Kulturfabrik, Krefeld, Germany10th November 2006
The Crüxshadows and Ego Likeness
On Friday the 10th November we went to KREFELD into the KULTURFABRIK to visit one of my favorite bands - THE CRÜXSHADOWS. On our arrival at the KULTURFABRIK some people already were waiting outside the door and the doors were open. The evening started with the support band EGO LIKENESS.
Ego Likeness
EGO LIKENESS was created by artist STEVEN ARCHER and writer DONNA LYNCH in Baltimore in 1999. Their music has ranged from raw, darkly experimental trip-hop to moody and melodic electronica to a fusion of industrial rock and dark wave. Coming from art-based backgrounds, ARCHER and LYNCH incorporate their various non-musical projects into the albums, building connections between their creations. JUSTIN DING0 SABE joined EGO LIKENESS shortly after it began, lending his talents to the project, which have included -at random points over the years- tribal and organic instrumentation, fire, tubas, electronics, robots, knitting, soldering, obscure knowledge and sub-references, and presently, synths and keytar. EGO LIKENESS are STEVEN ARCHER (guitar, programming, vocals, music and words), DONNA LYNCH (vocals, piano, words and music) and JUSTIN DING0 SABE (keytar, synths, noise). http://www.egolikeness.com/ / www.myspace.com/egolikeness
Music
The music was easy to listen, danceable electro wave sounds perfected by a beautiful voice, but sadly I think the guitar wasn’t plugged in because I could hear the native sound of guitar in the first row but not the same sound in the PA. The set run about 40 minutes and included nine songs, mostly taken from the current album THE ORDER OF THE REPTILE and the last album WATER TO THE DEAD. It started with SEVERINE, followed by 16 MILES, went on and finished by AVIARY.
Performance
Eye-catcher on stage was the beautiful female singer with her long blond hair, dressed in a black skirt, red top and black corsage who sung very soulfully. On her left side STEVEN was posing all the time and all over the stage, gorgeous-looking too with his dreadlocks and light sticks in it. His expressive performance was pleasing the eyes. JUSTIN was playing his keytar on the other side of stage mostly, and sometimes the male band members changed the places.
Setlist
01. Severine
02. 16 Miles
03. Burn Witch Burn
04. Above the Soil
05. You Better Leave the Stars Alone
06. Second Skin
07. Weave
08. Save Your Serpent
09. Water To The Dead
10. Aviary
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8
The Crüxshadows
After a short break to arrange the stage for the headliner we could welcome THE CRÜXSHADOWS. THE CRÜXSHADOWS started in the early 1990's in a little town in North Florida. Over the last 15 years, their success among the gothic, EBM, new wave, & dark electronic genres has earned them a nearly legendary underground status and they were developed to a synonym for a new kind of electro wave. The charismatic singer, the impressive live performance and the beautiful female dancers make the awareness higher and higher every year and every tour. The new single-release SOPHIA has reached the Billboard Charts and debuted at #1 on the Dance Chart and #7 on the Singles Chart. The next album will be released in January next year and will be called DREAMCYPHER.
Current band members are: Rogue (vocals, songwriting, programming, lyrics, keyboards, some violin, front man), Rachel McDonnell (violin and some keyboards), George Bikos (guitar) & Pyromantic (AKA Jen Jawidzik - keyboard). Current dancers are Jessica Lackey (singer/dancer) & Sarah Poulos (singer/dancer). Concerts of THE CRÜXSHADOWS are always like a big family meeting; shaking hands during the concert, birthday congratulations, fans on stage during the concert and walkarounds of the band members amongst the audience are usual. http://www.cruxshadows.com/ / www.myspace.com/officialcruxshadows
Music
Pushing beats, catchy melodies, charming romantic sounds of violins and the distinctive voice of rouge are the trademarks of THE CRÜXSHADOWS. The setlist included a good mixture of songs taken from the last album, some new songs from the upcoming album DREAMCYPHER and older and established songs from the earlier periods of the band history. After the intro the show started with the current single SOPHIA, followed by FOREVERLAST and so on. In the middle of the show ROGUE picked up 3 fans which had birthday, pleased them onto the stage and sung "Happy Birthday" together with the audience. The main set finished after about 80 minutes and the band left the stage but the audience requested some encores and the band returned for several more songs. After three encores MONSTERS finished a great and unforgettable show.
Performance
This concert was a hard job for fans once again because you didn't know where to look at first. To the he beautiful dancers - dressed with black hot pants? To RACHEL - dressed with a sexy red mini-skirt? To ROGUE – with longer hair often standing on the little cat walk? To GEORGE with his funny hairs? Or to JEN - the new beautiful keyboard player, dressed with short skirt and sexy straps? All band members were ravishingly dressed and presented their own performance - altogether it was a fantastic choreography. Rogue all along was singing, dancing and running around the whole stage and in-between the audience too. A special feature of the stage was a short catwalk with steps into the crowd and by this, Rogue could leave and enter the stage easier than in former years. The both sides of stage were dominated by the two fantastic, very beautiful and talented female dancers who performed a very powerful, aesthetic and stunning dance performance.
In the center of stage, RACHEL was dancing and playing the electronic violin, always nice to look at and the romantic charming sounds of her violin affected anyone intensively. GEORGE was rocking the stage in left background, he had a lot of fun playing and he was posing all the time. In the right background, behind the keyboards, JEN was playing and dancing along too. In my opinion she fits into the band very well. Altogether a great performance once again, a good lightshow too, pushing and catchy sounds, charming dancers, a good interaction with the audience and a band in a good temper. At the first encore THE CRÜXSHADOWS came back together with EGO LIKENESS and played CASSANDRA together with them. During MARYLIN, MY BITTERNESS the band picked up a lot of fans onto the stage and about 50 people were singing and dancing on stage together with the band - crazy and unforgettable for a real fan.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Sophia
03. Foreverlast
04. Wake The White Queen
05. Deception
06. ??? (new song)
07. Ariadne
08. ??? (new song)
09. Tears
10. ??? (new song)
11. Talking, Introducing, Happy Birthday
12. ??? (new song)
13. Winterborn
14. ??? (new song)
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15. Cassandra
16. Marilyn, My Bitterness
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17. Return
18. Go Away
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19. Monsters
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 10
Total: 9.7
More pics at Black-Cat-Net
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