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Tanzbrunnen, Cologne, Germany
19th to 20th July 2008
Amphi Festival Day 2 Theatre Stage: Spiritual Front, Spectra*Paris, Cinema Strange, Lacrimas Profundere, Soko Friedhof, Clan of Xymox, Eisbrecher, Diary of Dreams, Die Krupps - the final option

The second day at the Theatre Stage presented good old Goth music - different to the first day where mostly electronic music was on the schedule. So, you could enjoy bands like CLAN OF XYMOX or the energetic show of DIARY OF DREAMS. A highlight at the very end of the festival was surely the show of DIE KRUPPS before people could celebrate a little more at the after show party.


Spiritual Front [JU]

SPIRITUAL FRONT is an Italian Music Group that has been founded in the late 1990s in Rome by guitarist and singer Simone Salvatori. Since their early days, they’re playing with lots of clichés and stage themselves in an exaggerated way, always with a bit of tongue-in-cheek. 2006 saw the release of the third album ‘Armageddon Gigolo’, which was recorded with some musicians of the Enrico Morricone Orchestra. SPIRITUAL FRONT are Simone Salvatori (guitar, vocals) Giorgio Maria Condemi (E-guitar), Sten Puri (piano, keys), Piergiorgio Ambrosi (piano, keys), Jack Puri (E-guitar) and Andrea Freddy Nio (drums). http://www.spiritualfront.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/spiritualfront



Music & Performance
The great thing about festivals is that you go to see a band of which you hardly knew the name of before, not to mention the music, and then you see them and you are blown away. This was the case for me with SPIRITUAL FRONT at the Amphi Festival. I might have read the name here or there but I had no real idea about the music - and SPIRITUAL FRONT proved that they are an excellent band! My first thought was that SPIRITUAL FRONT would make an excellent support band for acts like NICK CAVE or TINDERSTICKS - dark guitar-driven and bohemian Pop, with some Blues elements, some Neo Folk (one of the band’s most important roots) and New Wave, and a certain Western feel transported by the guitars - assumingly a result of the co-operation with collaborators of the legendary ENRICO MORRICONE.



Apart from the drummer in the back, the band members sat on stools at the edge while they performed their music. Perhaps this was a little unfortunate for slightly smallish people, at least in a bigger and quite packed venue like the theatre stage at the Amphi, but quite adequate in regard to the intimacy of SPIRITUAL FRONT’s sound. It was a very intense and emotionally punching performance, quite an experience especially when you came with no expectations at all.

Setlist
01. Walk the Deadline
02. Bastard Angel
03. Darkroom Friendship
04. Jesus died in Las Vegas
05. Loved or Defeated
06. Song for the old Man
07. Slave

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 7
Total: 8.7




Spectra*Paris [KM]

The woman who founded this project back in 2006 is no unknown person in the Goth Scene. It’s Elena Alice Fossi from KIRLIAN CAMERA founded SPECTRA*PARIS as a replacement for her former project SIDERARCTICA. The all-girly group has released one album so far. It’s called ‘Dead Model’s Society’ and was released in 2007 via Trisol. http://www.myspace.com/spectraparis



Music & Performance
SPECTRA* PARIS - the band that won the audience with their very first occurrence at big event ( WGT) - is still going strong as far as I could see: splendid melodies, having the strong mark of novelty, most enchanting and vibrating voice of Elena Alice Fossi revealing its beauty in captivating, marvellous songs such as ‘Silver Bullet’ or the cover version of ‘Mad World’, rich instrumental part and interesting visuals - blending scenes from Fashion shows, the band's shows, Barbie images or those of “Clockwork Orange” and “Shimotsuma Monogatari” (“Kamikadze Girls”) - definitely stood for a concert absorbing both eyes and ears. I think it was one of the best ones of the whole Fest.

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 10
Light: 10
Total: 10






Cinema Strange [JU]

This surely is the paradise bird and the most unusual act in the Amphi Line-up. This extraordinary band was founded by the brothers Daniel and Michael Ribiat in 1994, influenced by the traditional Gothic Rock of the 80s with bands such as the VIRGIN PRUNES or SEX GANG CHILDREN. The year 2000 should change everything, when they got signed by German label Trisol Music and henceforth could at least release their albums in whole Europe and the first two albums for the label went by the names of  ‘Cinema Strange’ and ‘The Astonished Eyes of Evening’. After an anniversary release and a DVD in 2004 and 2005, they’ve released their third album with the flamboyant title ‘Quatorze Examples Authentiques du Triomphe de la Musique Décorative’. CINEMA STRANGE is Lukas Lanthier (vocals, libretto), Michael Ribiat (guitar, programming), Daniel Ribiat (E-bass, keys) and Danny Walker (drums). http://www.nightmarezone.de/cinemastrange  / www.myspace.com/cinemastrange



Music & Performance
Once labelled Death Rock or Gothic Rock, CINEMA STRANGE is live on stage rather a grotesque vaudeville act which offers you darkness just as much as a somewhat bizarre humour. CINEMA STRANGE’s show is just as much a theatre performance as it is a music concert, and quite appositely their stage clothing is pretty reminiscent of 1930s playhouse costumes. CINEMA STRANGE tell us an intangible, bizarre tale by going from new songs to old songs and back, and at the Amphi it became clear that a non-compromising act like CINEMA STRANGE can build up quite a huge following, as the venue was full to bursting. Frankly, their music is not exactly up to my personal tastes, or in better words I’m not too fond of singer Lukas Lanthier’s histrionic, high voice although I like the music itself. But personal preferences aside, it is good that our scene has a band like this, which is daring and always willing to cross boundaries not only between music genres but also between different art forms like music, poetry and theatre.



Setlist
01. En Hiver
02. One time, one summer
03. The red and silver fantastique and the libretto of the insipid minstrel
04. Mr. Quilt
05. Aboriginal anemia
06. Needlefeet
07. Unlovely baby
08. Greensward grey

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 7.4




Lacrimas Profundere [JU]

They’re the inventors of a very unique style, the Rock’n’Sad, like they labelled it themselves. I’m speaking of LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE, the band that has been founded in 1993 by Oliver Niklas and soon he was joined by his brother Thorsten, complemented by two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer soon afterwards. After the bands first two outputs ‘…And the Wings Embraced Us’ and ‘La Naissance d’un Rêve’ on two different labels, the band attracted the attention of the renowned label Napalm Records and who would be surprised, signed a record deal with them. If we now take a look into the future then we’ll notice that much has changed, the line-up has completely changed, except for Oliver and the style changed to an emotive mixture of Dark, Rock, Gothic and Doom Metal and just released their eighth album ‘Songs for a last vie’ at the end of  June 2008. LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE is Oliver Nikolas Schmid (guitar), Tony Berger (guitar), Peter Kafka (bass), Karl Fuhrmann (drums) and Roberto Vitacca (vocals). http://www.lacrimas.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/lacrimasprofundere



Music & Performance
Last time I saw LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE live in concert new singer Rob Vitacca, who replaced founding member Christopher Schmidt, just joined the band and this showed off a little. One year later he seemed to be much more confident and comfortable on stage, and his deep voice surely suits the Metal-induced Gothic Rock of LACRIMAS PROFUNDERE excellently. The chink of the band is still the song-writing, although they made quite some progress on their most recent album ‘Songs for A last View’ in this department. A good performance but the songs sound a bit too generic.



Setlist
01. A Pearl
02. Again It’s over
03. We shouldn’t be here
04. My Mescaline
05. Veins
06. Dear Amy
07. Should
08. Sacrificial Lamb
09. Ave End

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 6.9




Soko Friedhof [JU]

SOKO FRIEDHOF was born around 1997 out of the idea of the two protagonists David A Line (UNTOTEN) and Damien to create their own club music, because they found the precompiled samplers pretty boring. The first result ‘Grabschönheiten’ (1999) was created with the help of a drum computer and lots of movie samples, a good year later the second release followed with ‘Im Beichtstuhl der Begierde’. In the same year, the project came to doubtful fame, when a Satanist couple committed a ritual murderer, having a SOKO FRIEDHOF button on their car. As a reaction ‘Die Geschichte eines Werwoolfs’ was created asking the question if art can be made responsible for the crimes committed by their admirers. Their most recent release is called ’Klingeltöne Satans’ and slashes at the medium television.
SOKO FRIEDHOF is David A. Line (music, vocals), Demian (music) and Greta Csatlós (vocals). http://www.sokofriedhof.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/sokofriedhof



Music & Performance
Good taste and morality are not things SOKO FRIEDHOF would think too much about - the controversial Electro side-project of UNTOTEN is designed to break rules and to create a kind of underground club music which is truly alternative and provoking. SOKO FRIEDHOF could end up as a pretty ridiculous act if it wasn’t for their sense humour, always swinging back and forth between satire, cynicism and persiflage. The Gothic clichés other bands take way too serious are ridiculed by SOKO FRIEDHOF through absolute exaggeration. A cool concept but unfortunately the quality of the music of SOKO FRIEDHOf cannot always keep up with the intentions of this band. During their gig I wondered what David A. Line and Damien found so boring about the majority of this scene’s club music as sonically SOKO FRIEDHOF doesn’t differ too much from it. However, SOKO FRIEDHOF is a nice side-blow against our own scene. If you look for musical brilliance you should perhaps look elsewhere but it is fun to see a band taking the piss out of a scene which often seems to be too gravely and severe. After all, it makes you thinking twice about some things.

Rating
Music: 5
Performance: 6
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 6.1




Clan of Xymox [CL]

There are bands, who seem to exist for an eternity and who seem to be timeless. Well, CLAN OF XYMOX surely doesn’t exist for an eternity now, but they’re one of the veteran bands of the scene, founded in the early 1980s by Ronny Moorings and Anke Wolbert and over the years they became one of the most important representatives of the Dark Wave genre, though their music never stayed inside the boundaries of that genre. OK, maybe with their earliest work like the self-titled debut and the follow-up ‘Medusa’ they did, but in their later career, they combined their traditional sound with dance rhythms and techno elements or changed to more Rock orientated songs like on their comeback in 1997. For 2008 this band plans to release a new album, whose name hasn’t been revealed yet. CLAN OF XYMOX is Ronny Moorings (vocals, instruments), Mojca Zugna (bass), Rui Ramos (drums), Denise Dijkstra (keyboard) and Paul Whittlesea (guitar). http://www.clanofxymox.com/ / www.myspace.com/clanofxymox



Music & Performance
CLAN OF XYMOX started their set with ‘Farewell’ and right from the start the temper was high, on stage and in the crowd as well. The distinctive voice of the singer and the danceable sound pleased the crowd and animated to dance. The setlist included - beside the well-known songs like ‘Jasmine and Rose’, ‘Louise’ or ‘No tomorrow’ - also a nice cover version of the DAVID BOWIE hit ‘Heroes’ which was released at the last EP already. After ‘A day’, the band left the stage, but some minutes playing time were still remaining and they came back for one more song - ‘Muscoviet Mosquito’. Altogether once again this show was a convincing performance.



Setlist
01. Farewell
02. Weak in my knees
03. Calling you out
04. Jasmine and Rose
05. Louise
06. Heroes (David Bowie cover)
07. This world
08. No tomorrow
09. A day
---
10. Muscoviet Mosquito

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 7.9




Eisbrecher [CL]

After singer Alex Wesselsky split up with his former band colleagues from MEGAHERZ in 2003 due to artistic differences, he founded EISBRECHER together with another ex-member of MEGAHERZ Noel Pix. The release of the first and self-titled album in 2004 caused a heavy stir, when the band added to blank CDRs to the release as an incentive to copy the album and as a statement against the criminalization of the end-customer through the music industry. Two years later, in summer 2006, it was finally time for the second album ‘Antikörper’ to satisfy the hunger of the fans for more material. This album even reached position 85 of the German Album Charts. Right now, the band is preparing for their next strike. EISBRECHER is Alexander “Alexx“ Wesselsky (vocals), Jochen “Noel Pix” Seibert (lead guitar), Jürgen Plangger (guitar), René Greil (drums), Maximilian “Maximator” Schauer (keyboard) and Martin Motnik (bass). http://www.eis-brecher.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/eisbrecherkommando



Music & Performance
EISBRECHER entered the stage, the singer like usual was dressed in a kind of marine uniform, and begun their gig quite powerful with ‘Kein Mitleid’. The set included 13 songs, taken from both available albums ‘Eisbrecher’ and ‘Antikörper’ as well as older MEGAHERZ songs, like their hit ‘Miststück’. Between the songs, Alexx did some jokes and talked a little with the audience. Quickly the audience was infected by the powerful and dynamic performance and a great part of them was singing and dancing along. Highlight of the show was ‘Miststück’ - the last song. Altogether the band did a good job and rocked the crowd.



Setlist
01. Kein Mitleid
02. Leider
03. Antikörper
04. Angst?
05. Schwarze Witwe
06. Vergissmeinnicht
07. Phosphor
08. Eisbrecher
09. Ohne Dich
10. Zeichen der Venus
---
11. Mein Blut
12. Willkommen im Nichts
13. Miststück

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.6






Diary of Dreams [JU]

There’s no need for a detailed introduction about this band anymore as it belongs to one of the most convertible bands of the scene for years and always aimed more for quality than quantity. The band founded in 1989 by singer and mastermind Adrian Hates still enchants a constantly growing fan base all over the world with beautiful and at times fragile tunes, whose central element was and still is the deep melancholy. It’s hard to describe what makes this music so intriguing, you just have to experience it yourself on one of their intense live shows or on one of the various album the band has released over the time with ‘Nekrolog 43’ being the latest one, released in October 2007. DIARY OF DREAMS are Adrian Hates (vocals, guitar), Gaun:A (guitar), D.N.S. (drums) and Taste (keyboard). http://www.diaryofdreams.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/diaryofdreams



Music & Performance
Those who never experienced DIARY OF DREAMS live would be surprised how much energy they have on stage. In fact, their shows have continuously become more powerful over the years, and their gig in Cologne at the Amphi Festival was another fine example for this. Although DIARY OF DREAMS introduced up-tempo dance tracks to their music a long time ago, it is nevertheless still very befitting to state that their studio work is rather introverted, withdrawn and thoughtful. On stage DIARY OF DREAMS achieve the antonym of *introverted* with the very same songs as on their records - their show is extrovert, excessive and engaging and DIARY OF DREAMS create an unbelievable energy when they meet the right audience, and at the Amphi things simply went through the roof.



Perhaps the band transformed their anger and disappointment about their sabotaged gig in Poland into positive energy at their gig in Cologne. However, it was an emotionally intense experience both on stage and in front of stage, and one of the most praised gigs of the weekend. DIARY OF DREAMS presented a selection of songs from their latest release ‘Nekrolog 43’ plus a number of their classics, i.e. up-tempo tracks like ‘Butterfly: Dance’ or ‘The Curse’. Such a well-received show like that of course couldn’t do without an encore. With the club hit ‘Giftraum’ and the fan fave ‘AmoK’, DIARY OF DREAMS gave their fans what they craved for, but they finished their show on a silent note with an impressive and very moving acoustic version of the ballad ‘She And Her Darkness’. Excellent!



Setlist
01. Intro
02. Nekrolog 43
03. The Plague
04. Chemicals
05. She
06. Butterfly: Dance! (upgrade 02)
07. Hypo)crypticK(al
08. MenschFeind
09. AmoK
10. Traumtänzer
11. Soul Stripper
12. Kindrom
13. The Curse
---
14. Giftraum
15. PaniK?
---
15. She and her darkness (acoustic)

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 8.5






Die Krupps  [JU]

DIE KRUPPS have been founded by Jürgen Engler and Ralf Doerper in 1981. Their first release was ‘Stahlwerksinfonie’, a two track mini-album which was the foundation stone for DIE KRUPPS’ reputation as pioneers of Industrial and electronic music. The single ‘Wahre Arbeit, Wahrer Lohn’ was released during the same year and became one of the band’s biggest hits. The single ‘Goldfinger’ and the album ‘Volle Kraft Voraus’ followed in 1982 and followed the same direction with a more danceable approach. Together with DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft) they gave birth to another new style which should become the ‘Electronic Body Music’ later. With the album ‘One’ released in 1992, they incorporated heavy guitars into their formerly purely electronic sound and perfected this style with the following album ‘II - The Final Option’. Much to the discontent of some fans, they continued to walk deeper and deeper into the Metal genre with the following albums ‘III - Odyssey Of The Mind’ and ‘Paradise Now’ and they lost some fans due to this.



After ‘Paradise Now’ it remained silent around the band until 2005, when they celebrated their 25th anniversary, followed by various festival performances all across Europe. Two years later, ‘Too Much History’ was released, not a new album but a collection of re-recordings from almost every album the band has released together with some new and unreleased material and collaborations with Douglas McCarthy for example. A new album is planned for autumn 2008. DIE KRUPPS are Jürgen Engler (vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, steel percussion, programming), Ralf Doerper (samples), Marcel Zuercher (guitars) and Chris Lietz (engineering). http://www.diekrupps.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/diekrupps



Music & Performance
It’s a miracle why such a renowned band - or rather: legend - like DIE KRUPPS had to play around midnight on Sunday night. Well, all those who were able to attend the show as they had no duties like work or attending university didn’t care too much, but yet it was a little pesky that DIE KRUPPS started even with a 30-minute delay. The bars made good sales apparently until DIE KRUPPS climbed on stage finally around half past midnight, and as soon as the first bars were audible everyone rushed to the front and was ready to party. ‘Dawning Of Doom’ and ‘Crossfire’ got the late-night crowd moving with electronic grooves and Metal-guitar attacks, followed by the more recent and lyrically society-critical ‘5 Millionen’. DIE KRUPPS have a long history with an ever-evolving musical style, so the diversity of the songs they performed was quite stunning. From early 80s-Electro like ‘Tod und Teufel’ to EBM as ‘Machineries Of Joy’ to their Metal/Crossover anthems from their 1990s period and even the PROPAGANDA song ‘Dr. Mabuse’ (DIE KRUPPS-keyboarder Ralf Doerper was also involved in this famous German pop band).



Just as stunning as the variety of the music was DIE KRUPPS front man Jürgen Engler. In every second of the gig it was more than clear how much he was into the music, and the fun he had on stage conveyed 100% onto the crowd. No Rock star poser, rather like your best buddy who is conducting a wild party. Pretty amazing how much energy this man has if you consider that he first entered a stage in the 1970s (with his Punk band MALE). All those who waited to see DIE KRUPPS as the final act of the Amphi surely did not regret it, and although it was desirable that a bigger crowd would have had the pleasure to witness DIE KRUPPS’ show (main stage next time please!) but for those who could make it to this show it was a condign and great final to a long and great weekend.

Setlist
01. Dawning of Doom
02. Crossfire
03. 5 Millionen
04. Germaniac
05. Der Amboss
06. Dr. Mabuse
07. 2 Herzen, 1 Rythmus
08. Tod und Teufel
09. Alive
10. The great Divide
11. Metal Machine Music
12. High Tech, Low Life
13. Machineries of Joy
14. To the Hilt
15. Fatherland
---
16. Bloodsuckers

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.7



And so, another fantastic festival ended. Surely, it was not perfect. There are always things to improve. For example, for several bands playing at the theatre, the venue was simply too small and lots of people hat to stay outside while their favourite band was playing. A very good addition was the beach club though, where you hat the possibility to relax a bit away from the festival noise.

Written by: overall editor Daniela Vorndran [DV], all band intros Sebastian Huhn, Karolina Moszkowicz [KM], J. “Niggels” Uhlenbruch [JU] and Carsten Leopold [CL]

All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
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