Tochka Club, Moscow, Russia4th November 2010
Diorama, Mind.in.a.Box., Sinine
After the breathtaking show on the Synthetic Snow Festival almost a year ago, DIORAMA promised to come back and kept that promise. So, on the 4th of November at Tochka, there gathered all fans of the band or those who like good electronic music and just wanted to have fun because that evening they could count on a couple of other interesting performances, by SININE and MIND.IN.A.BOX. to be exact. People started arriving to the club at 5 p.m. and in two hours the queue turned to be long enough however the doors were still close. It goes without saying that the whole event began about an hour later than it was planned and the first musicians to climb the stage were Estonian guests SININE.
Sinine
SININE blends diverse atmospheric electronic sounds with dark wave charm and often describes that mixture as dark pop. Their debut album ‘Butterflies’ was released through Accession Records in 2009 and helped the band equally with regular live shows to win a reputation as an attracting phenomenon on the dark scene. SININE is Mauno Meesit (vocals, guitar), Andre Pichen (guitar), Liina Rätsep and Inger Lilles (live keyboards). http://www.sinine.org/ / http://www.myspace.com/sininemusic
Music & Performance
When SININE were ready to open the evening, the quantity of people in the hall was sufficient to give a warm welcome to the Estonians. The female part of the formation came out first, occupied their places by the keyboards and started to warm up or so it seemed. They were followed by the guitarist and shortly after mastermind Mauno appeared and in order to waste time began the set with instrumental ‘Inglid’ that was meant to create an appropriate atmosphere for the next compositions the succession of which almost entirely repeated the tracklist of the album. So there was the turn of picturesque ‘Our Green’ where the vocals finally started.
But honestly it was hard to recognize the songs mostly because of the awful quality of the sound that unfortunately didn’t improve too much during the next gigs. As SININE are not so well-known in Russia for most of the people, that performance was the first introduction to the band’s music and the impression was a bit slurred over with those sound problems but on the other hand, the main part that time was accidentally assigned to the guitars so head bangers could rejoice. Besides judging by the applause of the audience the compositions were met with enthusiasm, especially the final ones, namely ‘Empty Me of Emptiness’ and ‘This Girl’ when some even knew some parts of the choruses and sang. Well, on that optimistic note SININE said goodbye and content left the stage to the applause of the crowd so debut performance in Russia went through quite well.
Setlist
01. Inglid
02. Our Green
03. The End
04. Loner
05. Empty Me of Emptiness
06. This Girl
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 5
Light: 7
Total: 7.4 / 10
Mind.in.a.Box.
MIND.IN.A.BOX. is a rather interesting Austrian electronic formation that does not just write music but creates a world of its own when the story unites three albums and is expressed not only music and lyrics. The musicians added different monologues, dialogues, abrupt phone calls and snippets to the albums to make that story more vivid. Actually the band’s latest release entitled ‘R.E.T.R.O.’ doesn’t share the same line as its predecessors and is mostly devoted to the era of 8-bit computers. MIND.IN.A.BOX. is Stefan Poiss (vocals), Roman Stift (bass), Gehard Höffler (drums) and Adam Wehsely-Swiczinsky (guitar). http://www.mindinabox.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/mindinabox
Music & Performance
MIND.IN.A.BOX. seemed to be an anticipated act that evening as they don’t often please fans with concerts and when the musicians came out the audience definitely became more brisk and immediately warmed up, at least most part of the audience. Actually it should be said that nobody stayed indifferent to the band’s music but the feedback was absolutely different. The fans of that style who prevailed by the way, eagerly joined in the performance raging, jumping, shouting and what not. But there were also those who frankly got bored, maybe rocked to sleep by the constant drumming that almost didn’t die down during the whole gig.
The vocals and electronic effect were also distinctive but I can’t the same about the guitar part yet the guitarist and the bassist had a good time on the stage and charged the fans with their energy contrasting with the front man who was strikingly calm and fully concentrated on the performance. The compositions played completely overwhelmed the people and carried them away supported by the some sort of the background videos that went on the screen behind the musicians, animating the songs. The show itself went off on a very high level that can be easily proved by the strong reaction on each track especially hit ‘8 Bits’ and the fact that the band was called to play an encore during which there was performed a brand new song entitled ‘Second Reality’ to crown the fans’ joy.
Setlist
01. Remember
02. Dead End
03. Fear
04. Stalkers
05. Certainty
06. Light and Dark
07. Whatever Mattered
08. Amnesia
09. Questions
10. Identity
11. 8 Bits
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12. Change
13. Second Reality
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 6
Light: 7
Total: 7.6 / 10
Diorama
German formation DIORAMA was founded in 1996 and during about 14 years of its existence managed to release several full-length albums and singles and also gained popularity thanks to the impressive live shows. The band’s latest creation ‘Cubed’ came out in March 2010 and became another excellent chapter in DIORAMA’s history. DIORAMA is Torben Wendt (vocals, keyboards), Felix Marc (keyboards, backing vocals), Sash Fiddler (guitar), Marquess (drums). http://www.diorama-music.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/dioramamusic
Music & Performance
Finally there was time for the headliners to appear and actually DIORAMA didn’t take it long because the musicians came out during the change-over and each of such appearances was accompanied with screams and applauses of the audience. Needless to say, when the gig began the hall burst out with emotions. And of course the opening piece became meaningful track ‘Child of Entertainment’ but actually that day the hits were following one another as the setlist included not only new songs but the best ones off the previous albums and of course the fans gladly were joining in all the compositions guessing the melodies almost by the first sounds.
As for the atmosphere is concerned it’s hard to describe it with mere words because it’s better to see and feel it once than to read several reviews: mesmerizing melodies, powerful, danceable and still smooth, thought-provoking, heartfelt lyrics, expressive vocals and amazing charisma of Torben made every concert of DIORAMA so special and unique. No matter how many shows you may visit, each of them will seem the best one and well-known songs always sound in a different inimitable way. That time the screen showed other videos from Torben singing ‘Erase Me’ if I’m not mistaken to some psychedelic thingamajigs yet my attention was attracted by golden butterflies and it was a kind of rest for the eyes because it was almost impossible to follow restless Torben who rushed on the stage, turning the concert into a theatrical performance and only stopping in pauses between the songs to say a couple of phrases to the fans or drink water. Actually the mutual contact with the audience was established already at the beginning of the whole set and further even intensified. The sound didn’t improve greatly but nobody really cared and the whole impression of the show wasn’t spoiled at all.
As an encore, DIORAMA played ‘Kein Mord’ and if we slightly change a line from the song it would be a very good description of the gig: niemand spielt so schön wie sie (nobody plays so great as they (do)). Well, at least many people who came to Tochka that day might think so. After ‘Synthesize Me’ the band left the stage again just to appear with the second two-piece encore. And the concert couldn’t go without technical problems so Torben’s microphone died suddenly and instead of moving ‘E Minor’ we had to listen to melancholic ‘Das Meer’ which was a wonderful compensation though. With the advance the set and the whole event came to an end and DIORAMA left the stage for real. However fans could find the musicians from all the bands which performed that evening to take autographs and pictures.
Setlist
01. Child of Entertainment
02. Record Deal
03. Howland Road
04. Acid Trip
05. Erase Me
06. Belle?
07. Refugee
08. Her Liquid Arms
09. Ignite
10. Stereotype
11. The Girls
12. Exit the Grey
13. Why
---
14. Kein Mord
15. Synthesize Me
---
16. E Minor (beginning)
17. Das Meer
18. Advance
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 8.7 / 10
All pictures by Elena Budanova
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