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chelseawolfe introJubez, Karlsruhe, Germany
9th July 2018
Chelsea Wolfe - “Europe 2018” - Support: Emma Ruth Rundle (Solo)

Far away from my home base in Northern Germany it was the first time for me visiting Karlsruhe because that was my only chance to see CHELSEA WOLFE live during her “Europe 2018” tour. Karlsruhe is one of the cities where CHELSEA WOLFE and band play a concert on this tour, at the cosy Jubez café and club. The venue is located just a few minutes of walk away from the magnificent castle, so it was no brainer that I had to visit it before going to the concert. Very impressive! Another huge plus of this venue: it has air conditioning and they use it! Such a blessing on a hot summer day. Entry time was 7:30 pm, people started slowly showing up at the venue around seven on this summer day and actually Monday evening.


Emma Ruth Rundle (solo)

An hour later the US singer and songwriter EMMA RUTH RUNDLE entered with her solo show the stage. Just the guitar (first the acoustic one, later also an e-guitar), tap shoes and her voice. I haven’t heard her name before, but she impressed me a lot with her cautious, yet engaging style and voice. The young woman with these brown loose braids, her guitar and singing. You start to forget what all the other instruments and special effects can be for. She has a very impressive voice singing melancholic Rock songs with Folk elements. Highlights to me were the songs ‘Protection’ and a song from the new album that’s going to be released soon, ‘Blackhorse’. That was also the first song where she changed the acoustic for the e-guitar.

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Chelsea Wolfe

The stage light turned from bright and simple to very dark and stroboscope spotlights. The band came on stage around 9:45 pm. CHELSEA WOLFE came on stage in a black dress and high plateau heels. On the small stage of Jubez she looked even taller than she already is wearing these shoes. Mostly she was not only singing but also playing guitar as well. Though for one of my highlights, the song called ‘Feral Love’ she laid aside the guitar. All the songs created a very dark, mesmeric atmosphere in the club. Chelsea’s voice is very special, the timbre of her voice is not just dark, but really celestial, it can be very clear and high and in the same song deep and mystic.

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A feeling of tension is in the air, sometimes you start feeling like you ended up in an occult ritual, another time it’s like a journey in the most secret places of someone’s mind that show you things you had no idea that they could exist at all. The mood on stage is focused on the music, no(t much) talking, just Chelsea saying “thank you” at the end of the gig to the audience. Meanwhile the audience itself enjoys the performance and shows with the applause how much they do. The mood is great, so of course the band comes back for the encore. After about 1 hour and 15 minutes the show is over. What is left, is the feeling of getting lost in a sphere between here and somewhere in the universe.

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Setlist
01. Spun
02. 16 Psyche
03. Vex
04. After The Fall
05. Dragged Out
06. Demons
07. Feral Love
08. Ancestors, the Ancients
09. Particle Flux
10. The Culling
11. Twin Fawn
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12. Survice
13. Carrion Flowers
14. Scrape

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 7
Light: 7
Sound: 9
Total: 8 / 10

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All Pictures by Nastja Iz

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