. They are a fairly recent project that capitalizes on cyberpunk imagery in their songs and appearance. Dope Stars Inc. are: Victor Love (Vocals, Guitars, Synths, Programming), Grace Khold (Synthesizers), Darin Yevonde (Bass) and Alex Vega (Guitar). The last album called "Neuromance" and was released in august 2005. The next album "Gigaheartz" will be released in November this year. http://www.dopestarsinc.com/ / www.myspace.com/dopestarsinc



Music
Dope Stars Inc. performed eight songs, all taken from the last album "Neuromance", starting with "Infection 13" and finished by "Defcon 5". The music sounds such as rock'n'roll must sound - hard, heavy and dirty. Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, this theme could have been made by this band and quickly the audience was infected. Sadly the PA-system wasn’t adjusted optimal and the lightshow mostly was limited to green and turquoise.



Performance
From the very first second, the band tried hard to warm up and animate the audience, often they requested clapping hands and dancing feet and they got it at most of the time. The performance was very powerful and pushing.



Setlist
01. Infection 13
02. Vyperpunk
03. Make A Star
04. Rebel Riot
05. Theta Titanium
06. Generation Plastic
07. Self Destructive Corp.
08. Defcon 5



Rating
Music 7
Performance 8
Sound 7
Light 7
Total: 7.3






ASP

After the obligatory break to change the stage setting, now the audience was waiting for ASP and already the roadie got applause for the sound check.

ASP is a German Gothic band from Frankfurt / Main. The band was formed in 1999 and named after its lead singer Asp (short for Alexander Spreng). ASP on stage are Asp (mastermind, songwriter and singer), Matthias Ambré (producer, guitar player, backing vocal), Tossi (bass, backing vocal) and Oliver Himmighoffen (live drummer). In the last years ASP evolved into a shooting star of German gothic scene and they were headliner of the second stage at M’era Luna Festival this year. http://www.thetalesofasp.com/ / www.myspace.com/thetalesofasp



Music
After the intro the main set started and finished with the current single "Ich bin ein wahrer Satan" (I'm a real devil). Are you confused? Me too, but really they played this song twice, at the beginning and at the end. Framed by the current single, which was released two weeks ago in four formats with different remixes and b-sides, ASP celebrated a diversified mixture of classics like "Weltunter", hits like "She Wore Shadows" and new stuff like "Krabat". But after the main set nobody wanted to go home; the audience requested encores and they got them, triply ASP had to come back and only after the ballad "Und wir tanzten" - one of the oldest and most famous songs of ASP - the audience went home excited. The sound was much better than at the support act and the lightshow was too.



Performance
The light went out, fog and blue light went on and the musicians entered the stage during the intro, finally ASP himself entered the stage, dressed in a dark coat like always, and begun to sing. The performance was very passionate and straight, ASP didn't only sing the songs, he lives and breathed them and quickly the spirit went over to the crowd and everybody was dancing and singing along. After the third song, ASP took off the coat, but later when a groupie requested him to undress more he answered: "Believe me - you do not want this, really" what brought him a lot of laughs. Anyway ASP dominated the stage all time and fascinated the crowd. Altogether a great show and I'm sure: I'll come back text time!



Setlist
01. Intro
02. Ich bin ein wahrer Satan
03. Weltunter
04. Die kleine Ballade vom Schwarzen Schmetterling
05. Krabat
06. Ich komm Dich hol'n
07. She Wore Shadows
08. Me
09. The 6th Of September
10. Sing Child
11. Demon Love
12. Besessen
13. Tiefenrausch
14. Ich will brennen
15. Ich bin ein wahrer Satan
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16. Stille der Nacht
17. Werben
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18. Schwarzes Blut
19. Schwarzer Schmetterling
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20. Und Wir tanzten



Rating
Music 9
Performance 9
Sound 8
Light 8
Total 8.7







More pics on Black-Cat-Net
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