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Röhre, Stuttgart, Germany
22nd February 2007
Terminal Choice

Chris Pohl is a name very well known in the German Gothic scene - and at the same time opinions are pretty much divided when it is mentioned. Especially his band BLUTENGEL, playing very catchy - some would call it shallow - Electro/Goth-Pop, has many fans but also a lot of people dislike them. Nevertheless, this February evening should belong to another band Chris Pohl is a member of: TERMINAL CHOICE were to appear in the Röhre Stuttgart. They are currently travelling through Germany (plus two dates in Paris/France, and also Denmark and Switzerland) on their "New Born Enemies"-tour, which started in the last days of October 2006 in Krefeld and will keep them busy ‘til April 8th, when they will be appearing in Görlitz. On this tour they are promoting their new long-player "New Born Enemies", which has appeared last year via Out of Line Music. For more dates and information visit the band website http://www.terminal-choice.de/.



TERMINAL CHOICE has been founded by Chris Pohl as a one-man-project in 1993; it is his eldest band/project. He recorded several demo tapes, and in 1995, the single "Totes Fleisch" finally brought him a first success in the German Gothic scene. The album "In the Shadow of Death"(Cyberware Productions) followed one year later. Today, TERMINAL CHOICE consists of four guys, beside Chris Pohl (vocals), there are Louis Manke (also STAUBKIND; guitars), Gordon Mocznay (bass, guitars) and Jens Gärtner (loops, sound design); live on stage they are supported by Sebastian Pellmann and Thomas Prager. 


 
The little club Röhre was about half filled, which seemed a bit strange to me given the band's relatively high profile. Maybe this was due to the fact that TERMINAL CHOICE had already played a gig in Stuttgart last October. There was no support band playing this night, and at about nine o'clock, one hour after the admission of the concert visitors, guitarist Louis Manke appeared on stage under the fans' cheering.



Music
Compared to BLUTENGEL, TERMINAL CHOICE can be considered much harsher and heavier on the guitars, still very catchy and suitable for the dance floors. They play Electro-Goth mixed up with Industrial sounds and also some Rock elements. Chris' remarkable voice is another trademark of this formation. I know their albums, at least the biggest part of them, and they could not really convince me on stage, as they sounded a little too routined and uninspired. Possibly you cannot avoid this when you are on tour for quite a long time, but on my headphones their songs bring about much more energy and invite you far more to dance than they did when performed live. As expected, they played a lot of stuff from the new album, ten out of eighteen songs, like the YAZOO cover "Don't Go". But especially the older songs were celebrated by the fans, ones like "Animal" or "Collective Suicide".  



Performance
This night, Chris Pohl was kind of a strange appearance on stage, his long finger nails and red-coloured contact lenses didn't really match his short trousers, t-shirt and sneakers. The stage performance was very down-to-earth; besides some billows of mist and a pretty nice light show they were simply playing their songs. For some time, the video to the single "Don't Go" was projected in the background of the stage. Chris was talking quite a lot to the audience, and his fans were obviously having a nice time. Surely they played a good set and weren't boring at all, but the spark didn't really jump across in my opinion. 



Setlist
01. Call Me
02. Like This
03. Animal
04. Don't Go
05. The Sickness
06. Injustice
07. Little 17
08. Golden Days
09. I Want 2 Know
10. It Doesn't Matter
11. Collective Suicide
12. Death Fuck
13. Devil Daddy
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14. Pull The Trigger
15. Armageddon
16. Crack Up
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17. She's The Devil
18. Rockstar

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 6.6



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