Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - VNV Nation

Details: Written by: Daniela Vorndran; Published: 28 April 2005

Soundgarden, Dortmund, Germany
April 24th 2005
VNV Nation, Diorama and Soman

Only two days after my last VNV Nation concert I made my way to Dortmund to see the last concert of the European tour. Final concerts are always something special so I was looking very much forward it. We arrived half past 7 just when the doors were open for 30 minutes. So this time no waiting time outside. We directly went into a still quite filled venue and during the support bands there should come much more people in. This time the technical crew had enough time to prepare everything so the lightshow with all bands was much better.

Soman

Music
I had the impression that every band this evening gave their best extra for the tour final. Soman´s music was much more powerful that evening and people started dancing right away. He changed his set a little. For example he took that VNV Nation remix out of his program. The sound was very good but as you sadly know it from most electro bands a bit too loud.

Performance
Again he pleased the audience with his one man show what reminds a bit of a techno DJ in an Ibiza club. A nice final show gag appeared in the middle of the set as some people (I could not really recognize if it were members of the other bands) strangely dressed up were jumping across the stage. And that shouldn´t be the last joke of the evening. Kolja seemed to be in a very good mood and animated the audience to move. His powerful electro-noise-industrial mixture worked very well to warm people up for the upcoming bands. The light were a bit stronger compared with Krefeld and smoke was used a bit more dosed.

Rating
Music 7
Performance 7
Sound 7
Light 6
Total 7 (6.85)

Diorama

Music
As the intro started we were wondering what that should be? Was that really Diorama? Why the hell are they using the melody from the "Rocky" movies as an intro? And then in combination with such silly videos? Of course this was a final show joke as well and VNV Nation´s Ronan explained later that he needed more than 3 hours to prepare that intro. Cool idea I must say and not the only joke during Diorama´s gig. Torben´s vioce sounded as strong as the concert before. The calmer, more intense sounds of Diorama´s songs kept the crowd away from dancing but made them listen to the same songs like in Krefeld.

Performance
Surely the three guys on stage are not the great and vivid dancers, but Torben moved around the stage a lot while the other two guys got stuck behind their instruments. The next joke should come soon as the VNV Nation guys appeared on stage dressed up as cleaning ladies, swayed their besoms and started to scavenge the stage. Felix and Sash only moved out of their way and kept on performing their songs while Torben escaped behind Mark´s drum set. Sadly the atmospheric illuminated set of Diorama was much too fast over after only about 30 minutes und the guys cleared the stage for the main act of the evening.

Setlist
01. Logic Friends
02. Last Minute
03. Advance
04. The Girls
05. Someone Dies
06. Howland Road
07. Her Liquid Arms

Rating
Music 7
Performance 7
Sound 7
Light 7
Total 7

VNV Nation

Hundreds of fans made their way to Dortmund to see the final European show of VNV Nations Formation Tour 2005. Some brought again glow sticks to show their enthusiasm.

Music
The band started again very powerful with "Chrome" what made the crowd going mad from the very beginning. People all over the venue - even on the galleries - started dancing. The concert was a big party. One hit followed another and there were some changes in the setlist. For example "Endless skies" was back in the set and replaced the in Krefeld played "Holding on". Ronan announced the last song of the official set - "Honour 2003" as a very sad song... the sadest song they ever made. Of course this was another joke that showed in what a good mood the band was. And even though Ronan´s voice was partly really affected - what we gladly forgive after such a long tour - most of the songs sounded fantastic. A little surprice came up during the first encore as Ronan announced a song they did not play before on that tour and "Solitaty" sounded through the hall. Mark for his part played the drums very dedicative and put all his power into the things he´s done.

Performance
For this last concert on European ground the band acted much more enthusiastic than before... as far as I can say. They had fun and wanted to have a big party together with their fans. And it was great! Long ago I had so much fun at a concert enjoying myself dancing and clapping all the time. Like most of the other did too. This time the light technician created a real light firework where everything worked out perfectly... the video screens, lights, scanners and smoke. Of course I missed some front light again... but we still had that topic.

That the band was in a perfect mood you also felt while Ronan was speaking to the audience. And he did that a lot, telling how much he enjoys that last show and how good the fans are. He asked them, where they are from, greeted the fans from the VIP Nation message board or just told the audience to move and raise their hands to clap along or to sing along with him. Of course VNV Nation were not untroubled by some jokes too. During the set the Diorama guys came to stage to serve some food and beverages... Vodka and Strudel. Nice as Ronan is, he shared the Strudel with some people in the audience. And he tried to do some advertising like you know it from cinema or TV: "This break was brought to you from Finlandia Vodka and Strudel". What of course caused a lot of laughs within the audience. Another joke was made by the sound engineer who put a strange effect on Ronan´s microphone just before the last song so his voice sounded very strange and he spoke like Gollum: "Mein Schatzzzzzzzz" (and I won´t tell you now who Gandalf was ;) ). Mark joined into that and sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with that helium-evil voice. Before the last song "Electronaut" Ronan recognized a vase on Vasi´s keyboard... "Ahhh, Blumen-Vasi" - a joke that probably only Germans understand ;)

A lot written now about that show. Only one word to end: It was simply fantastic!

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Chrome
03. Joy
04. Darkangel
05. Arena
06. Standing
07. Epicentre
08. Entropy
09. Endless Skies
10. Legion
11. Honour 2003
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12. Homeward
13. Solitary
14. Perpetual
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15. Further
16. Beloved
17. Electronaut

Rating
Music 7
Performance 9
Sound 7
Light 8
Total 8 (7.75)