Live Review: 30th Wave Gotik Treffen - Leipzig 2023 (Day 4)

Leipzig, Germany
26th to 29th May 2023
Wave Gotik Treffen 2023 Day 4 with Ploho, Forced to Mode, Eisfabrik, Front Line Assembly, The Mission

No matter how long the festival takes place, the last day always comes as a surprise. And this feels even stronger at WGT, which we tend to stretch to almost a week. The weather was holding really well the whole time which is always a plus at a festival. This year’s addition felt quite balanced to me and I didn’t get into much stress, though I heard of many people who were at times experiencing entry stop at certain venues. The last day was well spent with lunch at Moritzbastei meeting friends, a quick visit at Haus Leipzig and wrapped up at Agra this year.


Ploho

The band we caught at Haus Leipzig was PLOHO whom pulled a pretty full house and made sure everyone’s hot enough inside. PLOHO is a Post Punk band from Russia and some glimpses of their show reminded me of the legendary, unforgotten Soviet Post Punk band KINO whose singer died way too early in a car accident back in summer 1990. I haven’t listened to PLOHO before and was pleasantly satisfied with the quality of their show and music. And got definitely curious to listen to their music also afterwards.

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Forced to Mode

In the meantime, on Monday - the Agra was already pretty full for the first act, FORCED TO MODE. Those who weren’t at the DEPECHE MODE show on Friday probably took the opportunity to hear their favourite songs live today. FORCED TO MODE opened their set with ‘World in my eyes’, dedicated to Andy Fletcher who passed away a year ago. A very emotional start to the evening. In addition to many DEPECHE MODE classics, there were also some songs that you haven’t heard live from the band from Basildon for a long time. I was especially excited about ‘Told You So’ and ‘Photographic’ today.

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Eisfabrik

Just in time for EISFABRIK heading from Haus Leipzig to Agra and so the second Agra performance for the day. EISFABRIK took care of the audience and the photographers and cooled them down with something that looked like snow, but felt like fluffy soap foam. Being currently based in Northern Europe and having had the last snow on the 1st of May the snow was not much missed by me, but I love the look of it - it’s always a wonderful special effect and makes the performance of EISFABRIK and effect of it complete. The show was really energetic and the audience had a lot of fun.

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Front Line Assembly

The snowy, cold atmosphere changed to a super strong and straight forward show by FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, short FLA. Energetic, intense and always with the right beat around the corner. What a band for the 2nd last show of the festival! I do not recall whether I had seen FLA, but while my feet and the rest of my body slowly but certainly told me that it might have been enough festival for now, I loved the energy that has been created at Agra that evening. Everyone on stage gave their absolute best and it showed. Hard, strong, noisy, creating their unique electro-industrial vibe since mid 80ies with songs like ‘Millenium’! As legendary as the whole show.

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The Mission

A bit of a genre change, but not less legendary - the headliner at Agra on Monday - THE MISSION! It must have been about 10 years since I saw them in Hamburg, but I was able to catch Wayne Hussey on his solo tour just before the pandemic. THE MISSION were also founded in the mid-80s, went through some break-ups and came back in 2011. Wayne had a great charisma this night, a rock star, a full-scale musician, laid back, yet giving it all. It’s been a pleasure to watch this show including songs like ‘Into The Blue’ and ‘Tower of Strength’.

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And so, it’s been the last band for us at 30th Wave Gotik Treffen in mighty Leipzig in 2023. It’s been as always a pleasure to see the favourites from the old days as much as to discover the new treasures we didn’t know we need in our lives! Music is connecting and WGT is just like this huge family event where you always bump into someone you know or suddenly find yourself involved in an unexpected discussion on the tram. Until next year, WGT - until next year, Leipzig!

Pictures by Nastja Iz and Betty Schulz
Written by Aileen Ritter (Forced to Mode) and Nastja Iz