Blue Shell, Cologne, Germany8th March 2014
The Exploding Boy & Spiral69
In the nice small Blue Shell club, a location with a 25 years history, the concerts took place on this evening. The dominant light colour is blue of course, creating a cool atmosphere and you are reminded immediately of the clubs in the 80’s – well, if you are that old like me. The capacity of the venue is approximately 200. The Blue Shell offers a lot of nice concerts, poetry slams and diverse parties.
Spiral69
Highly inspired after a THE CURE concert in 1992, Riccardo Sabetti, from Italy, decided to become a musician, too. Before he founded his own project SPIRAL 69 in 2007 he was engaged in several other bands which surely helped him to gather some experiences. Soon the first album ‘A filthy lesson for lovers’ was released and critically acclaimed by several music magazines. For live performances he brought Enzo Russo (guitar) and Andrea Freda from SPIRITUAL FRONT (drums) in. After releasing their second album in 2011 which received some positive reactions as well, SPIRAL 69 toured intensively, were chosen from LOU REED to be part of the soundtrack of his first film ‘Red Sherly’ with the song ‘Berlin’ and had the chance to perform in 2012 at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen, one of the most important gothic festivals in Europe, and at Children Of The Night festival in Kiev. In April a mini album will be released. http://www.spiral69.com / https://www.facebook.com/spiral69music
Music & Performance
Due to some technical problems the doors opened more than half an hour later than announced. A good crowd showed up when the band entered the stage. Besides singing and playing guitar to most of the songs, Riccardo ran as well the sampler for the special sound effects. The music contains elements of New Wave, Rock, Electro created in a way that reminds you of the cool music of the eighties, surely influenced by the sound of THE CURE, JOY DIVISION and the like. The first song started already nicely, while the next song really rocked when Riccardo played guitar, too. His vocal quality reminded me partly of the voice of TRENT REZNOR. Though the band did not really interact with the audience, the show was definitely enjoyed by the people so that it was no wonder that they asked for an encore.
Setlist
01. We’ll find each other in the dark
02. The girl who dances alone in the disco
03. Please
04. Rose
05. Kissing Judas
06. Best Porno
07. Naked
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08. Love is for losers / New life / No heart
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.2 / 10
The Exploding Boy
Founded in 2006, THE CURE was inspiration for the Swedish band as well, as a song of them was the eponym for the band’s name. With a mixture of Post Punk, New Wave and Indie Rock they create music that does not sound outdated, but keeps the spirit of the eighties in a new fresh way. In 2007 they released their first self-titled album and attracted soon international attention. In 2009 they performed at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen, toured in Germany and released their second album which was critically acclaimed by several renowned gothic music magazines. Up to now they have released four albums that all got positive feedbacks. THE EXPLODING BOY is Johan (vocals, acoustic guitar), Stefan (vocals, electric guitar), Les (lead guitar) and Nick (keyboards). https://www.facebook.com/theexplodingboysweden / https://myspace.com/theexplodingboyse
Music & Performance
Lots more people have arrived when they guys entered the stage. Right from the beginning the people started to dance to the music. By turns Johan and Stefan were singing but at one song they sang a duet. The guitar playing of Les reminded me partly of the sound of THE SMITHS which was really cool. As it was International Women’s Day on that evening, Stefan devoted the next song ‘Here comes the rain’ to the female audience. They definitely rocked the place and when I looked around I saw that almost everybody was moving to the music. Furthermore Stefan showed up to have some humour when he told us that since their new album was released last October, they will perform some older songs. But of course they performed some new songs as well. Anyway, I had the impression that most of the songs on that evening were taken from the ‘Afterglow’ album.
They temperature rose and thus they took a short break to get rid of their jackets before they rocked on. Before they played their last songs Stefan informed us that there is a merchandise stand and that there will be a ‘Meet & Greet’. The concert was so enjoyable that the audience would not let the guys go without an encore. Back on stage Stefan told us “Now we’re having a drum solo. Of course not – for we don’t have drums!”. Well, their music works without drums very well, thus we didn’t mind. Unfortunately I’m not familiar with their songs and so I couldn’t write down a setlist, but the band was as kind to pass it over, so here it is:
Setlist
01. Cracked/Reasons
02. Always
03. Shut Down
04. Dazed
05. Here Comes The Rain
06. London
07. Going to Hell
08. Torn
09. Street Cliché
10. Desperados
11. Scared To Death
12. 40 Days
13. Sweet Little Lies
14. Heart Of Glass
15. Dark City (Pt 2)
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16. Let The Right One In
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.8 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.black-cat-net.de / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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