Zeche, Bochum, Germany
12th March 2011
Diorama
Wow, it’s already half a year since I’ve last seen on of my favourite bands performing. There it came in handy the guys of DIORAMA were doing one rare performance at Bochum’s Zeche this Saturday evening. Still unclear at this time was whether there would be a support act or not. But due to the lack of any other than the DIORAMA equipment on stage we figured it “might” be even a single show.
DIORAMA was founded by Torben Wendt between 1994 and 1996. His long-time friend Felix Marc soon joined him as a co-producer and keyboard player. Sometime later, bass player Bernard le Sigue and guitarist Sash Fiddler, who were fellow students of Torben and Felix, gradually grew into the line-up and last but not least drummer Marquess became a member of the band. Unfortunately Bernard le Sigue left the Band in October 2006. In 2007, the band released their fifth and newest album ‘A Different Life’, preceded by the single ‘Synthesize me’. The band played some extremely energetic and compelling festival shows to present the album and kept playing various shows in the following time. Eventually in February 2010 the silence was broken with the release of the new single 'Child of Entertainment', being the offspring of the long-awaited album 'Cubed', released in March. DIORAMA is: Torben Wendt (words and music, vocals, keys, percussion), Felix Marc (co-production, keys, vocals), Sash Fiddler (guitars) and Marquess (drums). http://www.diorama-music.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/dioramamusic
Music & Performance
It was a single show to say it straight ahead, and sharp at 8 PM there was an intro sounding through the hall, immediately followed by ‘Erase Me’. The crowd went from zero to hero, the band already reached hero. A club filler followed with the poppy ‘Exit The Grey’’ before with a remark like “Give me a record deal Adrian” the next song kicked in. If there ever was something like rock star attitude in electronic music, Torben showcased it this evening with microphone stand posing stuff to ‘Record Deal’. A few fans brought sheets of paper with “A” and “B” printed on them and when he recognized he took and used them for a visual to the track’s chorus. Now came what I’d like to call the DIORAMA hip-hop choreography to ‘Stereotype’, but it’s always fun to sway in the rhythm yourself, and fun looking at others doing it, following Torben and Sash. ‘Advance’ is a highly acclaimed part of a DIORAMA set as well, while its successor ‘Home To Millions’ was a highly unexpected one. In fact, I can’t remember hearing this on any DIORAMA live show I attended. Was still very welcome though!
Surprises didn’t stop coming with the next one, being ‘lsw’, which as a live rendition is simply incredible with the clear live drums adding the framework to an endearing vocal delivery. This evening the motto was one highlight at a time and ‘Belle?’ was the next one. That moment I really thought about how everyone would love to have someone to dance to the end of the world with. After that I guess we all needed something dancy, something getting us up to working temperature again and ‘Burning Out’ and ‘The Girls’ were just the right thing. Another live newcomer, ‘Definition Power’, plain and simple rocked the house across most rows and finally found its way into the setlist. I always knew that track would work live. After 14 tracks, the show peaked in ‘Synthesize Me’, but a quick look on the watch said there was still plenty of time for a few more, so we joined in the clapping encore chant and our all reward was an encore, filled with a slightly altered ‘Child of Entertainment’ and ‘Kein Mord’, followed by the guys saying goodbye once more.
It became a short time of stage absence and you could see the surprise and joy of everyone on stage when coming back to play ‘hla’ to an audience that, even though being tired, danced to the last second. Actually, I didn’t think we would get them back for one more but we did, for a quiet one with the band grouping around Torben who sat down at the piano to play ‘Das Meer’, after discussing if you could even play it in another pitch. It was the icing on the cake with brilliant vocals, grand piano play, spewing emotions. Holy cow! We decided to still stay a while after the show. That proved to be a real bad idea. The music got worse, at least in our humble opinions, and the audience changed drastically. So we left soon and we’d now like to have a D-Day every month with a 2 hours set. Anyone with us?
Setlist
01. Erase Me
02. Exit The Grey
03. Record Deal
04. Stereotype
05. Advance
06. Home To Millions
07. LSW
08. Belle?
09. Burning Out
10. The Girls
11. Definition Power
12. Why
13. Ignite
14. Synthesize Me
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15. Child of Entertainment
16. Kein Mord
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17. Hla
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18. Das Meer
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 9.3 / 10
All Pictures by Dajana Winkel (http://www.nocturnalhall.com)
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