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the69eyes_Intro.jpgLive Music Hall, Cologne, Germany
February 13th 2005
The 69 Eyes and The Others


One thing you have to admit: "The 69 Eyes" are real posers... fullfilling all the imaginations you might have about gothic rock. But they are good in doing that. So good that it is real fun watching them performing on stage.
The Others

Neither of us had heard anything of this band before seeing it. The one thing we did know before they went on stage was a few loose words uttered by a Belgian photographer named Harry. "Some kind of punk rock thing... I've only listened to a few songs, and their singer seems a bit weak. But they paint their faces, so visually it's quite nice". So, with pretty low expectations we made our way through the gathering crowds.

Music
Our Belgian friend was pretty accurate it seems. The two guitar players were unfortunately doing a pretty poor job of helping the quite weak lead singer with some backing vocals. While they were pretty tight as musicians, the whole experience was musically uninspiring without any recognizable distinguishing features to make the songs or the sound stand out.

Performance
The visual appearance made a far better impression, and seemed better composed than their music. This did however not suffice to make a solid contact with the audience, and to be quite honest they barely served as a warm-up for the main band. The lights were quite ok, naturally the light technicians held back a bit on the venues capabilities to save for the main attraction. But by the 2nd last song "Wolf" some smoke appeared and they started to make use of the facilities a bit better.

Rating
Music 3
Performance 4
Sound 6
Light 5
Total 4

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The 69 Eyes

The "Helsinki vampires" is a horror flavoured glam rock band from Finland, currently touring Europe to promote their new album "Devils". The Cologne concert was the 4th on this 16 appearance long tour, named "We are dead until dark - The 69 Eyes on Devils tour 2005". Even though it was 3 years since they last played at this particular venue, they seemed to have a solid local support.

Music
Starting out strong with their current single "Devils", the band immediately made good contact with the audience. By the third song "Betty Blue", people were clapping their hands all the way back to the mixer booth. "The 69 Eyes" are also using two guitar players for backing vocals, a lot more successfully than the warm-up band of the day though - and with one base player to spare. The lead singer did quite a good job of adding to the musical experience, even though he seemed to be more concerned with the appearance than with actually conveying the lyrics to the audience.

Performance
Lining up 2 guitar players, one base player and one singer, all very conscious of their appearance - they did a good job of appealing to the audience. Special attention must be made to their animal of a drummer though. Bare chested with long hair pointing, and whipping around in all directions, he really made a beastly impact. Further emphasized by the fact that he held his mouth open for the duration of the concert - as if sweating like a dog... Perhaps it was 'cause of the smoke that appeared from time to time around the drums... causing a very nice mystic effect together with yellow and blue lights there. Overall the lights were very well used. A lot of bright frontlight made the audience able to follow the performance which was infected with a lot of goth-rock clichés. Highlights of the show were surely the recent single "Devils" as well as classics like "Gothic Girl" or "Dance D'amour" from the album "Paris kills".

Rating
Music 7
Performance 8
Sound 6
Light 7
Total 7 (7.2)

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Live Music Hall

The "Live Music Hall" is one of the most popular locations for "dark" concerts taking place in Cologne.

Food and drinks
A good selection of most different kinds of beverages, even if the selection of beers were lacking a bit on the darker brews. Stay clear of the tap beer if you like something with a taste stronger than water.

Stage
One quite big, moderately elevated stage that is clearly visible from all locations in the hall. There was a balcony above the main floor as well, but it was not open to the public for this event.

Audience area
One large hall that held a quite ok temperature due to the high ceiling. While the three bars were easily accessible in the main hall, the toilets are located in an other building, which means you have to cross the yard to go there. Could be a bit odd with weather like we had on the concert day ;)

Staff
Good service from the barkeepers and well organized as a whole. The security were alert, even if they seemed a bit out of the loop as it came to the regulations.

Rating
Venue accommodation 6
Staff 6
Total 6


More pics on Black-Cat-Net

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