Rock House, Moscow, Russia11th October 2019
Solar Fake, Ten After Dawn and Mental Discipline
What a splendid night it was on 11th of October in Rock House club in Moscow! After amazing sightseeing program and visiting The Moscow Historical Architectural and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve The Izmailovo Estate with old Church and a huge park with a wonderful view to the The Izmailovo Kremlin I realized that I had to rush and get ready for a concert as time passed pretty quickly. Fortunately, the Rock House club was located just in 10-minute walk from this Izmailovo Kremlin. I checked the battery, grabbed my camera and ran.
When I got to the club fans were already crowding at the entrance, the doors were going to open very soon but I was in a hurry to visit the meet & greet. Fans and photographers have already surrounded Sven and André, someone just wanted to see the guys, someone talk a little or just take a photo, others wanted to present their gifts brought from different regions of our country. There were much laughing, joking, photos, so that meeting was just a great start for the future show! In addition, there were many good friends from SF Russian Support and cool photographers, it was very nice to see them all. Then became the time to explore the venue inside. The Rock House club was new for me, the backstage area was cool done with banners, decor elements, screens on the sides, quiet big stage, a large space for the audience to dance, behind - a large bar with a good assortment and a place where it's convenient to relax, watching the concert from another point.
Mental Discipline
Many fans of electronic music came tonight. The dark Electro-Synth party has begun at 19.30. The first support band was MENTAL DISCIPLINE, it’s a one-man project by Alex Mental. After releasing a couple of demos packed with catchy and danceable tracks, it has become widely recognized as one of Russia’s most promising Future Pop projects. MENTAL DISCIPLINE music combines vibrant melody, danceable and harmonious arrangements. When the first support band showed up there were enough people already, the SOLAR FAKE fans are such a kind and friendly one that I think these support bands are so lucky to take part in their shows! MENTAL DISCIPLINE was new for me, I saw it for the first time but at the concert were many their fans who knows the lyrics, singing and supporting the band.
Ten After Dawn
Another support band was TEN AFTER DAWN. Fusing dark, catchy Pop melodies with distorted Industrial and Synth Pop styles, TEN AFTER DAWN is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalists Teemu Salo and Toni Viholainen, founded in 2009. ‘Club’, their latest single released on October 10, 2019 gives you a first taste of their new material and now TEN AFTER DAWN is also working for their first album release. The band from Finland came on stage with their electronic music, mixing dark Synth melodies, machine beats and club sounds. It’s very dynamic music, the performance was cool and the audience greeted them warmly. I know this band since 2016 when Sven invited them to open the SOLAR FAKE shows in Russia. Very nice guys who create high-quality melodic music with interesting sound. It was cool to see them again. As the songs were familiar for the audience, the music is danceable so the performance was cool. Both bands left a very good impression.
Solar Fake
So the main show has begun and it started with my highlight - ‘Sick Of You’! The audience started dancing more lively, more emotionally. From the first tunes the crowd was singing, screaming, dancing and jumping at the same time, it was a so exiting beginning! Sven and André were happy also to see such a great and hearty welcome, as an evidence there was sunny smile shining on Sven’s face and great mood. Then were ‘No Apologies’, ‘Here I Stand’ and beloved by all, energetic and very powerful that drives us mad ‘Under Control’. Next were more and more danceable, passionate, emotional, aggressive hits, one of them my personal highlight - ‘A Bullet Left For You’, next were ‘Reset To Default’, ‘All The Things You Say’, ‘I Don’t Want You In Here’. There was really unforgotten atmosphere filled with fantastic energy, beautiful and deep vocal and nice people around!
Charismatic Sven, dancing, singing, shining like a star with his beautiful smile, jumping and running on stage, involving us into his divine music and bring the audience to crazy-happy-enthusiastic mood. It was heart-warming to hear “Wow” and “Spasibo” (“thanks” in Russian) in return of great fan supports. So much involvement, so much love. Then came melodic and truly awesome ‘The Pain That Kills You Too’, beautiful ‘Invisible’, spirited and strong ‘Not What I Wanted’ and next highlight ‘Parasites’ with powerful dark vocal, concentration at the same time with dynamic music. Sven’s expressive scenic manner is perfect and he looks stylish in all senses and aspects whatever the song is, he just changes with it. André on the keyboard, full of life, energy, he drives the audience more and more, dancing and moving on to the beat. He was in a great mood too. It was cool to see how good he communicates with audience.
Then immediately happened the next perfect moment, another favourite hit on mine, my highlight, ‘If This Is Hope’, so touching and intimate song, I swear, it is masterpiece! It was beautiful and bitter at the same time, what a wonderful mix... Then was the last song for the regular setlist how Sven said, so time for ‘Observer’, another spirited hit and it is one of my favourites too. The musicians got just less than one minute to take a breath. The light during the show was flickering, shines unsteadily, varies rapidly in brightness and it was not easy to catch the moment to take some beautiful photos and from time to time it was really difficult to capture beautiful moment when the fog appears and the musicians are not completely into this cloud yet so I was trying to wait and catch even some moments during the show when one a single strong ray of light illuminated Sven’s face...
There were some stressful moment during the show because of the wet floor. No, it was really frightening when Sven slipped a little bit on the floor from time to time... but in general everything was fine. The time for encore one has begun with melodic ‘Under The Skies’, ‘These Things’ (SHE WANTS REVENGE cover) and continued with such a marvellous creation as ‘Where Are You’, full of sincerity and honesty, then was another favourite, genuine song ‘Stay’. So many people were crying “We want more!”, so we wanted more than this and we got it! It was time for encore two. The audience began to rage calling the musicians on stage again. André appeared and showed that everyone shout create the most possible silence and when the peak was reached, from the first chords there happened an explosion of emotions because it was favourite ‘Papillon’ (EDITORS cover). Then was beloved by all and danceable ‘My Spaces’ and the point for this beautiful performance was ‘What If There’s Nothing’.
It was an interaction at both sides, the musicians gave us their creativity as quality, sincere, touching, strong music and we, the audience, in return gave them tons of positive energy of happiness back. I think there are so few things that can be compared with art, in particular with music, from my point of view to impact on the human soul. Such concerts are must to visit things, no photos or videos can fully express this powerful energy and aesthetically beautiful music that you feel in the moment. Every song, melody, and movement, everything that you see, understand and feel during that performance - you want to remember everything. And what often happens with SOLAR FAKE you want to stop or prolong these moments, so here, just in this case, photography “come to the rescue”. After watching these archives all gamma of feelings appears again inside you and it’s a wonderful thing.
In this show was everything and a great electronic and vocalic performance, not only diverse danceable compositions but also honest lyrics that include personal feelings, views on relationships, impressions and observations, etc. All these aspects were absolutely stunning and priceless. After this amazing show, exchanging impressions with friends and saying last goodbye it was time to return to the hotel because early morning I had to catch the train to Saint Petersburg where will be the next SOLAR FAKE show. To be continued...
Setlist
01. Sick Of You
02. No Apologies
03. Here I Stand
04. Under Control
05. Reset To Default
06. All The Things You Say
07. I Don’t Want You In Here
08. A Bullet Left For You
09. Pain That Kills You Too
10. Invisible
11. Not What I Wanted
12. More Than This
13. Parasites
14. If This Is Hope
15. Observer
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16. Under The Skies
17. These Things (She Wants Revenge cover)
18. Where Are You
19. Stay
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20. Papillon (Editors cover)
21. My Spaces
22. What If There’s Nothing
All pictures by Svetlana Kovalenko (@Krasnodarspace)
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