Expo-Hall, Waregem, Belgium27th to 28th July 2007
Gothic Festival Day 1: Trimetrick, Star Industry, Diskonnekted vs. Frank M. Spinath (Seabound), Punish Yourself, Kiew, Diary of Dreams, Kloq, Project Pitchfork, Grendel, Hocico, In Strict Confidence, Nitzer Ebb
This year it was the second time for the GOTHIC FESTIVAL in Waregem / Belgium, and the first time at the brand-new Expo Hall in this beautiful town in Flanders. Last year it was only a one-day festival with seven bands, this year it was a magnificent fest over two days with 24 bands in total! By this, the GOTHIC FESTIVAL placed itself among the top festivals of the European EBM & Goth scene. The line-up 2007 was outstanding, and especially lovers of Electro & EBM got their fair share. There were two stages - the small club stage in the foyer and the main stage in the central Expo hall - and the stages always alternated. There were no two bands playing at the same time, so you were able to check out every single band, if you want to. Which we did!
Trimetrick - Club Stage
The start made TRIMETRICK on very early Friday afternoon. TRIMETRICK is a non-profit freeware audio music project based in Antwerp, Belgium. Current members are Catherine Jane Robertson (lyrics, vocals) and Michael Mampaey (music, recording). The beat-driven sound wanders from Hellectro, experimental electronics and especially Techno-Industrial. Catherine impersonated the “Bitch from a Hell” (so one of their song titles), and female vocalists for Industrial acts seem to be the new trend, as it seems. TRIMETRICK made the early guests of the festival dancing a bit. Not too bad so early in the day! http://www.trimetrick.be/
As the stages always alternated, it was now time for the first band at the main stage. The Expo Hall in Waregem has the perfect size for such a festival. It is big but not too big (about 3,000 capacity I would guess) and the organizers of the GOTHIC FESTIVAL made some effort to trim the square main hall of the Expo a bit, with some nice decorations at the bars and at the Gothic Market in the back of the venue, and huge black drop curtains on all walls – which surely enhanced the acoustics of the place too! Usually exhibition halls are a pain in the arse when it comes to acoustics but at the Expo in Waregem it was actually quite good.
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.2
Star Industry - Main Stage
Anyway, STAR INDUSTRY were first on the main stage, another Belgian band (by the way produced by Belgian music legend Luc van Acker, of Revolting Cocks fame). STAR INDUSTRY also introduced “Goth” to the GOTHIC FESTIVAL with their guitar-dominated Gothic Rock sound - very danceable stuff which has certain similarities with THE SISTERS OF MERCY and THE MISSION (though the Belgians sound much more contemporary than those old heroes) and mid-era PARADISE LOST. While the people who went to the festival at this early time of day already could quite nicely fill the club stage, the main venue still looked pretty empty. Five to six rows in front of the stage, and a few (a little shyer?) people in the back - that was it.
STAR INDUSTRY were unimpressed by that and delivered a very solid performance. Quite remarkable was that STAR INDUSTRY decided to include even two cover versions into their shorts set. They played a rocking version of DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Enjoy the Silence’, which borrowed many elements from the LINKIN PARK remix of that song which was released three years ago. And they finished their set with ‘Here comes the Rain again’, originally performed by the EURYTHMICS. Again a very rocky cover version – and a nice closer for STAR INDUSTRY’s show! http://www.starindustry.be/ / www.myspace.com/starindustrymusic
Setlist
01. Out of my head
02. Pray
03. Sin
04. Ceremonial
05. Lost Generation
06. David Gun
07. Enjoy the Silence
08. Nineties
09. Here comes the Rain again
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 7
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 6.3
Diskonnekted vs. Frank M. Spinath (Seabound) - Club Stage
Next was an early Electro highlight at the club stage: DISKONNEKTED! This is the project of Jan Dewulf, who produces electronic music since the late 1990s. First he did very typical and classic EBM of the Belgian type under the flag of MILDREDA, his first project, but as his musical taste changed he also changed the name of his musical outlet and incorporated much more elements from Dance and Intelligent Techno into his dark Electro soundscapes. He also found a new label home for his project by signing to Alfa Matrix and released two EPs and the Album ‘Neon Night’ on the famous Belgian label - including a cooperation with Dirk Ivens aka DIVE. Quite an accolade for a young talented musician!
The gig at the GOTHIC FESTIVAL was announced as DISKONNEKTED vs. FRANK M. SPINATH - and not only insiders are familiar with the name of the voice of German Electro heroes SEABOUND. So this got some extra attention for the DISKONNEKTED gig, and the club stage venue was nicely filled. Supported by keyboarder Christophe Salvatore, and some very cool videos which were projected on the backdrop of the stage, Dewulf performed at first a few DISKONNEKTED tracks, all taken from the most recent album ‘Neon Night’. When Dewulf announced “something special” some people thought guest vocalist Frank M. Spinath would finally enter the stage - but Dewulf was talking of a brand new song and which got its world premier at the GOTHIC FESTIVAL! Well, something special indeed! Like all recent DISKONNEKTED stuff the new song left the classic Belgian EBM a la THE KLINIK behind to dive into more modern soundscapes with many elements from Intelligent Techno. In fact DISKONNEKTED’s latest stuff rather reminded me on an updated version of American Electro acts like MENTALLO & THE FIXER and not too much on Belgian Electro.
The sound at the gig was so far a little thin and not loud enough, but when the left side of the PA suddenly started to work again it became clear why. Due to some technical problem the PA did not work properly during the first half of the show. Fortunately the full sound was back just in time for the new song and Frank M. Spinath’s appearance on stage, who was introduced to the audience by Dewulf after the new song. The applause made clear that Spinath drew a lot of his own fans to this show. And he was into it from second one! It was amazing to realize how much Spinath has grown as an entertainer and front man since the first few SEABOUND shows years ago. The guys on stage first performed the song ‘Storm’, another new song which Dewulf produced together with Spinath. The SEABOUND vocalist then also delivered additional vocals for the DISKONNEKTED club hit ‘After Einstein’ - the track got the fans going, and it really did not feel like early afternoon but rather like the middle of the night! One of the advantages of indoor festivals - I guess bright sunlight would have destroyed some of the charm of the gig. At the darkened club stage the show came really to full effect.
The show was finished, rather surprisingly, with a SEABOUND track - the magnificent song ‘The Promise’ from SEABOUND’s last album ‘Double-Crosser’. Apparently the song was altered and remixed a little for the DISKONNEKTED show, and this SEABOUND track was surely the climax of the gig. A great appearance, despite the technical problem at the beginning, and it is to be hoped that the show with Frank M. Spinath got some extra attention for DISKONNKTED. Definitely a band worth to be checked out! http://www.diskonnekted.com/ / www.myspace.com/diskonnekted
Setlist
01. Pray – Vote – Donate – Buy (Intro)
02. Religion
03. Danger
04. Atlantis
05. Nu Speak
06. Storm (with FMS)
07. After Einstein (with FMS)
08. The Promise (with FMS)
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 7.4
Punish Yourself - Main Stage
After the wonderful gig of DISKONNEKTED we headed to the main stage to see PUNISH YOURSELF. I wasn’t familiar with this French cyber-punk band, so I was not prepared for the things to come. In fact one of the biggest surprises of the festival and one of the highlights of the whole weekend! This band from Toulouse features vocalist Vincent Villalon aka “vx69”, MissZ (guitars, percussion, background vocals), guitarist Pierre-Laurent Clément aka P.RLOX, and drummer X.av.
The band describes their own music as “Ministry fucking with the Lords of Acid” but that’s not even half of the truth. In fact PUNISH YOURSELF created their own universe, which is full of musical madness, dark glamour, fun, trash and insanity. They definitely have a strong Punk attitude, combined with Industrial elements, speeded Glam Rock, a Batcave & Wave flavour and hardcore Electro. And PUNISH YOURSELF were definitely the loudest band of the weekend!
All band members had a full neon body paint which glowed in the dark. There was only black UV light on stage, plus a lot of strobe light - it looked pretty amazing! On stage the band was joined by dancer Klodia, who also took care of some pyrotechnical effects. The attitude of PUNISH YOURSELF’s show reminded me on early ALIEN SEX FIEND shows - musically both bands are pretty different, but the level of madness, freakiness and the love for comical dark trash is very similar.
An excellent show but the highlight was yet to come - Jean-Luc DeMeyer (FRONT 242) joined the French band on stage - of course in full glow-in-the-dark body paint! - to perform the track ‘Voodoo Virus’ with them. Awesome! The whole PUNISH YOURSELF show was definitely an early highlight of the festival - and also Kourtney Klein, NITZER EBB’s female drummer, seemed to enjoy PUNISH YOURSELF’s gig a lot. http://punishyourself.free.fr/ / www.myspace.com/punishyourself
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 10
Sound: 7
Light: 9
Total: 8.6
Kiew - Club Stage
In fact it was one of the characteristics of the GOTHIC FESTIVAL that you could always see some musicians in the audience to watch gigs of other bands. This was also true for KIEW’s gig at the club stage. But the German industrial noise act attracted not only fellow musicians but also a good crowd - thanks to their well-known club hits like ‘Feierabend in Kiew’, ‘Tunnel’ or ‘Diskette’.
Founded in 1990 by Andreas “Thedi” Thedens, the trio developed avant-garde noise-scapes to a very rhythmic Industrial sound with Break-beat and Techno elements. Surprisingly Thedens’ band mates played the bass and the guitar respectively - but the sound was still pretty electronic.
Dressed in doctor’s overalls, they gave us some “audio therapy”, as the band puts it themselves. A very interesting, very powerful gig! But after PUNISH YOURSELF we needed a break and enjoyed KIEW’s show from the back of the venue. http://www.kiew.org/ / www.myspace.com/kiew
Setlist
01. Intro: Function
02. Graograman
03. Gabriel
04. Delusion
05. Zimmer 72
06. Tunnel
07. dcdisk
08. Mister 29
09. Mister 29 [13th Monkey Version]
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 6.9
Diary of Dreams - Main Stage
Next was DIARY OF DREAMS who are currently working hard on their upcoming album to be released in October, introduced by a single release entitled ‘The Plaque’ to be out in September. Due to that much work it was nearly a surprise to see this band perform at this festival - especially after Adrian Hates hat to cancel Bochum Total in June because of health problems. http://www.diaryofdreams.de/ / www.myspace.com/diaryofdreams
Nowadays, the band is a standard on German festival stages so it was interesting to see them in front of an audience outside the band’s home country. And in fact the gig was quite different. DIARY OF DREAMS are known for their rather melancholic, contemplative songs - although they adopted more and more electronic dance beats since their first few releases. But even their most danceable tracks are rarely faster than mid-tempo.
However, DIARY OF DREAMS are not exactly the band where you would expect a wild, frenetic show - but at the GOTHIC FESTIVAL it was exactly that! The audience freaked out, and the band (Gaun:a on guitar, Torben Wendt - also known as head on DIORAMA - on keys and D.N.S. on drums) around mastermind and voice Adrian Hates (who composes and produces the DIARY OF DREAMS albums mostly all on his own) chose a very upbeat setlist with many of the band’s club hits like ‘Giftraum’, ‘Chemicals’, ‘Butterfly: Dance!’ plus the rarely performed ‘Panik?’ or the surprising first song ‘Rumours about Angels’.
The band was obviously stunned and impressed by the audience’s reaction too - most DIARY OF DREAMS audiences, especially in their home country Germany, don’t react and participate that much, they just enjoy the music. The Belgian audience was pretty frenetic and euphoric, screaming a lot. I also recognized more anger and energy in the music and Adrian’s voice what was leading to - in my opinion - angrier and more aggressive performance. One of the best gigs I have seen by DIARY OF DREAMS!
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Rumours about Angels
03. Chemicals
04. O' Brother Sleep
05. Soul Stripper
06. Giftraum
07. Traumtänzer
08. Butterfly:Dance!
09. She
10. The Curse
11. Panik?
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12. Kindrom
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.3
Kloq - Club Stage
Back to the club stage: KLOQ - the project of Techno-Wizard Oz Morsley (ex-EMPIRION - yes, those who did the legendary remix of PRODIGY’s ‘Firestarter’). The trademark of KLOQ is a mix of big beats, driving bass, high energy drive and also a certain pop appeal. Recently KLOQ teamed up with DOUGLAS MCCARTHY, the voice of the Electro legend NITZER EBB. And the audience at the club show freaked out as KLOQ started with the McCarthy-tracks, and of course the master himself appeared on stage.
Being one of the greatest front men of our times, it was no problem for McCarthy to turn the club into a boiling, dancing mass in no time. Excellent and very exciting! He performed the tracks ‘You Never Know’ and ‘We’re Just Physical’, which was also released as a single earlier this year and gained quite some success in the dance club.
After this short but very exciting guest appearance, McCarthy made way for Greg C., who contributed his vocals to a few more KLOQ tracks. Maybe it would have been wiser to have guest star McCarthy towards the end on stage, as the show lost a little the momentum after McCarthy left the stage. But sometimes it’s fun to do things the other way round than people expect, and KLOQ’s music itself is very luring and catchy stuff anyway and can stand on its own. http://myspace.com/kloq
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.9
Project Pitchfork - Main Stage
PROJECT PITCHFORK announced a “Best Of” show, and so they started their gig at the main stage with one of their biggest hits, ‘Timekiller’. In the 1990s PROJECT PITCHFORK were one of the biggest bands of the Gothic/Dark-scene, and one of the first bands to enjoy commercial chart success in the German album charts. The new millennium saw the demise of this band, with some well produced but still somehow uninspiring albums and lacklustre live shows.
No big surprise that they are touring with a Best Of show now, maybe one of the last options to get good spots on the bill of festivals. They attracted a good crowd but obviously the Expo hall was more crowded when DIARY OF DREAMS performed here about an hour ago. PROJECT PITCHFORK’s setlist featured some of their best songs, like ‘Alpha Omega’, ‘God Wrote’ or ‘Conjure’, but my personal PITCHFORK Best Of setlist would have looked totally different - and seemingly many people in the audience felt the same. An okay gig but it actually did not get me too excited at all. http://www.pitchfork.de/ / www.myspace.com/projectpitchfork
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Timekiller
03. God Wrote
04. Revolution now
05. Conjure
06. Human Crossing
07. Alpha Omega
08. Drone State
09. En Garde
10. Mine
11. Fire and Ice
12. Existence
13. I am
14. Rescue
Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 5
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 5.6
Grendel - Club Stage
The Netherlands are not exactly known for a big EBM scene but there are indeed some bands who play this kind of music. The most prolific and well-know Dutch EBM band is for sure GRENDEL, who performed at the club stage as soon as PROJECT PITCHFORK finished their set at the main stage. Named after the antagonist in the medieval epic “Beowulf”, the three band members with pseudonyms [VLRK] (vocals / synthies / programming / sampling), [M4RC] (live drums / percussion / programming) and [MRK0] (live keyboards) produce their typical harsh EBM style since the late 1990s.
Their music is classic Electro/EBM, and what you get live from GRENDEL is a classic EBM show. Nothing new for someone who has spent the last 20 years in this scene ;-) but the show was effective and fun and the hard-driving beats surely had their impact on the dancing crowd. http://www.grendel-base.com/ / www.myspace.com/grendel
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 6
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 6.9
Hocico - Main Stage
On the main stage followed a band who produce music in a very similar vein as GRENDEL: the legendary Mexican Harsh Electro duo HOCICO! They played an exclusive festival-show for Europe at the GOTHIC FESTIVAL. Erk Aicrag (lyrics & vocals) and Racso Agroyam (programming) enjoy the reputation of being one of the best live bands in the EBM/Industrial scene - which may seem a little surprising to some people as the HOCICO live setup is very simple.
Racso Agroyam stands in the back of the stage behind his keyboards and equipment, and the rest of the stage is for Erk Aicrag - and this does the trick. Frenetically and full of energy he speeds over the stage, drenched in sweat and giving everything he has as if this was the last show ever.
The studio works of HOCICO obviously lack the impact of this live performance and often become a little too one-dimensional. Live it is a different thing because of the visual aspect and Erk’s performance. No surprise that HOCICO have such a cult following, and the Expo Hall in Waregem was indeed quite filled during their show. http://www.hocico.com/ / http://www.hocico.de/ / www.myspace.com/hocico
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 7.2
In Strict Confidence - Club Stage
IN STRICT CONFIDENCE could have easily played on the main stage too, but doing the headline spot at the club stage in front of a very packed venue was of course also a nice thing. IN STRICT CONFIDENCE is surely not a new name in the Electro/Industrial scene.
Mastermind Dennis Ostermann creates his own vision of dark electronic music since the early 1990s and with various collaborators he produced massive genre hits such as ‘Zauberschloss’, ‘Kiss Your Shadow’ or ‘Englesstaub’, which were of course also featured at their show at the GOTHIC FESTIVAL. IN STRICT CONFIDENCE turn out to be more of a live band than one might expect from their Electro-dominated studio material. With a fully-fledged acoustic drum kit and a guitarist (Timon Birkhofer, who also plays in Leaves’ Eyes) they sound much more organic than many of their colleagues who rely too much on pre-recorded music data.
It actually quite rocked, and front man Dennis Ostermann has become in all those years a very experienced performer. IN STRICT CONFIDENCE do have a Pop appeal, so one has to wonder why they don’t enjoy an even bigger success. Anyway, it was a very entertaining and solid show, albeit with just nine songs a little too short. http://www.instrictconfidence.de/ / www.myspace.com/instrictconfidence
Setlist
01. Promised Land
02. Closing Eyes
03. Seven Lives
04. Heal Me
05. Zauberschloß
06. Kiss your Shadow
07. Forbidden Fruit
08. Herzattacke
09. Engelsstaub
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.5
Nitzer Ebb - Main Stage
British legend NITZER EBB were the headliners of the Friday night at the GOTHIC FESTIVAL, and their gig in Waregem was one of the very few European shows in 2007. Bon Harris and Douglas McCarthy are producing a brand new album right now - the first NITZER EBB album since 1995! - and so they reduced their live activities a bit this year. On stage they are completed by drummer Kourtney Klein from Los Angeles, a perfect counterpart to the testosterone-driven sound and shouts of Mr. Harris and Mr. McCarthy.
The two gentlemen from Essex, UK, started NITZER EBB as early as 1982, together with founding member David Gooday (drums). Influenced by post-punk bands like DAF, DIE KRUPPS, MALARIA or KILLING JOKE, NITZER EBB soon abandoned all guitars they used at first to form an all-electronic outfit. Soon the combination of pounding beats, chanted shouts and irresistible rhythms became the trademark of NITZER EBB. In 1986 they got signed by Mute Records and released the massive hit singles ‘Murderous’, ‘Let Your Body Learn’ and ‘Join in The Chant’, followed by the album ‘That total Age’ in 1987. NITZER EBB toured in extensor, including support tours with their label mates DEPECHE MODE, and released the critically acclaimed albums ‘Belief’ (1989), ‘Showtime’ (1990) and ‘Ebbhead’ (1991) and numerous hit singles.
NITZER EBB managed to steer to a completely new direction with every new album without leaving the band’s trademarks behind. After world tour 1991/92 a long break followed, with a lot of internal struggle and disagreements about the musical direction for the next studio works. 1995 saw finally the release of NITZER EBB’s last album so far, ‘Big Hit’. The musical direction of this album was not quite clear, it featured many Rock elements but also still the electronic stuff, and besides gems like ‘Kick It’ or ‘Floodwater’ there were also some experiments which unfortunately failed. 2006 saw the surprising return of NITZER EBB on the stages of the world, and they toured the world in support of their ‘Body of Work’ Best Of release. McCarthy and Harris obviously enjoyed the new tour so much that they have decided to continue their collaboration as NITZER EBB after an 11-year break, and they are now already working on new material, of which they premiered two songs at the gig in Waregem.
But at first they started with the usual “Body of Work” set. ‘Getting Closer’ was again the perfect opener, featuring both Douglas McCarthy and Bon Harris at the microphone. The fans were getting wild from the start and the following classics as ‘Let Your Body Learn’ or ‘Hearts & Minds’ the first new songs followed – ‘Once You Say’! A very high-speed track with some breaks and the track featured Bon Harris in doing the vocal duties. The electronic sounded reminded me a bit on NITZER EBB’s ‘Ebbhead’ period. And from this particular album was the next song on the setlist, ‘Godhead’. Always a big smasher! With a few album tracks from the 1989 output ‘Belief’, a mellower phase followed, which also included the rare ‘Ascend’ (from ‘Ebbhead’) and another new song, ‘Payroll’.
And then the big finale came in, with one smasher after the other! The NITZER EBB classics from ‘Lightning Man’ to ‘Join in The Chant’ were just wild, and front man Douglas McCarthy was commanding the audience which was more than happy to obey. Douglas McCarthy displayed why he is regarded as one of the best front men of all time, running from one side of the stage to the other and really living every single sound and beat. This man is sheer energy! Of course the two gents and the lady were not allowed to leave the Expo without giving an encore, and like on their ‘Body of Work’ they gave the audience what they wanting with ‘Fun to be had’ and the epic ‘I Give to You’ as the show closer. Just another fantastic NITZER EBB gig, let’s hope for a full world tour in support of a brand new NITZER EBB album in 2008! http://www.nitzer-ebb.de/ / www.myspace.com/nitzerebbmusic
Setlist
01. Getting closer
02. Let your body learn
03. Shame
04. Hearts & minds
05. Once you say
06. Godhead
07. Blood money
08. For Fun
09. Ascend
10. Payroll
11. Lightning man
12. Control I’m here
13. Murderous
14. Join in the chant
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15. Fun to be had
16. I give to you
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 9.3
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
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