Leipzig, Germany7th to 10th June 2019
Wave Gotik Treffen 2019 day 2 with Time & Space Society, Other Day, Omnimar, Grausame Töchter, Eggvn, Sanguis Et Cinis, Killus, Freakangel, Joachim Witt, Rituals Party
The second day started as usually way to early. Why don’t we just add a few more hours to the WGT days to get a little bit more of sleep? But there is so much to see, to discover and so many people to meet, so “sleep” is just sliding down on the “to do & to see list”. We got up at 10 am as our first thing to do on the bullet list was the visit at the Absintheria Sixtina in the city centre. To get there takes a bit if you are camping at the Agra area. But nothing that cannot be done with some caffeine in your veins.
Time & Space Society - Absintheria Sixtina (Nastja)
Sixtina was already pretty packed when we arrived. And the people did not look that tired actually. And it was warm. The concert took place inside which meant quite a small space in front of the “stage” or area where the band was located. The gig itself started half an hour later (that could have been our chance to sleep 30 minutes longer!), but we just ordered some alcohol-free, ice-cold cocktails that were picked with vitamins. And that really helped! TIME & SPACE SOCIETY are Claas Hoffmann, Mazometa, Grille und Turbomaschine. Their music is handmade Rock music, really enjoyable even at this early time of the day. The lyrics and vocals are, to say the least, philosophical in a strange way, out of space and everything in between. For our brains in the early “morning” it was quite challenging to handle the in-between-messages.
The German lyrics are quite special. Yes. The performance from TIME & SPACE SOCIETY is special and unique as well. They also performed four new songs that are considered to be released later this year: ‘Andalucia’, ‘Space-Time-Emitter’, ‘Jupiter’ and ‘Invisible Friend’. We enjoyed it, sometimes being left confused. A band that I cannot imagine headlining the agra stage (though, you never know!), but they have and will find for sure more followers who appreciate the imaginative and philosophical songs that show a bit, or a lot of that weirdness that human brains can have. // https://www.facebook.com/timeandspacesociety // Setlist: 01. Queen Of Ants / 02. Hello You Remind Me / 03. Astronaut / 04. Andalucia (All Emotions Are Animals) / 05. Once I Woke Up / 06. Space-Time-Emitter / 07. Shifting Shapes / 08. Dreams / 09. Jupiter / 10. Invisible Friend / 11. Spirit Of The Sun / 12. Drinking And Driving / 13. Lord Of Thebes / 14. Wheel Of Fortune / 15. Tima And Space Society
Other Day - Felsenkeller (Nastja)
The outlook to spend a few hours at Felsenkeller didn’t make me that happy, since from my former experiences here the venue gets really hot and good sound here is something really rare. But I kinda hoped that it was going to be not too packed during the first two concerts of the day and it was kinda okay actually. OTHER DAY opened the stage on Saturday with a very artistic and sacral performance. OTHER DAY are Sad (vocals) and Niha-Céta (cello, Theremin, vocals) and originally the band was founded in 1995. As the 25th anniversary is coming closer, OTHER DAY played a very special set that included mostly works from the first ten years of the band’s existence. The performance was a melancholic story-telling memento with impressive visual elements, be it the creative, all white outfits and detailed masks or the dancers in the background. A total pleasure for the eyes and ears.
Melancholy, nostalgia and the moments to dream away. I just wish the sound would have been a little bit clearer. It was not as bad as I’ve experienced it here before, but it was still Felsenkeller. You can try to do the best, but it’s never going to be as clear as it should be, I believe. Along with old gems OTHER DAY also performed a new, yet untitled song from the upcoming album. A magical, spherical and beautifully haunting performance. // https://www.facebook.com/otherday // Setlist: 01. Sehnsuchtsfern / 02. Morgenlicht verglüht / 03. Hauchendes Zart / 04. Lichthauch / 05. Another Day / 06. Seen And Heard You - A Dark Symphonic Kiss By Tri-State / 07. Untitled (from upcoming album) / 08. Je suis / 09. Anatol
Omnimar - Felsenkeller (Nastja)
The presenter Oliver Klein did not just appear before the performance of OTHER DAY, but also came back to announce OMNIMAR. In his words it was a premiere for him to announce a band from Moscow and also something really special to announce a band that has not played at WGT before. The Future and Industrial Pop & Rock project from Moscow is conquering the German festival stages this year. Another performance is announces for the Autumn Moon festival in October in Hameln. OMNIMAR was founded in 2011, the members are the vocalist Maria Mar and Alex Vrt, accompanied live by a guitarist and two dancers. One thing is for sure… OMNIMAR make a lot of effort to create their shows and that makes them stand out of the mass. The OMNIMAR show at Felsenkeller was like a big party on stage, choreographies, light effects, outfit changes, laser lights, and a lot of glitter for the front row. Someone seemed also to like the stage fog machine a bit too much which made it sometimes really difficult to see what’s happening on stage at all. Considering how much effort the band put in their show, that is quite a pity.
The Dark Pop elements are very dominating and so the show - some songs and their performances were more than convincing, others felt a bit too ironic and the Pop Dance show elements too dominating. However they found a niche that is not really taken at the moment on the German stages and I am sure they can really whirl up the German Goth & Dark Alternative music world. The voice of Maria Mar is remarkable and strong. That gives OMNIMAR that special element along with the danceable, seductive beats. Also the fact that they performed at least one song in Russian was cool. Hope they’ll do more in the future. A very confident and refreshing performance, different from what we all are used to at the moment. // https://www.facebook.com/omn1mar // Setlist: 01. Intro / 02. Fault / 03. I Wanna Know / 04. I Go On My Own / 05. Ресурс (Resurs) / 06. Music Is My Everything / 07. Humans / 08. Intro 2 / 09. Happy Ending / 10. Wrong Direction 2018 / 11. Reason / 12. Out Of My Life / 13. Sadizm (English Version) / 14. Boom Boom
Grausame Töchter - Felsenkeller (Marko)
The Felsenkeller was almost as hot as a sauna but that was not the reason why the ladies were half-naked on stage! The band GRAUSAME TÖCHTER, founded in 2009, is known for their outrageous stage show. Usually during the concert the band show films of themselves on the video screen - but today at the day 2 of the WGT the video screen was out of order. “Let’s see if we can make it happen - otherwise you will just have to come to one of our other concerts” said singer Aranea Peel. The atmosphere at the concert was great from the beginning. The location was completely full - the upper part of the Felsenkeller was also lined with several rows of people. The video wall continued not working - it showed instead the logo of the Wave Gotik Treffen.
As a surprise and as a foretaste of JOACHIM WITT who would be appearing a few some hours after GRAUSAME TÖCHTER in the Felsenkeller, the band played their version of ‘Goldener Reiter’ from the former 80s star; it was accompanied loudly by the audience. Singer Aranea had her hair wrapped in golden tinsel. By now it was so full that the Felsenkeller stopped letting any more people in and outside there was a long queue of people waiting - that's the risk that the WGT carries. Popular bands play in relatively small locations and this must be taken into account when planning in your own scheduling.
All who missed the gig can take themselves to Munich on 22.06.2019 to catch the band and experience their terrific live show. // https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Musician-Band/Grausame-Töchter-122110011223418 // Setlist: 01. Engel Im Rausch / 02. Engel Im Himmel / 03. In Deinem Kopf / 04. ...Und Ich Fühle Nichts / 05. Engel Im Himmel / 06. Fette Katzen / 07. Liebe Will Beweise / 08. Goldener Reiter / 09. Die Ganze Welt Ist Ein Zirkus / 10. Tor Zur Hölle / 11. Lila Katzen / 12. Annika Ist Tot / 13. Wildes Tier / 14. Wie Eine Spinne / 15. Wodka-Polka / 16. Sternenmädchen / 17. Ich Darf Das
EGGVN - Westbad (Nastja)
Just before it gets really hot in Felsenkeller (though I was considering to stay a bit longer to see GRAUSAME TÖCHTER there), we changed to Westbad to get our dose of finest, international Industrial. Our evening at Westbad started with EGGVN - Mexican Industrial Metal! The two guys wearing quite oversized and crazy looking Capricorn-kind of masks. It felt wrong that Westbad was not that packed. I wished the bands playing tonight would get a chance to play in front of a bigger audience. But the alternative program with bands and artists like Joachim Witt, WELLE:ERDBALL, NITZER EBB and many more seemed to be hard competitors. Nevertheless we had a lot of fun at Westbad tonight and our joy of discovery was more than well rewarded. The EGGVN guys had a lot of energy and gave their best to engage the audience. Refreshing, strong performance, unusual appearance and the will and a lot of joy to play live. // https://www.facebook.com/eggvnofficial
Sanguis Et Cinis - Felsenkeller (Marko)
Glittering particles of tinsel left over from GRAUSAME TÖCHTER fluttered around on the stage. Now it was finally time for a very special concert. SANGUIS ET CINIS playing live again for the first time in many years. The band was founded in 1994 and broke up in 2007. Shortly thereafter singer Eve founded his new band LOLITA KOMPLEX. At the Wave Gothic Treffen, SANGUIS ET CINIS presented songs from their first four albums. Eve Evangel had a cool costume, but he must have been sweating in it like hell - it was so warm and very stuffy in the Felsenkeller.
“Some of you might not have been born when the songs were made” said Eve. But this emotional show with its razor-sharp guitar sound had the whole audience in its thrall, no matter what age of the fans! Eve sang on his knees a few times, lost in the old songs. Founding member Ashley Dayour was unable to attend the Wave Gotik Treffen because he was busy with his own bands WHISPERS IN THE SHADOW and THE DEVIL & THE UNIVERSE. SANGUIS ET CINIS was hugely celebrated by the fans. Eve said, “we do this only because we enjoy it and for you.”
The concert ended with a guest performance by Mattǝo Vdiva Fabbiani from HELL BOULEVARD. He sang the new LOLITA KOMPLEX single, ‘We're all Dead’, together with Eve. This song was released as a video during the WGT weekend. It is to be hoped that SANGUIS ET CINIS will soon be performing live again - this was overall a great concert. // https://www.facebook.com/sanguisetcinis // Setlist: 01. Phoenix / 02. Tempel der Erkenntnis / 03. Prinzessin / 04. Atlantis Babylon / 05. Teufel an der Wand / 06. Amnesia / 07. Wein der Sünde / 08. Catholic Girls / 09. We came from Venus / 10. Braut im Regen / 11. Isabelle / 12. Immaculata / 13. We’re all Dead
Killus - Westbad (Nastja)
From Mexico to Spain in about 20 minutes. The next band turned to be my personal highlight on Saturday. KILLUS - the Spanish Industrial Rock & Metal. What a power! COMBICHRIST meets Horror Punk - got it? Here we go. Once again I wished the crowd was bigger. Honestly, I am sure some of you out there missed here on something really cool. Such an energy and so much fun on stage. We just celebrated a crazy party and the bony guys (I mean just the make-up of course) very so good. KILLUS just changed their vocalist about half a year ago, and as we were wondering whether we might know the singer, yes we do. The new singer is Javi Ssagittar, also known as vocalist of TERROLOKAUST (really guys, why this name?) who totally convinced us with their live performance some years ago despite the fact that the band’s name really scared us off.
KILLUS killed us with their performance and seemingly endless live energy. They just didn’t give up to get everyone in Westbad to celebrate and I am sure, they very pretty successful. Almost at the end of the gig they played ‘Wish’, covering a NINE INCH NAILS song. Perfect fit. One of those discoveries that one hopes to have at WGT with a band that you didn’t know yet. The ‘Ultrazombies’ came to conquer and they did. Hell of a gig. // https://www.facebook.com/Killusband // Setlist: 01. Fell The Monster / 02. White Lines / 03. The Darkness Of The Crypt / 04. Dear Revolution / 05, Flash OF Mercy / 06. The Army Of Dead Soldiers / 07. A Perfect Paradigm / 08. The Witch’s Pact / 09. The Last Passenger / 10. Vortex / 11. Stranger Things / 12. Wish (NINE INCH NAILS cover) / 13. Imperator / 14. Rape Your Dreams / 15. Ultrazombies
Freakangel - Westbad (Nastja)
On our Industrial Metal journey we leave Spain now and go further to Tallinn, the beautiful and charming capital of Estonia. FREAKANGEL came on stage to continue the work of their colleagues from EGGVN and KILLUS and did extremely well headlining the Westbad stage. To be honest, my own energy level killed me a bit during their show, it’s been quite a long day so far, but the rest of the crowd seemed to celebrate at its best - screaming, dancing, and jumping! The band was found in 2009 and released 5 full-length albums so far. The last album, ‘How The Ghost Became’, came out two years ago, in 2017.
The Industrial Metal pushed through the venue and the crowd was full of adrenaline. We were just a bit confused since the band played almost half an hour less than scheduled in the official program, but I believe that was just the slot given to them, no matter how long they were actually supposed to play. A really cool headliner and a lot of music to (re-)discover after that loud & heavy evening. // https://www.facebook.com/freakangelofficial // http://www.freakangel.net // Setlist: 01. Intro / 02. Used / 03. Witness The Fall / 04. Make Me Disappear / 05. The Last White Dance / 06. The Book Of Violence / 07. A Dozen New Scars / 08. Parasite / 09. In The Witch House / 10. Porcelain Doll / 11. The Ones To Fall / Encore: 12. My Darling Bullet
Joachim Witt - Felsenkeller (Marko)
JOACHIM WITT is currently on his “Refuge Classic Tour” with an orchestra, with many of these shows sold out. However, at the Wave Gotik Treffen the orchestra musicians had a break and WITT was on stage with his band. They had brought the cool stage decoration of the “Rübezahl Tour” to Leipzig. The concert started with the opener from the ‘Rübezahl’ album, ‘Herr Der Berge’. JOACHIM WITT welcomed the audience in Leipzig with the words: “Nice to be back but let’s see for how much longer”. With that, he made a funny allusion to his age and then pulled a face, as if rigor mortis had occurred. The joke was very well received by the audience - JOACHIM WITT is always cool and funny and was in a good mood for the fans.
A good sound and great lights underlined the perfect rock show. JOACHIM WITT was not only joking around about himself but also with his musicians. When he caught his guitarist drinking water, he said in fun with miming actions “One is always interrupted, be it by drinking or playing guitar”. WITT played mostly songs from the album ‘Rübezahl’ but also some old songs, such as the classic, ‘Die Flut’ from 1998. He also made a lot of jokes with the audience during the concert and even at the beginning with the photographers. At the end Mr. WITT even sang the 80s classic, ‘Goldener Reiter’ and the song ‘Strenges Mädchen’ from the album ‘Edelweiß’ from 1982.
JOACHIM WITT manages to thrall both young and old audience alike with his music. It was a great concert to conclude the second day of WGT. During the performance, he announced his plans for a new album ‘Rübezahls Rückkehr’ for next year. http://www.joachimwitt.de // https://www.facebook.com/joachimwittmusik // Setlist: 01. Herr Der Berge / 02. Dämon / 03. Agonie / 04. Ich Will Leben / 05. Wofür Du Stehst / 06. Mein Diamant / 07. Eis Und Schnee / 08. Träume / 09. Leben Und Tod / 10. Wiedersehen Woanders / 11. Das Geht Tief / 12. Die Flut / 13. Goldener Reiter / 14. Strenges Mädchen
Rituals /w FLESH & PEAKi - Kleines Schauspiel Leipzig (Nastja)
We decided to finish that extremely interesting and diversified day of discoveries at Kleines Schauspiel Leipzig. The venue is just around the corner of Westbad and we were totally curious for the live DJ sets that were about to happen here tonight. Going through to the backyard, entering the venue’s door and going downstairs into the basement. Citing a friend - “never felt as underground at WGT as I do here right now”. The small club, divided in the bar and small & cozy dancefloor area was already filled with some people, a nice mix of “Goths” and “Others”. The live acts and DJs who were supposed to perform tonight were FLESH, PEAKI, SUPAKC x NOISY ANSWER, NSPKTKLR (how do you pronounce this?), LIL HURTY and MANGIAC.
Under the motto “postmodern times need new rituals” the Rituals party was dedicated to Witch House, Industrial, Trap and Wave. With FLESH and PEAKI two of the well-known of these genres took part at this special event. Underground atmosphere, skulls, stuffed rats, creepy visuals that started bleeding on the wall, St. Pauli stickers in the toilets and the most haunting tunes of Witch House. Witch House is that kind of music that you should feel, fear and let flow through your veins. We stayed a few hours and there were still more to go. The long day though also showed up in the feet, so we left earlier than we actually wanted. Really thrilled by the performance of FLESH and hope to catch him soon anywhere else. Second day turned out to be a really colourful mix of genres, venues and performances.
All Pictures by Marko Jakob and Nastja Iz
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