La Loco, Paris, FranceMarch 1st 2005
Lycosia, MXD, Crack Ov Dawn, Zuul FX
This night, for the first time, French label Equilibre Music organized a festival to promote four of their bands: Electronic MXD, Shock Pop Crack Ov Dawn, powerful Zuul FX and the self declared Glam Goth Deluxe Lycosia. Four bands and four musical directions, to illustrate the diversity of the label.
There was a long queue waiting for enter La Loco, it’s always strange to see so many metal and gothic kids, waiting kindly in front of the famous Moulin Rouge, the black of their clothes contrasts with all the red lights shinning from the famous cabaret. And as the doors open, the label starts promoting with many flyers and even a free CD sampler of the Swiss opening act MXD.
MXD
Since the middle of the nineties Swiss based MXD released three albums, changed names (formerly known as Larsen X) and few line-up changes. Now the band seems to have found a relative stability and is composed of Solex and Alex both on machines, Duja on vocals and Drop on guitars.
Music
The music is based on machines, both Alex and Solex play an electro metal, a mix between Chemical Brother early tunes and crowd favourite Rammstein. The songs usually try to be catchy such as Depeche Mode ones, an influence which the band assumes completely. The singer even has a few Dave Gahan attitudes on stage, and sometimes a kind of physical simulation but it’s really hard to get a charisma like Dave’s. The sound was pretty good for a support act but not as powerful as the main ones.
Performance
The band has literally battered the Swiss club circuit and got an impressive scene experience. Duja (former singer of Difficult to Cure) tries to make a shy crowd participate, asks people leave the bar and come to the front row to headbang (the bar wasn’t as far away as Geneva), calling for drunk eighties hard rockers. The machines hammered psychotic rhythms while Drop guitar playing thunder the stage. The light show suited this machine music well, dominated by a clinical blue and a red burning at the crowd, and few strobes were used during the more rhythmic songs.
Rating
Music 7
Performance 8
Sound 6
Light 6
Total 7 (7.0)
Crack Ov Dawn
This Parisian band described itself as Shock-Pop, which refers to Gothic Glam Rock and Punk/Rock Shock. This night they promote their debut album ‘Dawn Addict’.
Music
The music is a mix between Gothic flavour, Metal influences and some more mainstreams stuff. As a result this mixture sometimes works but few times it sounds a bit too much. The visual impression and the energy have been privileged a little bit over the determination to good sound quality and cleanness. The sound was a little bit too much, and it was difficult to distinguish the lead singers and sometimes even the guitar parts.
Performance
This six piece band came on stage to Britney Spears’ tune in a heavy version, dressed as infamous glam rock guys, even with cow boys or policemen hats and make up. Only the drummer was at the back of the stage, the two lead singers, two guitarists and a bassist in front of the stage, try to motivate their usual crowd. The guitarists managed to exchange places few times, while the bass man kept his place during the whole gig. They played about ten songs with an encore, with such titles as ‘Porn Junkie’, ‘Supermarket Song’, ‘Miss Suicide Gothic Party’ and a crowd hymn, ‘I love to say Fuck’. The light show was very programmed, and it suited this shock pop music well; with a lot colours, but sometimes it could again be “too much”, the band however has its own personality and visual identity.
Rating
Music 6
Performance 7
Sound 6
Light 8
Total 7 (6.6)
Zuul FX
It’s seemed that a lot of kids have been here to see Crack Ov Dawn, and left La Loco to try to catch the last metro, but despite that little loss of crowd, Zuul FX entered on stage and made a really big impression, absolutely the attraction of the night.
Music
The music is really powerful, and the songs are very catchy both melodic and highly technical. With such various influences as Fear Factory, Rob Zombie or Sepultura and Machine Head, the band plays the kind of unstoppable metal which now on available in their ‘By The Cross’ debut album. The sound was clear and powerful, the kind of pure metal explosion but with total control, really professional.
Performance
The vocalist and brain, Steeve, entered on stage with such energy; he captured the whole crowd to make them headbang and feels every second of music the band played. With the release of their debut album on this day, the band is determined to prove that they are big guns on the French metal landscape. The crowd no longer doubts of that, and give a big applause to this biggest act of the night. Like Steeve says: their only goal is to share pure moments of heavy metal fun with the fans, tonight their goal was truly achieved! To ensure their domination over a hypnotized crowd the band played a new song composed two days earlier. Visual impression depended highly on front man Steeve, and lights were mainly focused on him and less on the other musicians, but the global impression was really good. It’s definitely not the priority of the band, they are focused on Music and Energy, both with capital letters.
Rating
Music 8
Performance 8
Sound 8
Light 7
Total 8 (7.8)
Lycosia
With three albums at their discography, Parisian combo Lycosia has experimented on either side of the music industry, Their critically acclaimed debut album, with the artistic producer of Cradle of The Filth, Anathema and more, a hardly released follow-up due to their record company going out of business, a disastrous recording atmosphere… but now the band is on a right track with a new album with their new label.
Music
Truly influenced by gothic music and aesthetic, the trio made a kind of glam Goth stuff, but with heavier sounds than Crack OV Dawn. They sounded both heavier and less pop oriented than their six-member label counterpart, sounds do not depends on the number of members, size doesn’t matter...
Performance
A bassist, a drummer and a singer-guitarist, just three to face a reduced crowd, as the time goes by, and outside the snow falls down on Paris. It’s now about 1:00 am, crowd starts to be sleepy, it’s always hard to finish a night like that. But Lycosia managed well to capture the last people and even made few of them headbang. The light was very clear, with a lot of colours, a good job, but it could have some more variation at times.
Rating
Music 6
Performance 7
Sound 7
Light 7
Total 7 (6.6)
La Loco
La Loco is a classical venue for metal and gothic events, there’s a long corridor with a bar, and usually merchandising stands, tonight there was a lot of Equilibre Music Stuff. Then there’s a main floor were concert takes places.
Food and drinks
As for a lot of dancing there are bars, it served drinks (both soft ones and alcohol ones) but it’s a little bit expensive.
As for a lot of dancing there are bars, it served drinks (both soft ones and alcohol ones) but it’s a little bit expensive.
Stage
The stage is well designed for this kind of events, it’s just as high for to see the band form almost everywhere in the audience area, even when there are peoples who slams, and stage dives.
The stage is well designed for this kind of events, it’s just as high for to see the band form almost everywhere in the audience area, even when there are peoples who slams, and stage dives.
Audience area
The area is really nice to hear music with good sound almost everywhere, and is really great to see the band, there is a central place down two lateral corridors, and there are also a kind of balcony.
Staff
The staff was very friendly and very helpful as were the organisers who all allowed us to do our job properly.
Rating
Facilities 7
Accommodation 7
Staff 9
Total 7 (7.3)
The area is really nice to hear music with good sound almost everywhere, and is really great to see the band, there is a central place down two lateral corridors, and there are also a kind of balcony.
Staff
The staff was very friendly and very helpful as were the organisers who all allowed us to do our job properly.
Rating
Facilities 7
Accommodation 7
Staff 9
Total 7 (7.3)
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