Flugplatz Drispenstedt, Hildesheim, Germany
11th to 12th August 2007
M’era Luna Festival Day 1 - Hangar Stage: Pesticide, Down Below, Fair to Midland, Animal Alpha, Pain, Cultus Ferox, Nosferatu, Emilie Autumn, My Dying Bride, Suicide Commando
While at the main stage the bands were playing in the cleared up day, there was also room for smaller bands and newcomers on the Hangar stage. So you could see there PESTICIDE who jumped in for BLOODPIT, DOWN BELOW who already had quite some success at the Amphi Festival, FAIR TO MIDLAND from USA who were quite a stranger musically within the festival line-up, the Metal heads of PAIN followed by some medieval music of CULTUS FEROX. With NOSFERATU and MY DYING BRIDE, one could discover the darker side of guitar based music while EMILIE AUTUMN was more a theatre play than a concert. Headliner in the Hangar was SUICIDE COMMANDO with their hard electronic music.
Pesticide - Hangar Stage (Carsten Leopold/Jörg Uhlenbruch)
For the second time now, scheduled BLOODPIT hat to cancel a festival (after Amphi festival a few weeks ago) due to illness. So, DOWN BELOW took over their slot and PESTICIDE was announced as new openers on the Hangar stage.
After Martin (lead guitar), Thomas (drums), Olaf (bass) and Stephan (rhythm guitar) had been musically active for over 15 years, in 2005 Sunny arrived to cover the job of synthesizer, samples and percussion. It was also at this time that the name PESTICIDE was deemed well fitting and has been ever since. It soon became clear to these five creative minds that their potential shouldn't be allowed to rot in their costly and self equipped practice room or in one of the band production studios which were booked in a circuitous manner through the encouragement of friends, acquaintances and such in order to get their demo recorded. Perfection was still lacking, though, until the beginning of 2006, when the right singer, Dominic, was found. Now the era of PESTICIDE was ready to make its start and the band went into overdrive. http://www.planet-pesticide.de/ / www.myspace.com/planetpesticide 
The guys of PESTICIDE appeared on stage all dressed in white overalls, the faces colour painted. With strange makeup (blood in da face, anyone?) they were also visually quite strong. PESTICIDE’s sound reminded me on good old acts like PANTERA, and although they were the least “goth” band of the weekend I enjoyed their short gig. The band ran a powerful set with their merging of hard guitars, samples and the striking voice of the singer. Their NuMetal sound was a bit unusual for a Gothic & Electro festival like this, and being the first band in the hangar also meant that they had to perform to a quite small audience, but to be fair they did a quite good job and delivered a pretty professional performance.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. One2
03. Walking Ghost Syndrome
04. Tranquilizer
05. Something inside me
06. What I feel for you
07. The Letter
08. All the Things I bear
09. Outro
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: half daylight
Total: 7.4
Down Below - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
The second band at the hangar stage was DOWN BELOW who presented material from their second album (and first album on major label) ‘Sinfony23’ (released in late June 2007 on Vertigo Records). Singer Neo Scope, Carter (guitar), Convex (bass), and drummer Mr. Mahony were all dressed in black suits with blue highlights and played their Gothic Metal sound with a lot of enthusiasm, and after many gigs since the band’s inception in 2003 (including support slots with bands as diverse as Project Pitchfork and Type O’ Negative) DOWN BELOW are already a quite experienced live act.
Again the band was supported by Henning of UNHEILIG in keys. DOWN BELOW’s many support gigs for well-known bands gained them obviously a good fan base as the hangar stage was already pretty well attended for this early time of day. Highlights of the show included the single ‘Private Soul Security’ and the DEPECHE MODE cover ‘A Question Of Time’. A band to be reckoned with in the future! http://www.downbelow.de/ / www.myspace.com/thatsdb
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Sinfony 23
03. From the highest Point
04. Private Soul Security
05. Lovely Places
06. Down below
07. Question of Time
08. Run away
09. Dark queen
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: (daylight)
Total: 7.8
Fair to Midland - Hangar Stage (Carsten Leopold)
FAIR TO MIDLAND are an American rock band formed in 1998. According to the band's official website, their name comes from "an old Texan play on the term 'fair to middling.'" The group has released three albums and an EP. The last album ‘Fables of a Mayfly:What I Tell You 3 Times Is True’ was released in July this year. FAIR TO MIDLAND are Darroh Sudderth (Vocals), Jon Dicken (Bass), Cliff Campbell (Guitars), Matt Langley (Keys/Electronics) and Brett Stowers (Drums). http://www.fairtomidland.com/ / www.myspace.com/fairtomidland
Music & Performance
The show of FAIR TO MIDLAND was loud, powerful and rock. I must say that this musical style seemed not to fit to the M’era Luna. Besides that, the band is quite unknown over here and so, not that many people found their way into the Hanger. But the show was quite cool to look at. The musicians performed their set dedicated and partial ecstatic. The guys on stage were nearly flying over it and rocked their asses off with their exalted performance. Seemed some people outside discovered it finally and so, the audience grew a little towards the end of the show.
The band presented six songs all in all, including ‘Kyla cries Cologne’, ‘Tall tales taste like sour grapes’ and ‘April Fools and Eggmen’ with great arrangements and lots of breaks between the melodic passages and noise attacks. Towards the end, singer Darroh was even climbing up the light constructions during the song ‘Dance of the manatee’. Musically, the band was really convincing and earned lot of applause from the people in the Hangar.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: half daylight
Total: 7.4
Animal Alpha - Hangar Stage
Next scheduled band on the main stage was ANIMAL ALPHA. But strangely, the band did not appear at the festival. What had happened? We knew later by a press release (dpa): The band made a wrong input into their navigation system what brought them a long lasting odyssey through half Germany. The band first arrived in Thuringia and finally made it to Hildesheim in the late evening – much too late for the festival appearance. And so, M’era Luna took place without the performance of ANIMAL ALPHA. http://www.animalalpha.com/ / www.myspace.com/animalalpha
Pain - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
Now it was time for a real musical legend - Peter Tägtgren! Mostly known as a producer of many Metal bands and member of the Swedish Black / Death Metal band HYPOCRISY, Tägtgren also runs his solo project PAIN since 1997 to realise his own vision of Metal meeting electronics.
In the studio he is the only PAIN member but for his live shows he gathers some guest musicians to perform with a full band. The sound of PAIN is often described as Industrial Metal but, apart from the question if this description is apposite or not, it is rather Metal than anything else when performed live. Not exactly my cup of tea but kudos for a solid performance. http://www.pain.cd/ / www.myspace.com/officialpain
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 7
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 6.3
Cultus Ferox - Hangar Stage (Carsten Leopold)
CULTUS FEROX is a medieval band from Berlin and was formed in 2002. Members are "Der heilige St. Brandanarius" (bagpipes, shawm, pipes, horns, string instruments, vocals), "Strahli der Animator" (percussions, string instruments, vocals), "Donar von Avignon" (drums), "Steffano di Panoptico" (bagpipes, shawm, pipes, hurdy-gurdy, vocals), "Pan Peter" (bagpipes, pipes), "Thomasius" (drums) and "El Böslinger" (bagpipes, pipes). http://www.cultusferox.com/ / www.myspace.com/cultusferox
Music & Performance
The music of CULTUS FEROX was a danceable merging of medieval and rock, the show was diversified and inciting and band and audience were in a good temper. Besides SCHANDMAUL, CULTUS FEROX was the only medieval band at the festival. So it was no surprise that the Hangar was filled with lovers of this kind of music who celebrated the show of the guys on stage stressed up in strange looking medieval clothes.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Blendwerk
03. Götterdämmerung
04. Heimatlied
05. Albanischer
06. Zorn Gottes
07. Wolfsballade
08. Aussatz
09. Schurkentanz
10. Martyrium
11. Brenner
12. Tamfanae
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: half daylight
Total: 7.4
Nosferatu - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
The British Gothic Rock band NOSFERATU was already formed in March 1988 by Damien DeVille, Vlad Janicek, and Sapphire Aurora. They are ranked among the “second wave” of Gothic Rock groups from the UK, which emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and NOSFERATU are one of the most successful ones.
Their albums, singles, and DVD have sold over 100,000 copies world-wide, and NOSFERATU have the credibility and good fortune of being one of the few UK-based Gothic rock bands to receive chart success both in the UK and Germany. There were a many line-up changes in the history of the band, including engaging various singers, and the current line-up is Louis DeWray, Damien DeVille, Nevyn, Chrys Columbine and Eddie McEvil. http://www.nosferatu.fsworld.co.uk/ / www.myspace.com/officialnosferatu
Music & Performance
NOSFERATU’s most recent release is ‘Anthology’, a best of compilation, and so they presented songs from almost all periods of the band’s history. Musically they are somewhere between THE SISTERS OF MERCY, FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM and JOY DIVISION, and in fact they dedicated one song to the late Joy Division-voice Ian Curtis.
Unfortunately the performance seemed to be a bit lacklustre and NOSFERATU don’t have many songs which stick in your mind, so it was only an okay performance.
Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 5
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 5.3
Emilie Autumn - Hangar Stage (Carsten Leopold)
EMILIE AUTUMN is a singer and violinist, currently living in Chicago. She is known for her theatrical performance style. Combine the violin mastery of Nigel Kennedy, the voice of an Alien-Siouxsie-Bowie hybrid, and the looks of a post-apocalyptic Marie Antoinette, and what do you get? EMILIE AUTUMN! The pink-haired princess of "Victoriandustrial" has already morphed her way from classically trained violin prodigy to extreme rock performer with the ability to shred on a fiddle à la Yngwie, and with a cult following to match. After spending a summer in France recording with Courtney Love at Ms. Love's express command, Emilie was invited to join Love's touring band, THE CHELSEA, and was appropriately dubbed the "anarchy violinist" by Love.
Next thing you knew, she was performing live on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and on national television with Billy Corgan of SMASHING PUMPKINS fame, while appearing on the solo debut albums of both, Corgan and Love. Emilie quickly gained attention as a solo performer in her own right, and was chosen as one of Interview Magazine's "14 To Be", a pictorial featuring 14 up-and-coming young female stars. The current album, ‘Opheliac’ was released in September 2006. On Stage usually EMILIE AUTUMN is supported by her "Bloody Crumpets", consisting of "Lady Joo Hee", "The Lady Aprella", "Mistress Apnea", "The Naughty Veronica", "Little Lucina", "Lady Vecona" and a bear called "Suffer". http://www.emilieautumn.com/ / http://www.emilieautumn.de/ / www.myspace.com/emilieautumn
Music & Performance
The show of EMILIE AUTUMN was dominated by visual impressions, it was a kind of theatrical with electro sound. EMILIE AUTUMN and her "Bloody Crumpets" - at this gig only four girls in total were on stage - were dressed in imaginative baroque costumes and the performance was very theatrical and pleasing for the eyes because the girls were very beautiful and luscious. Teapot, teacups, a teddy bear and some other trashy utensils were arranged between the instruments on stage. But only a few parts of keyboard and violin were played live, the most part of music was played from tape. The set ran about one hour and consisted of ten songs, starting with ‘Opheliac’ and finishing with ‘Thank God I'm Pretty’.
Outstanding were the virtuous violin solo parts of Emilie. The crowd quickly was infected by the danceable electro sound and fascinated by the charming show on stage. The only bad thing… like during all shows at the afternoon in the Hangar… was that there was too much day light from outside to make a light show work.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Opheliac
03. Liar
04. The Art Of Suicide
05. I Want My Innocence Back
06. Instrumental
07. Misery Loves Company
08. Dead is the New Alive
09. Let the Record Show
10. Thank God I'm Pretty
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: half daylight
Total: 8.2
My Dying Bride - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
The for M’era Luna standards relatively big portion of Metal sounds was completed by MY DYING BRIDE from the north of England, who in the 1990s were often referred as “The big three” of Doom Metal together with the fellow British bands ANATHEMA and PARADISE LOST. http://www.mydyingbride.org/ / www.myspace.com/mdbride
Music & Performance
MY DYING BRIDE are today Hamish Glencross, Andrew Craighan, Sarah Stanton, Dan Mullins, Lena Abé and front man and vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe, who delivered a quite impressive performance at the M’era Luna. He was truly into it and living the music with every ounce of his body, so it was no surprise that he enthused the audience who celebrated the Doom Metal heroes’ gig.
Old fans were delighted that the set list also included tracks from the early days of the band but of course there were also many songs from MY DYING BRIDES last output ‘A Line Of Deathless Kings’. A very dark but fascinating show!
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7.6
Suicide Commando - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
Johan van Roy follows his own visions of Electro-Industrial sounds inspired by acts such as THE KLINIK since 1986 under the moniker SUICIDE COMMANDO. It took him eight years to release his first record (‘Critical Stage’, in 1994) but only a short time to be among the top artist of the EBM scene. Although van Roy introduced has some more danceable beats and Techno/Trance elements to his music since the late 1990s, which surely granted him even more success, the Belgian stayed true to his EBM roots and could be regarded as a rather conservative EBM musician who does not care too much about innovation but rather about perfecting the sound he has in mind for SUICIDE COMMANDO. Being one of the most successful and prolific acts of the EBM/Electro scene, SUICIDE COMMANDO has influenced a plethora of young bands, and van Roy was always eager to support and assist young musicians. http://www.suicidecommando.be/ / www.myspace.com/suicidecommando
Music & Performance
How much this man loves music becomes also quite clear when you see SUICIDE COMMANDO live on stage. Backed up by a full band including Torben Schmidt (LIGHTS OF EUPHORIA) behind the keyboards as well as Mario Vaerewijck (INSEKT), van Roy was more than energetic on stage and running around so fast that it was difficult to follow him with the eye at times. ;-) The setlist was more or less a shortened version of the last tour’s setlist and started with the title track of the last album, ‘Bind Torture Kill’. The big video screens in the back are already a must, and the visuals displayed on them enhanced the show a lot. The hangar was more than packed, so SUICIDE COMMANDO could have played easily the main stage as well. There were even a few hundred people who couldn’t see the show because they couldn’t get in anymore.
Easily a few thousand fans revelled at the hangar and with tracks like ‘Dein Herz Meine Gier’ or ‘Love Breeds Suicide’ the music was perfect for making you move. And the fans moved a lot! A personal fave of mine was ‘Massaker’, a cover version of the old Tommi Stumpff classic, but unfortunately there wasn’t any material from the very early SUICIDE COMMANDO days. Van Roy and his band corrected this when they opened the much demanded encore with the old fan fave ‘Save Me’.
The probably most famous SUICIDE COMMANDO track - ‘Hellraiser’ - finished the show and did raise hell indeed. One big freak out in the crowd, and van Roy jumped into the pit in front of the stage to party with the fans in the front row. SUICIDE COMMANDO’s show was one big Electro/Industrial-party!
Setlist
01. Bind Torture Kill
02. Menschenfresser
03. Conspiracy with the Devil
04. Dein Herz, meine Gier
05. Raise your God
06. One Nation under God
07. Massaker
08. Love breeds Suicide
09. Come on and hate me
10. Fuck you Bitch
---
11. Save me
12. Hellraiser
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 8.2
Written by Carsten Leopold, Jörg Uhlenbruch, Karolina Moszkowicz, Sebastian Huhn and Daniela Vorndran
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
{jos_sb_discuss:18}
01. Intro
02. One2
03. Walking Ghost Syndrome
04. Tranquilizer
05. Something inside me
06. What I feel for you
07. The Letter
08. All the Things I bear
09. Outro
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: half daylight
Total: 7.4
Down Below - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
The second band at the hangar stage was DOWN BELOW who presented material from their second album (and first album on major label) ‘Sinfony23’ (released in late June 2007 on Vertigo Records). Singer Neo Scope, Carter (guitar), Convex (bass), and drummer Mr. Mahony were all dressed in black suits with blue highlights and played their Gothic Metal sound with a lot of enthusiasm, and after many gigs since the band’s inception in 2003 (including support slots with bands as diverse as Project Pitchfork and Type O’ Negative) DOWN BELOW are already a quite experienced live act.
Again the band was supported by Henning of UNHEILIG in keys. DOWN BELOW’s many support gigs for well-known bands gained them obviously a good fan base as the hangar stage was already pretty well attended for this early time of day. Highlights of the show included the single ‘Private Soul Security’ and the DEPECHE MODE cover ‘A Question Of Time’. A band to be reckoned with in the future! http://www.downbelow.de/ / www.myspace.com/thatsdb
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Sinfony 23
03. From the highest Point
04. Private Soul Security
05. Lovely Places
06. Down below
07. Question of Time
08. Run away
09. Dark queen
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: (daylight)
Total: 7.8
Fair to Midland - Hangar Stage (Carsten Leopold)
FAIR TO MIDLAND are an American rock band formed in 1998. According to the band's official website, their name comes from "an old Texan play on the term 'fair to middling.'" The group has released three albums and an EP. The last album ‘Fables of a Mayfly:What I Tell You 3 Times Is True’ was released in July this year. FAIR TO MIDLAND are Darroh Sudderth (Vocals), Jon Dicken (Bass), Cliff Campbell (Guitars), Matt Langley (Keys/Electronics) and Brett Stowers (Drums). http://www.fairtomidland.com/ / www.myspace.com/fairtomidland
Music & Performance
The show of FAIR TO MIDLAND was loud, powerful and rock. I must say that this musical style seemed not to fit to the M’era Luna. Besides that, the band is quite unknown over here and so, not that many people found their way into the Hanger. But the show was quite cool to look at. The musicians performed their set dedicated and partial ecstatic. The guys on stage were nearly flying over it and rocked their asses off with their exalted performance. Seemed some people outside discovered it finally and so, the audience grew a little towards the end of the show.
The band presented six songs all in all, including ‘Kyla cries Cologne’, ‘Tall tales taste like sour grapes’ and ‘April Fools and Eggmen’ with great arrangements and lots of breaks between the melodic passages and noise attacks. Towards the end, singer Darroh was even climbing up the light constructions during the song ‘Dance of the manatee’. Musically, the band was really convincing and earned lot of applause from the people in the Hangar.
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: half daylight
Total: 7.4
Animal Alpha - Hangar Stage
Next scheduled band on the main stage was ANIMAL ALPHA. But strangely, the band did not appear at the festival. What had happened? We knew later by a press release (dpa): The band made a wrong input into their navigation system what brought them a long lasting odyssey through half Germany. The band first arrived in Thuringia and finally made it to Hildesheim in the late evening – much too late for the festival appearance. And so, M’era Luna took place without the performance of ANIMAL ALPHA. http://www.animalalpha.com/ / www.myspace.com/animalalpha
Pain - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
Now it was time for a real musical legend - Peter Tägtgren! Mostly known as a producer of many Metal bands and member of the Swedish Black / Death Metal band HYPOCRISY, Tägtgren also runs his solo project PAIN since 1997 to realise his own vision of Metal meeting electronics.
In the studio he is the only PAIN member but for his live shows he gathers some guest musicians to perform with a full band. The sound of PAIN is often described as Industrial Metal but, apart from the question if this description is apposite or not, it is rather Metal than anything else when performed live. Not exactly my cup of tea but kudos for a solid performance. http://www.pain.cd/ / www.myspace.com/officialpain
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 7
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 6.3
Cultus Ferox - Hangar Stage (Carsten Leopold)
CULTUS FEROX is a medieval band from Berlin and was formed in 2002. Members are "Der heilige St. Brandanarius" (bagpipes, shawm, pipes, horns, string instruments, vocals), "Strahli der Animator" (percussions, string instruments, vocals), "Donar von Avignon" (drums), "Steffano di Panoptico" (bagpipes, shawm, pipes, hurdy-gurdy, vocals), "Pan Peter" (bagpipes, pipes), "Thomasius" (drums) and "El Böslinger" (bagpipes, pipes). http://www.cultusferox.com/ / www.myspace.com/cultusferox
Music & Performance
The music of CULTUS FEROX was a danceable merging of medieval and rock, the show was diversified and inciting and band and audience were in a good temper. Besides SCHANDMAUL, CULTUS FEROX was the only medieval band at the festival. So it was no surprise that the Hangar was filled with lovers of this kind of music who celebrated the show of the guys on stage stressed up in strange looking medieval clothes.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Blendwerk
03. Götterdämmerung
04. Heimatlied
05. Albanischer
06. Zorn Gottes
07. Wolfsballade
08. Aussatz
09. Schurkentanz
10. Martyrium
11. Brenner
12. Tamfanae
Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: half daylight
Total: 7.4
Nosferatu - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
The British Gothic Rock band NOSFERATU was already formed in March 1988 by Damien DeVille, Vlad Janicek, and Sapphire Aurora. They are ranked among the “second wave” of Gothic Rock groups from the UK, which emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and NOSFERATU are one of the most successful ones.
Their albums, singles, and DVD have sold over 100,000 copies world-wide, and NOSFERATU have the credibility and good fortune of being one of the few UK-based Gothic rock bands to receive chart success both in the UK and Germany. There were a many line-up changes in the history of the band, including engaging various singers, and the current line-up is Louis DeWray, Damien DeVille, Nevyn, Chrys Columbine and Eddie McEvil. http://www.nosferatu.fsworld.co.uk/ / www.myspace.com/officialnosferatu
Music & Performance
NOSFERATU’s most recent release is ‘Anthology’, a best of compilation, and so they presented songs from almost all periods of the band’s history. Musically they are somewhere between THE SISTERS OF MERCY, FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM and JOY DIVISION, and in fact they dedicated one song to the late Joy Division-voice Ian Curtis.
Unfortunately the performance seemed to be a bit lacklustre and NOSFERATU don’t have many songs which stick in your mind, so it was only an okay performance.
Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 5
Sound: 6
Light: 6
Total: 5.3
Emilie Autumn - Hangar Stage (Carsten Leopold)
EMILIE AUTUMN is a singer and violinist, currently living in Chicago. She is known for her theatrical performance style. Combine the violin mastery of Nigel Kennedy, the voice of an Alien-Siouxsie-Bowie hybrid, and the looks of a post-apocalyptic Marie Antoinette, and what do you get? EMILIE AUTUMN! The pink-haired princess of "Victoriandustrial" has already morphed her way from classically trained violin prodigy to extreme rock performer with the ability to shred on a fiddle à la Yngwie, and with a cult following to match. After spending a summer in France recording with Courtney Love at Ms. Love's express command, Emilie was invited to join Love's touring band, THE CHELSEA, and was appropriately dubbed the "anarchy violinist" by Love.
Next thing you knew, she was performing live on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and on national television with Billy Corgan of SMASHING PUMPKINS fame, while appearing on the solo debut albums of both, Corgan and Love. Emilie quickly gained attention as a solo performer in her own right, and was chosen as one of Interview Magazine's "14 To Be", a pictorial featuring 14 up-and-coming young female stars. The current album, ‘Opheliac’ was released in September 2006. On Stage usually EMILIE AUTUMN is supported by her "Bloody Crumpets", consisting of "Lady Joo Hee", "The Lady Aprella", "Mistress Apnea", "The Naughty Veronica", "Little Lucina", "Lady Vecona" and a bear called "Suffer". http://www.emilieautumn.com/ / http://www.emilieautumn.de/ / www.myspace.com/emilieautumn
Music & Performance
The show of EMILIE AUTUMN was dominated by visual impressions, it was a kind of theatrical with electro sound. EMILIE AUTUMN and her "Bloody Crumpets" - at this gig only four girls in total were on stage - were dressed in imaginative baroque costumes and the performance was very theatrical and pleasing for the eyes because the girls were very beautiful and luscious. Teapot, teacups, a teddy bear and some other trashy utensils were arranged between the instruments on stage. But only a few parts of keyboard and violin were played live, the most part of music was played from tape. The set ran about one hour and consisted of ten songs, starting with ‘Opheliac’ and finishing with ‘Thank God I'm Pretty’.
Outstanding were the virtuous violin solo parts of Emilie. The crowd quickly was infected by the danceable electro sound and fascinated by the charming show on stage. The only bad thing… like during all shows at the afternoon in the Hangar… was that there was too much day light from outside to make a light show work.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Opheliac
03. Liar
04. The Art Of Suicide
05. I Want My Innocence Back
06. Instrumental
07. Misery Loves Company
08. Dead is the New Alive
09. Let the Record Show
10. Thank God I'm Pretty
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: half daylight
Total: 8.2
My Dying Bride - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
The for M’era Luna standards relatively big portion of Metal sounds was completed by MY DYING BRIDE from the north of England, who in the 1990s were often referred as “The big three” of Doom Metal together with the fellow British bands ANATHEMA and PARADISE LOST. http://www.mydyingbride.org/ / www.myspace.com/mdbride
Music & Performance
MY DYING BRIDE are today Hamish Glencross, Andrew Craighan, Sarah Stanton, Dan Mullins, Lena Abé and front man and vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe, who delivered a quite impressive performance at the M’era Luna. He was truly into it and living the music with every ounce of his body, so it was no surprise that he enthused the audience who celebrated the Doom Metal heroes’ gig.
Old fans were delighted that the set list also included tracks from the early days of the band but of course there were also many songs from MY DYING BRIDES last output ‘A Line Of Deathless Kings’. A very dark but fascinating show!
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7.6
Suicide Commando - Hangar Stage (Jörg Uhlenbruch)
Johan van Roy follows his own visions of Electro-Industrial sounds inspired by acts such as THE KLINIK since 1986 under the moniker SUICIDE COMMANDO. It took him eight years to release his first record (‘Critical Stage’, in 1994) but only a short time to be among the top artist of the EBM scene. Although van Roy introduced has some more danceable beats and Techno/Trance elements to his music since the late 1990s, which surely granted him even more success, the Belgian stayed true to his EBM roots and could be regarded as a rather conservative EBM musician who does not care too much about innovation but rather about perfecting the sound he has in mind for SUICIDE COMMANDO. Being one of the most successful and prolific acts of the EBM/Electro scene, SUICIDE COMMANDO has influenced a plethora of young bands, and van Roy was always eager to support and assist young musicians. http://www.suicidecommando.be/ / www.myspace.com/suicidecommando
Music & Performance
How much this man loves music becomes also quite clear when you see SUICIDE COMMANDO live on stage. Backed up by a full band including Torben Schmidt (LIGHTS OF EUPHORIA) behind the keyboards as well as Mario Vaerewijck (INSEKT), van Roy was more than energetic on stage and running around so fast that it was difficult to follow him with the eye at times. ;-) The setlist was more or less a shortened version of the last tour’s setlist and started with the title track of the last album, ‘Bind Torture Kill’. The big video screens in the back are already a must, and the visuals displayed on them enhanced the show a lot. The hangar was more than packed, so SUICIDE COMMANDO could have played easily the main stage as well. There were even a few hundred people who couldn’t see the show because they couldn’t get in anymore.
Easily a few thousand fans revelled at the hangar and with tracks like ‘Dein Herz Meine Gier’ or ‘Love Breeds Suicide’ the music was perfect for making you move. And the fans moved a lot! A personal fave of mine was ‘Massaker’, a cover version of the old Tommi Stumpff classic, but unfortunately there wasn’t any material from the very early SUICIDE COMMANDO days. Van Roy and his band corrected this when they opened the much demanded encore with the old fan fave ‘Save Me’.
The probably most famous SUICIDE COMMANDO track - ‘Hellraiser’ - finished the show and did raise hell indeed. One big freak out in the crowd, and van Roy jumped into the pit in front of the stage to party with the fans in the front row. SUICIDE COMMANDO’s show was one big Electro/Industrial-party!
Setlist
01. Bind Torture Kill
02. Menschenfresser
03. Conspiracy with the Devil
04. Dein Herz, meine Gier
05. Raise your God
06. One Nation under God
07. Massaker
08. Love breeds Suicide
09. Come on and hate me
10. Fuck you Bitch
---
11. Save me
12. Hellraiser
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 8.2
Written by Carsten Leopold, Jörg Uhlenbruch, Karolina Moszkowicz, Sebastian Huhn and Daniela Vorndran
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
{jos_sb_discuss:18}
Comments powered by CComment