Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Orkus International Festival Tour

Details: Written by: Peter Smets; Published: 17 November 2007

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The Steeple, Waregem, Belgium

27th October 2007

Orkus International Festival Tour 2007: London After Midnight, Kirlian Camera, Dope Stars Inc.

Together with the arrival of the first cold winds of autumn, the Orkus International Festival Tour made a stop in Waregem - an otherwise quiet town in the west of Belgium. Would Lola Angst, Dope Stars Inc, Kirlian Camera and headliner London After Midnight be able to wake up this otherwise sleepy town ? We had about 4 hours to find out if the 3 bands could do it. 3 bands indeed, as the Lola Angst bus got pulled over by the police and never made it to The Steeple.

Dope Stars Inc

Describing themselves as "Industrial Rock'n'Roll", the italians of Dope Stars Inc manage to fit this self-given description quite accurately. With the cancelation of Lola Angst they had the honour of opening the evening without being able to tune their instruments or properly configure the synths. Obviously this could be noticed, certainly at the beginning of the set, but with a lot of energy they were able to bring the good vibe into the quite full, but hardly packed, venue.

Many found the setlist too short but it was accurate and -taking all matters into account- not bad at all...

Setlist

01. 10.000 Watts

02. Play'n' Kill

03. Bang Your Head

04. Can You Imagine

05. Theta Titanium

06. Self Destructive Corp.

07. Defcon 5

08. Ace Of Spades

Rating

Music : 7.5

Performance : 8.0

Sound : 7.5

Light : 6.0

Total : 7.5

Kirlian Camera

Next act of the evening to come on stage was the 2nd Italian band : Kirlian Camera. With their show at the Gothic Festival last summer quite fresh in memory, this was a much smaller setting before a much smaller audience. Nonetheless the music style brought here would be different from Dope Stars Inc.

Music & Performance

And different it was, certainly on a technical level. Some of the songs were literally read out loud from the songtext book by Angelo Bergamini, on other ocassions singer Elena Fossi totally forgot the lyrics and mumbling went thru the songbook attempting to find the correct verse where she could continue. So was there nothing positive ? Ofcourse there was - the songs everyone on stage remembered were performed without a problem and highlight of the set were the violin-skills and solo's by Sarah Crespi. Did all of this matter for most of the fans ? No, everyone cheered where required and probably didn't notice these minor aspects of the set. The style of music does not really tend to allow people to move and dance a lot so audiance feedback is not always that obvious here.

Setlist

01. Ein Deutsches Requiem

02. In The Endless Rain

03. Coroner's Sun

04. Erinnerung

05. Illegal Apology Of Crime

06. Herzwunden / CIA Haunted Headquarters

07. K-Pax

08. Comfortably Numb

09. Edges

10. Heldenplats

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11. Ascension

12. Eclipse

Rating
Music : 7.5
Performance : 6.0
Sound : 7.5
Light : 6.0
Total : 6.0

London After Midnight

London After Midnight, or LAM for short, is one of those one-man-bands that is declared "dead" more then once and when you believe to start the rumours returns for a new tour and album. This is exactly what Sean Brennan did with the release of the new album Violent Acts of Beauty and clearly the majority of the people at The Steeple came for just one mand and his live band : London After Midnight.

Music & Performance

And everyone got what they came for. A strong set and great performance from all on-stage members with a well-chosen setlist that all present at The Steeple - except for some loners that nobody can ever please - loved from the first note to the last. This was proven by a lot of people dancing for the first time of the evening and even the creation of a 'pit', as requested by the guys on stage - not that venue could accomodate a decent-sized 'pit' but there it was anyway.

It was easy to see that Sean and his bassplayer & drummer enjoyed themselves on stage and at the end of the set the entire front row with it stretched-out arms got what it came for and waited for all evening, a handshake/touch from Sean Brennan.