M'era Luna Festival - Hildesheim 2007 (Day 2 - Main Stage)

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 7
Light: daylight
Total: 9.5




The 69 Eyes - Main Stage (J. “Niggels” Uhlenbruch)

The Finnish Gothic Glam Metal band THE 69 EYES are already well-known guests on Goth festivals like the M’era Luna. They appeared at the festival for the first time in 2000 and have become regulars in the M’era Luna running order since then. With hits like ‘Gothic Girl’ (actually a top 10 single in Finland!) and ‘Dance D’Amour’ in their back catalogue, THE 69 EYES are surely one of the most popular Gothic Rock bands. http://www.69eyes.com/ / www.myspace.com/theofficial69eyes



Music & Performance
The “Helsinki Vampires”, as they like to call themselves, were all clad in heavy black leather and lined up at the front of the stage - well, apart from drummer Jussi69 apparently - and posed for their version of a Gothic Rock ’n’ Roll show. As usual, THE 69 EYES started with the ‘Lost Boys’ intro and the hard-rocking single hit ‘Devils’. During the show I noticed that there are a bit too many “as usual”s this time, because when you have seen them a couple of times they hardly offer something new, even though they included, quite naturally, a few songs from their last album ‘Angels’ (released in March 2007).



Maybe front man Jyrki69 and his men try to become the Status Quo of Gothic Glam Rock? ;-) Anyway, they know how to write a hymnal Rock song with a dark touch, and Jyrki does have a charismatic voice which is just perfect for those devilish anthems. Musically not challenging enough for my taste but it got the crowd going.

Setlist
01. Lost-Boys-Intro
02. Devils
03. Never Say Die
04. Dance D’Amour
05. Feel Berlin
06. The Chair
07. Wings and Hearts
08. Sister of Charity
09. Brandon Lee
10. Perfect Skin
11. Lost Boys

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: daylight
Total: 6.3






Skinny Puppy - Main Stage (J. “Niggels” Uhlenbruch)

In 2005 the Canadian music legend SKINNY PUPPY headlined the Saturday night at the M’era Luna, in 2007 they were only granted a 45 minute slot in the late Sunday afternoon! Heresy! Well, at least unfortunate. SKINNY PUPPY, founded in the early 1980s in Vancouver, is one of the most influential bands in the scene, and their Industrial sound and their conceptual work influenced a plethora of subsequent bands. SKINNY PUPPY’s early albums like ‘Remission’, ‘Bites’ or ‘Mind: TPI’ were groundbreaking for their times and comprised popular classics like ‘Smothered Hope’, ‘Assimilate’ or ‘Addiction’ which were standards at your local Goth club for years and years. But SKINNY PUPPY never stood still and were in search of new sounds and aimed at an even more complex and less accessible sound in the late 1980s and early 1990s, always eager to explore new musical grounds.



The outstanding production skills of the band made albums like ‘VIVIsect VI’ (1988), ‘Too Dark Park’ (1990) or ‘Last Rights’ (1992) unrivalled to this day, and the music still sounds as fresh as on the day of its release. During the recording of ‘The Process’ the band broke up, vocalist Nivek Ogre quit and the tragic death of long-time member Dwayne R. Goettel seemed to make any renewal of SKINNY PUPPY’s activity impossible, especially as Ogre and Key were quite at odds which other and preferred to indulge in new projects. The year 2000 saw a much unexpected SKINNY PUPPY reunion show at a festival in Dresden performed by Key and Ogre as a duo, and in 2004 SKINNY PUPPY even returned with a new studio album called ‘The Greater Wrong of the Right’. Instead of dwelling in the past the band moved forward, toured North America and Europe and returned to the studio to record ‘Mythmaker’, which hit the shops in January 2007. The musical legend SKINNY PUPPY is back, and it showed that the alternative music scene was in desperate need of such a groundbreaking and ever-moving act like SKINNY PUPPY. http://www.skinnypuppy.com/ / http://www.skinny-puppy.net/ / www.myspace.com/skinnypuppy



Music & Performance
It surely would have been a much better idea to let SKINNY PUPPY headline the night at the second stage at the Hangar so that they could perform a longer set and not in bright sunlight - but then I have to admit that seeing Nivek Ogre, Cevin Key and their current drummer Justin Bennett in bright sunlight was quite a change and very interesting - especially as I saw a club show of the Canadian outlet a few days before in Utrecht. The plus of seeing SKINNY PUPPY in daylight is that it allows your eye to follow all the moves of Nivek Ogre, who is truly rather an actor than just a vocalist, and his stage personality is immense and he perfectly embodies the songs. At a club show most of his actions are too much hidden by the shadow play of the light show, although it has to be said that clubs shows feel more intimate and more intense and thus they have a big plus too.



As it was to be expected, SKINNY PUPPY played a shortened version of their “Mythrus” tour, which lead them to Europe in support of their 2007 album ‘Mythmaker’ only for a couple of dates. A few short intro sounds, and Ogre jumped onto stage to the sounds of ‘Ugli’ (from ‘Mythmaker’; and usually the second song of the show). Usually Ogre begins the show hidden behind some sort of “screen cage” but although this cage was there at the left side of the stage it wouldn’t have made sense to start a daylight show this way - especially as SKINNY PUPPY had to abandon their fantastic video show which they used at the club shows. Ogre made up for it by acting more straight in your face, swaying a rosary with a wooden cross he chanted “Jesus wants to be ugly”, and the full sunlight unveiled his costume, his strange make-up, and Ogre storming the stage to cough up some artificial blood was surely a little shock for some casual fans. ;-)



After ‘Ugli’ an extra-long “brap” (as the band call their jammed live interludes) followed to finally lead into ‘Dogshit’ (from 1988’s ‘VIVIsect VI’). SKINNY PUPPY continued with ‘Tormentor’, a single from 1990, and with ‘Politikil’ they returned to the new album ‘Mythmaker’. Cevin Key is a true keyboard wizard and moved back and forth behind his wall of gear like a madman to play as many parts live as possible, instead of relying too much on pre-recorded stuff. He had two laptops next to him to control all the synths and sequencers (which included a Roland V-Synth and an Access Virus Ti), a guitar amp for extra-boost and a few electronic drum pads as well. Drummer Justin Bennett used a rather traditional drum kit with a few electronic pads added to it. With a setup like this, SKINNY PUPPY were able to play a lot of the complex music live so that every show is sonically different in the details, although all the guitar sounds had to be sampled and sequenced as the band did not feature a guitarist, unlike the last tour.



SKINNY PUPPY could have done the easy way and adapt a more festival-friendly set but they were never in favour of the easy way anyway. ‘Worlock’ and ‘Dig It’ were the only popular classics in the set, and those who had hoped for smashers like ‘Smothered Hope’, ‘Testure’ or even ‘Assimilate’ (which they never perform live anyway) might have been a little disappointed. But SKINNY PUPPY is not about playing hits so they stuck to the concept of their “Mythrus” show and performed a mix of ‘difficult’ old album tracks like ‘Rodent’ (from the album ‘Rabies’, 1989) or ‘Amnesia’ (from 1996’s ‘The Process’) and ‘Mythmaker’-songs like ‘Pedafly’ or the atmospheric ‘Haze’, which finished the set. Despite the limited running time and the reduced show it was a stellar performance, and due to the restrictions a rather untypical SKINNY PUPPY show. All the gothic fashion victims who tend to think BLUTENGEL would be a great electronic band should be disabused by this outstanding gig by SKINNY PUPPY but maybe they preferred to have a kebab in the back of the area instead of witnessing something of musical and conceptual substance. Still a good crowd swarmed in front of the stage, and although the audience wasn’t too responsive Ogre got so carried away at the end of his performance that he almost fell off the stage during ‘Haze’.
 
Setlist
01. Ugli
02. Dogshit
03. Tormentor
04. Politikil
05. Rodent
06. Pedafly
07. Worlock
08. I’mmortal
09. Dig It
10. Amnesia
11. Hardset Head
12. Haze

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: daylight
Total: 9.5




Deine Lakaien - Main Stage (Sebastian Huhn)

DEINE LAKAIEN consisting of Ernst Horn (composition, arrangements) and Alexander Veljanov (lyrics, vocals) bless us with their compositions between electronic and classic avant-garde beyond all borders for over 20 years now. It all started out with a newspaper ad from Ernst Horn in a city magazine that pretty much sounded like this: “Looking for open-minded singer”. Alexander Veljanov reacted on the ad and met Ernst. During this encounter they found out that they shared a common spirit and musical preferences. The rest is history.... http://www.deine-lakaien.com/ / www.myspace.com/deinelakaien



Music & Performance
The Music of DEINE LAKAIEN has always been a specialty. It goes far beyond any borders and is a real exception of the rule. It combines electronic with classical and experimental parts and is always an experience. During the M’era Luna show, they played different songs from several albums. Newer ones like ‘Over and done’ as well as classics like the beautiful ‘Love me to the End’ - all carefully re-arranged and adapted by Ernst Horn. The “problem” with this concert was to some extend the sound which was far too low and sometimes drowned in the “noise” that was coming from the Hangar. The other thing is that an open-air stage is not the right place for an orchestra as it was set up for this special DEINE LAKAIEN show at M’era Luna where the band played together with the Frankfurt philharmonic orchestra. Especially the calmer tunes got lost and so it was no wonder that Alexander moaned about “the noise” coming from the second stage.