Covenant - Duisburg 2008

Covenant

After a half hour to change over the stage was ready for COVENANT, a band from Sweden, formed in the early 1990s by Eskil Simonsson, Joakim Montelius, and Clas Nachmanson. Over the years they released a lot of stuff and well-developed to one of the most successful acts in the electronic music scene. The last studio album is called ‘Skyshaper’ and was released in 2006. After the last tour, in 2007 they released a Live-CD/DVD ‘In Transit’. In 2007, Clas Nachmanson left the band and was replaced by Daniel Myer who is also known for his work in bands like HAUJOBB and DESTROID among other projects. COVENANT are Eskil Simonsson (vocals, lead composition, engineering, lyrics, production, synths), Joakim Montelius (lyrics, composition, production, synths, additional vocals) and Daniel Myer (engineering, production, synths, additional vocals). http://www.covenant.se/ / http://www.myspace.com/covenant



Music & Performance
During the intro the band entered the stage - all dressed in black suites looking as stylish as always - and took their places on stage; Joakim on the left side, Daniel on the right side and Eskil in the centre. The set started by ‘Monochrome’ followed by ‘Bullet’ and the classical hit ‘Go Film’. The crowd was very quickly infected by the rousing and powerful performance. The band had a lot of fun to play tonight and the spirit went over to the crowd. A good-tempered Eskil bewitched the audience with his soulful voice, Joakim behind his keyboard was jumping and dancing and Daniel enriched the stage performance with some electronic devices and a little drum kit which was played at some songs additional. The new elements brought a special new touch into the songs and the live drums brought new power onto stage. In all those little new details in the songs you felt the musical genius of Mr. Myer. He is really enrichment for the band and the live performance.



The lightshow was dominated by four big LED-pillars in the background and several spotlights on stage. The dramatic and fast moving backlights gave a special concert experience. The setlist included some treasures like the re-worked ‘Storm’ or ‘Theremin’, all-time-hits like ‘Stalker’, ‘One World, One Sky’ or ‘Wall of Sound’ and newer songs like ‘Ritual Noise’ from the latest album ‘Skyshaper’ or ‘Bullet’. But also a very new and yet unreleased song, the “demo of the month” on COVENANT’s mySpace site, ‘Come’ has been presented to the audience. The main set finished with ‘Dead Stars" after 90 minutes, two encores were given and after about two hours Eskil, Joakim and Daniel finally left stage. Altogether a brilliant concert, even though I missed my favourite song ‘Leiermann’.



As said before, I think, Daniel Myer is a real enrichment for the band, especially for the live performance. The using of the drum kit during some songs, like during ‘Figurehead’, had given those songs more power and the electronic devices of Daniel did make the sound rougher and stronger and even a bit more experimental. The live experience was much better than in the past and I can say: this was the best COVENANT concert I ever have seen. And as Daniel later said, with nearly two hours this must have been the longest show the band has ever played.

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Monochrome
03. Bullet
04. Go Film
05. 20hz (08liveversion)
06. Come
07. Figurehead
08. Rising Sun
09. Storm
10. Invisible & Silent
11. The Men (longer)
12. We Stand Alone
13. Stalker
14. Call The Ships To Port
15. Improvisation
16. Ritual Noise
17. Happy Man
18. Dead Stars
19. Outro
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20. Theremin
21. Wall Of Sound
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22. One World, One Sky
 
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 9





All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
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