Kaiserkeller, Hamburg, Germany18th April 2019
Aesthetic Perfection - “Into The Black” Tour 2019 - Support: Amelia Arsenic, Priest
The first gig of the “Into The Black” tour in Germany was about to hit and the legendary Kaiserkeller in the St. Pauli district (yes, the BEATLES played here) and the location that is famous for numerous underground parties and concerts filled in quickly. This Thursday night before the long Easter weekend promised to become special.
Amelia Arsenic
When researching some more info on AMELIA ARSENIC after the show I finally understood why her vocals and performance reminded me of something. AMELIA ARSENIC is also known as vocalist of the Australian Industrial / Electro / Punk band ANGELSPIT that became popular right after the foundation in 2004. Tonight she opened the evening as solo singer.
Music & Performance
It is actually not that easy to describe the kind of music AMELIA ARSENIC is creating, but the link to ANGELSPIT may actually help. For sure, the style is not very common in the European dark music scene which, alone, makes it interesting to check-out. The red light during the whole performance, powerful beats and extravagant appearance and vocals - indeed a catchy, interesting concept. The crowd warmed up and the venue was already pretty packed when AMELIA ARSENIC performed. The slogan “harsh beats for dark times” fits well in here. Especially the harsh part is true, electronic driven beats, experimental sounds and distorted vocals while the artist itself represents a dangerous mix of cuteness and wickedness at the same time.
Another cool thing to mention is that during one of the last songs she disappeared in the crowd performing from in between all the Goths and otherwise cool people. Well performed, experimental performance indeed.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Light: 7
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
Priest
PRIEST just released their new EP ‘Obey’ and just before the tour start with AESTHETIC PERFECTION they have been playing some festivals like the electro dominated E-Tropolis in Oberhausen and Out Of Line Weekender in Berlin. Also the Swedish Electro & Synth Pop trio just got a new vocalist which might be a challenging thing for many bands, somewhat from the first impressions they are handling it pretty well.
Music & Performance
The stage of Kaiserkeller was for sure a bit too small for the bands tonight, but the whole setting of Kaiserkeller also made it to a perfectly hot and energetic underground gig. Though a few things have been already removed from the stage after the performance of AMELIA ARSENIC, with now three people on stage, it looked pretty small. Nevertheless PRIEST had a great start and the crowd started dancing more and more. Their songs are catchy as hell and even if some were just waiting for the main act of the night AESTHETIC PERFECTION, I am sure many were caught by the vibes and synths of PRIEST. For me the creative leather masks were not surprising anymore, but talking with others I realized once more that you just do not expect this kind of music when first seeing the impressive, probably you can call them creepy as well, masks.
However, at least for me, I just forget about it pretty fast and just really start to enjoy PRIEST’s catchy vibes and the melodic vocals. The touch of 80ies and 90ies mixed with their very own style makes PRIEST sound not at all like a copy of former decades, but as something really fresh and new. Solid fun gig, wish to see them soon on a bit bigger stage, so the vocalist may have a bit more space to move around as he usually does. Catchy, danceable and pretty much not comparable with other projects from the Electronica and Synth Pop genre.
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Light: 7
Sound: 8
Total: 8.3 / 10
Aesthetic Perfection
The time has come. Though the last time I’ve seen AESTHETIC PERFECTION was less than a year ago at the M’era Luna Festival, the last full time gig - this has been a while now. Having been looking forward to this one while also waiting patiently for the new album ‘Into The Black’ to hit the stores and music platforms which finally happened on 29th March 2019. So with the new album and many of the evergreen hits AESTHETIC PERFECTION hit the European ground starting in April to bring the Industrial Pop back to Europe with a bang.
Music & Performance
The atmosphere at Kaiserkeller was thanks to the support guests already really fine and hot. It’s been a while that I’ve seen Kaiserkeller so crowded, so it was great to see so many people coming tonight. If you’ve ever seen Daniel Graves, Elliott Berlin or Joe Letz on stage, you would know, that also for them the small stage could be kind of a challenge, however, the three have so much energy, and even the biggest stages seem too small for them sometimes.
The show started with ‘Gods & Gold’, also the first track on the new album ‘Into The Black’. A very experimental track with the distinctive signature of Daniel Graves and the genre he created as Industrial Pop. Following three classics with ‘Inhuman’, ‘The Siren’ and ‘Antibody’, all of them songs that are connected with AESTHETIC PERFECTION. The mix of harsh and melodic vocals, Synth Pop melodies from keys enthusiastically played by Elliott or even him magically conjuring the Theremin and drum beats by that one drummer that I could watch forever treating his instruments Joe Letz - could there be more perfection like this in a trio? With ‘Wickedness’ another song from the new album made it to the setlist and as already for ‘Gods & Gold’, as well as for e. g. ‘No Boys Allowed’.
If you haven’t known, you wouldn’t recognize them as just three weeks out there, as they were perceived by the audience as enthusiastic as the old ones. Through the underground aesthetics of Kaiserkeller, its size and the many people who came to have a great party the atmosphere turned out intense, very personal, energetic and filled with excitement and a lot of joy on both sides actually. Actually four new songs out of ten made it into the setlist - the three already mentioned and ‘Echoes’. The other songs were a wild journey through the history of AESTHETIC PERFECTION - the project that is actually turning 19 this year and the debut album ‘Close To Human’ 14 years old.
The encore part kicked off with ‘All Beauty Destroyed’, an emotionally demanding track that is so much more than ‘a ballad’. Still one of the most intense songs to me and therefore it’s great that it was included in the setlist of this tour. With ‘Love Like Lies’ and ‘Spit It Out’ the exceptional gig that Daniel commented in between with ‘It’s getting hot in here and I like it’ ended, but whoever just started getting warm did not have to stop dancing as an after show party started right here just at the end of the gig.
Setlist
01. Gods & Gold
02. Inhuman
03. The Siren
04. Antibody
05. Wickedness
06. Rhythm + Control
07. Never Enough
08. Echoes
09. Big Bad Wolf
10. No Boys Allowed
11. The New Black
12. The Dark Half
13. The Great Depression
14. All Beauty Destroyed
15. Love Like Lies
16. Spit It Out
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Light: 7
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
All pictures by Nastja Iz
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