Amphi Festival - Cologne 2006 (Day 1)

The 69 Eyes – Mainstage [DV]

At the beginning of the 90s, five freaks from Helsinki formed the band ‘The 69 Eyes’. First they were influenced by ‘Iggy & the Stooges’, ‘Motörhead’ and ‘The Doors’, but over the years the developed their own style. The 2000 album ‘Blessed be…’ with the Gothic hymn ‘Gothic Girl’ made the band well-known all over the scene. The latest album ‘Devils’ was released in autumn 2004 and the upcoming output ‘Angels’ can be expected to be released in autumn 2006 finally. ‘The 69 Eyes’ are Jyrki 69 (vocals), Jussi 69 (drums), Archzie (bass), Bazie (guitar) and Timo-Timo (guitar). http://www.69eyes.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/theofficial69eyes



Music
When the band started, they presented really dirty Sleaze- and Garage Rock. In the flow of time the sound became darker and developed to Gothic Rock, or as the band says “Urban Dark City Rock'n'Roll With Romantic Visions Of Death”. Today, the band presents a mix of cracking guitars, droning bass, keyboard lines, well added melancholy moments, rocking grooves and the deep voice of singer Jyrki. Just after the intro, the band started with the burner and title track of the 2004 album ‘Devils’. The whole set was based on the rockier side. But there were also calmer moments – i.e. with the ballad ‘Dance D’amour’ from the 2002 album ‘Paris kills’ which showed again the mutability of the band with more added keyboard parts. The last song completed the cycle and the band went back to the recent album ‘Devils’ with the first single release out off it: ‘Lost Boys’.



Performance
When the show started we saw a lot of Finnish flags in the first rows. There were some big lovers of the band which entered the stage like real Rock stars. Jussi just spit into the air before he took his place at the drums where he had some beer. Alcohol and Rock n’ Roll! Jyrki looked as we know it from previous appearances and latest videos – dressed in his leather jacked (no matter how hot it was), skeleton gloves on his hands and big sunglasses in his face. All five musicians provided pure cool rock image. For me, always Jussi is the man of the show acting like a maniacal beast behind the drums. Jyrki was very communicative and talked a lot to the audience – often in German. Yeah, “das ist Rock n’ Roll”! He pushed the audience up until to the last song: “You guys rock! I don’t know if you are supposed to do so because you are Gothic people. So, you wanna rock?” He screamed that question out and got frenetic applause for it and people rocked to ‘Lost boys’. Let there be ROCK!



Setlist
01. Intro
02. Devils
03. Hevioso
04. Feel Berlin
05. The Chair
06. Brandon Lee
07. Sister of Charity
08. Dance D’amour
09. Framed in Blood
10. Lost Boys

Rating
Music 8
Performance 9
Light – (daylight)
Sound 8
Total 8 (8.4)




Subway to Sally – Mainstage [CL/DV]

‘Subway To Sally’ was founded in 1992. The seven musicians from Potsdam/Germany are considered to be a great live band. Trademark of the band is heavy rock and metal supplemented with mediaeval sounds that are integrated by bagpipe, hurdy-gurdy, lute, mandolin, shawm, violin or flute. The lyrics are exclusive in German and mostly deal with romantic, love and living in mediaeval times. ‘Subway To Sally’ are: Eric "Fish" Hecht (vocals, flute, bagpipe, shawm), Silvio Runge “Sugar Ray” (bass), Ingo Hampf (guitars, mandola, lute), Silke Volland “Frau Schmitt” (violin), Simon Michael (drums, percussions), Michael "Bodenski" Boden (acoustic guitar, hurdy-gurdy, vocals) and Simon (acoustic guitar, vocals). http://www.subwaytosally.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/subwaytosally



Music
“Welcome to the world of ‘Subway’, I think we’ll have a lot of fun together.” The announcement came true. Everyone who like this genre was satisfied with this show. Metal met mediaeval music and the antiquated instruments harmonized very well to the electro instruments completed by one or more male voices. The gig started with ‘Schneekönigin’ and ‘Feuerland’ – both taken from the current album – followed by older songs like ‘Knochenschiff’ and ‘Kleid aus Rosen’. The acoustic version of ‘Minne’ remembered of the “Acoustic-Tour” through German churches some time ago. They also played very popular songs like ‘Die Schlacht’, ‘Falscher Heiland’ or ‘Sieben’. The main set was finished with ‘Veitstanz’ but the audience required an encore and they got it with ‘Julia und die Räuber’. It was very impressive when the whole audience sung: “Blut, Blut, Räuber saufen Blut” (blood, blood, bandits swig blood).



Performance
What’s that? Today is the 22nd July, summer in Germany, but it’s snowing! Very crazy! When the show was beginning – remember that the first song was “Schneekönigin” (Queen of snow) – the snowguns of ‘Subway To Sally’ ejected lather into the audience and all over the audience it looked like snow flurry. After that, the show went on with some pyrotechnic effects, smoke and fire spitting during the show. The seven musicians changed the instruments frequently and there was all time action on stage. It was really not boring at all! While during the song ‘Kleid aus Rosen’ Eric was holding a black rose which he threw into the audience later, during the song ‘Eisblumen’ he took a lucky girl  to the stage and danced with her. I’m sure she will never forget this concert!



Setlist
01. Schneekönigin
02. Feuerland
03. Knochenschiff
04. Kleid aus Rosen
05. Minne
06. Die Schlacht
07. Eisblumen
08. Falscher Heiland
09. Das Rätsel II
10. Sieben
11. Veitstanz
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12. Julia und die Räuber

Rating
Music 7
Performance 9
Light – (daylight)
Sound 8
Total 7 (7.9)




Lola Angst – 2nd Stage [DV]

‘Lola Angst’ is the name of a rejected 300kg church organ with 36 pipes that usually eject flames up to 8m height and is the heart of the show.  The band ‘Lola Angst’ consists of Alexander Goldmann and Reiner Schirner. Even though the project is quite new, Goldmann and Schirner are not unknown. Goldmann was working under different names as producer and musician. Schirner was front man and producer of the band ‘Blind Passengers’. The release of the debut ‘Council of Love’ exceeded all expectations. The band became “newcomer of the month” and sound-check winner, got first title stories and double pages in all important European music magazines. The duo lives in two busses rebuilt to clubs and rolls over German streets and highways on 200 days a year. The whole spectacle around ‘Lola Angst’ and their tours is recorded by 2-3 camera teams and will enter the cinemas as read movie end of next year. A second record is expected for the end of the year. ‘Lola Angst’ are Alexander Goldmann (vocals, playing LOLA) and Reiner Schirner (analogue madness). http://www.lola-angst.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/lolaangst



Music
The songs on the album ‘The Council of Love’ have been generated totally analogue without the use of computer sequencers and preset sounds. For distinguish sound, Schirner recorded sound snippets in New York and added them to the songs. The dark and punky electronic synthy trash is a combination of outmoded analogue synthesizers and a primordial LINN drum machine which gives the unique, brute but appealing sound. Dark soundscapes melt with provoking lyrics and Goldmann’s strikingly mechanical chant. Due to the lack of all the boring banalities of most club hits, especially the catchy and danceable tracks are particular stunning. Analogue electro punk based on organ sounds – that’s something really new. Bizarre chant courses and elegantly nestled arrangements with an anarchistic note are the marks of the songs. The music takes its power from contradicting extremes – cool and genius, dark and menacing, warm and catchy. One can identify EBM-influences like ‘Front 242’ as well as funny Synth-pop from ‘And One’ like in the last song ‘Am I dead?”. My personal highlight was again the ‘Depeche Mode’ cover version of ‘Something to do’ which was dedicated to Alan Wilder (‘Depeche Mode’, ‘Recoil’). The whole show was so energetic that you even did not realize the by Alexander mentioned sound problems with the monitor speakers.



Performance
The live performance of ‘Lola Angst’ is a spectacular experience fort he audience. Alexander Goldmann is acting as vocalist and besides that he’s controlling the synths and drum machine through his electronic Church organ with both hands and feet. Reiner Schirner is analogue alienating those synth sounds. Two Russian ballerinas (Kristina and Nastja) are adding the optical element with their gracious dancing. Before the show started with the ‘Präludium’ you could see lots of beer bottles placed around the organ. Alexander and Reiner entered the stage with the words “Fuck the Feuerwehr (Fuck the fire brigade)”. First hint that there would no fire be used again. Very bad because this was the second time I missed it. The both guys are acting in real punk behaviour shouting a lot, drinking beer and handing bottles out to the audience who joined in screaming “Fuck the Feuerwehr”. During the set Goldmann asked who’s playing the other stage. He commented the answer “Subway to Sally” like this: “I hate bagpipes. Fuck the Dudelsack (Fuck the bagpipe)!” Due to the fact that they could not use their fire show and ‘Subway to Sally’ are using fire on stage just outside he asked: “Do you want Subway?” “No!” “What do you want?” and he got the answer: “Maoam” what is lent from a commercial about candy. Towards the end of the set he introduced his dancers too: “That are our two Russian ballerinas. But that’s just the beginning. Some when we’ll have 16 of them”. All comments were answered by adequate comments out of the audience. The whole show was so crazy and jiggered. The lights were kept very low and dark with a lot of smoke and created partly even a menacing mood. Only the fire was missed. If you ever have the chance – go and see those madmen on stage!



Setlist
01. Intro: Präludium by Johann Sebastian Bach
02. Children of the Dark
03. Something to do
04. In Space
05. The Council of love
06. King of the Mad
07. She’s a dark DJ
08. Cold hearted bitch 
09. Am I dead?

Rating
Music 9
Performance 9
Light 6
Sound 7
Total 8 (8.3)




Calmando Qual – 2nd Stage [DV]

The Japanese band founded in August 2001. The original Line up was Hibiki (vocals), Tak (guitar), Kenka (bass), Tasc (keyboard) und MAYA (drums). MAYA left the band end of 2005 and was replaced later by Shio. ‘Calmando Qual’ means ‘Silent suffering’ and is a mix of Italian and German. http://calmandoqual.info/ / www.visunavi.com/artist/preview.php?id=680 / http://www.myspace.com/calmandoqual



Music
J-Rock (Japan-Rock) or Visual Kei, how the musical style of ‘Calmando Qual’ is called, is quite famous at the moment in Germany. And so it was not very surprising that a band out of that genre was booked for the festival. The music can be described as harder Gothic Rock where even influences from Goth legends like ‘Bauhaus’ can be recognized. It is dark rock where violence , anger, pain, conflicts and mental diseases are issues. So, the first album ‘Killer Fiction’ is about the life of German and American serial killers. The band itself says about their music: “When we arrange a sound we search for hints in the lyrics. One of our songs contains the line : ‘atama-wareru’ (the head explodes), another one tells how a scalpel cuts into a skull. We try to turn such stuff into sounds so that you can hear and feel the action.” And well, when you listen to the music it’s sometimes really painful in your head with strange and noisy sounds.



Performance
The whole look of the band is quite dark and created by the artist Facid who is steady part of the band. She also is responsible for photos and videos of the band. The visual look is very important for bands of the J-Rock scene. So I was quite surprised that there was a lot of smoke and not very much light in stage so you hardly could see the strange styling of the guys. Performance-wise the band was very expressive doing strange moves and treating the instruments.



Rating
I better don’t rate the show of that band. I have absolutely no approach to that kind of music. In my ears it’s just strange noise. And you don’t even understand the Japanese lyrics. But there must be something in it because there were lots of fans celebrating the show.


VNV Nation – Mainstage [CL]

Of course you know ‘VNV Nation’ - the famous electro band. But do you know also what the letters VNV stand for? They stand for "Victory not Vengeance". The meaning behind this stylised motto is  that one should strive to achieve, not sit in bitter regret. ‘VNV Nation’s’ inspiration was originally the clash of modern and classical Europe cultures, where mythology and technology live in an uneasy fusion but this has since broadened to encompass a world view. The music ranges from electronic dance music to ballads  and classical inspired music. Inspirations are taken from a wide  range of styles including contemporary underground club culture, industrial and classical music. The lyrics draw on philosophy, literature, art, politics and different forms of symbolism. ‘VNV Nation’ does not advocate any ideology. It is a metaphor for expression. ‘VNV Nation’ are Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson. http://www.vnvnation.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vnvnation



Music
The headliner of this day at the main stage started with ‘Chrome’ - the latest released internet single. The following set was a well-balanced arrangement of current songs and older releases. Somebody criticized that it was a “mainstream set” with only greatest hits, but I think it was an apposite setlist for a festival. It's impossible to please everybody. Mark and Ronan were supported by Vasi Vallis (‘Frozen Plasma’) and another live keyboarder.



Performance
Mark Jackson hit the drums in background like every time while a clearly good humoured Ronan Harris was running across the stage. It was  a powerful performance just like always. Between the songs Ronan was speaking to the audience, sometimes even in German. After only 43 minutes they finished the main set and the band left a surprised audience for long three minutes before they come back to play three encores. For the second encore the live keyboarder left the stage, Mark entered the keyboard and Ronan celebrated the song ‘Beloved’ - it's the most impressive moment of a ‘VNV Nation’ concert when always the audience sings the chorus of ‘Beloved’ for the band and for themselves. Afterwards the both keyboarders came back for the 3rd and last encore ‘Honour’.



Setlist
01. Chrome
02. Darkangel
03. Entropy
04. Carbon
05. Epicentre
06. Homewards
07. Perpetual
---
08. Further
09. Beloved
10. Honour

Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Light – (daylight)
Sound 8
Total 8


CombiChrist – 2nd Stage [KM]

‘Combichrist‘ is a Norwegian group now working and living in the US. The music presented by the band could be described as Industrial. Started in 2003 by Andy LaPlegua, with it seven albums full of energetic, hard-hitting music is a total knock-down at every concert or party. Their recent album's entitled ‘Get your body beat’. Members (listing all - Live-crew usually changes): Andy LaPlegua - Music / Vocals / Production, Mr Petersen - Live Control, Kourtney K - Live Drums, Syn M - Visuals / Live Keys and Shaun F - Live Keys. http://www.combichrist.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/combichrist



Music
‘Combichrist’ is a project that is very clear and definite in image and music – energy, aggression, passion, beat, noise and harsh electro could be given as their trademarks (including strong make-up :) ). Every time I ask people for impression when they leave the concert of the band the answer usually is  “Complete knock-down” or even more often “Miss, this shit will fuck you up!” Uh-ah! Bingo! The fact is that Andy LaPlegua is the master when it comes to heating the audience's blood to the temperature of boiling. That was so this time as well: the well-know tracks ‘This shit will fuck you up’, ‘Blut royale’, ‘Lying sack of shit’, ‘Like to thank my buddies’ or ‘Enjoy the abuse’ are so popular for their energizing quality that some fans react no more no less, but like Pavlov's dogs and they start dancing and screaming as soon as they hear the first sounds of the favourite song. At least that was my impression. Anyway, the concert was a very hard act to follow (standing in this entire crowd, in the heat and couldn't move for an inch though I desperately wanted to), still, too short as for my needs. :)

Performance
The performance during the concert was mostly up to Andy LaPlegua for the obvious reason: the two other musicians were dealing with sound and so could not move. Andy was omni-present if I'm allowed to use this expression - moving from one side of the stage to the other, singing together with the audience and heating the atmosphere. What can I say – ‘Combichrist’ is the band pumping energy into my veins and let it last!