My review!
Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 10:27 amHere’s my quick review of the festival
The location: The room was just perfect. It never felt empty nor overcrowded (well, except during the mosh pits!). Aeration was excellent, and the sound, while being very loud, was never deafening nor reverberating enough to give headaches. Quick access to the outside and to some water fountains was a big plus! My only complaint would be that we couldn’t bring beer to the showroom!
Sellers: Very nice variety in CDs and merchandise. The Storming The Base kiosk had essential for the essential, and I liked the Hive Records kiosk as well. I bought 8 CDs overall, so yeah, I was glad to be in direct contact with material that you usually can buy only online.
In-betweens: I can’t believe how fast it was for the bands to pack up their stuff and to have the next band set up. The DJs could hardly fit more than 2 songs!
Run-down of the 3 Phases I went to and bands I’ve seen.
Phase 1
Ascii Disko: I didn’t knew anything about him, and I was greatly surprised. He seemed pissed off for the first half of the show, either because of the spotlight directly in his face, or by people not dancing enough, but I think the energy really picked up at the second half. One of my best discoveries of the festival.
Nitzer Ebb: Timeless. Extremely tight set, packed with all the classics and even new stuff. And a rarity for the festival: an encore! But my question is, how did they manage to sync the video during Join in the Chant? It wasn’t perfect, but that little detail really surprised me.
Phase 2
Headscan: Been a fan since a long time, so it wasn’t difficult to enjoy this one! I was surprised that there weren’t many songs from Shaper and Mechanics, but I heard those so many times, it didn’t bother me!
Memmaker: My big discovery of the festival. I knew they were locals, but never had a chance to see or hear their stuff except from one song there and there on radio shows and podcasts. The energy was totally crazy, and the guys really looked like they enjoyed it. I grabbed the CD afterwards, but I’d say that this band really need to be seen live!
Rabia Sorda: First, I’d like to say that the guys were always around, listening to others bands and chatting with fans most of the time. Erk was friendly as usual, and delivered an energetic performance. I didn’t expect something ear shattering (this isn’t Hocico after all!), but seeing something this organic in an electronic-heavy festival was really good.
Funker Vogt: I had very fond memories of their last visit in 2003, and had high expectations for that one! This was the first band of the festival that I thought really deserved a longer set. They played a few classics, and thankfully, they also fitted in City of Darkness. Bjorn looked pissed off as usual, Jens was super friendly, and Gerrit really seemed to appreciate the public’s response! The guitar was maybe toned down too much however.
Phase 3
Xotox: Great noise music, a nice discovery. After listening to their album, I’d say that the live show was really on par with what is recorded. Which is a good, and a bad thing. When dealing with that kind of music, I like to hear some more improvisation (see next entry!). But that was very clean, surprisingly for such an aural assault. And huh, the projection sure had ugly stuff…
Terrorfakt: That was killer, period. The music was intense as Terrofakt never were, but I guess what everyone will remember is the 2 guys hammering on steel and throwing sparks! Totally chaotic, and I loved it! The nearby supermarket “lost” a shopping cart, but I assure this was for the good cause!
Feindflug: The band I was looking after the most for the festival. Even more than Nitzer Ebb! Big props to the production team for bringing them here in North America for the first time, it was a tour de force. I didn’t know that there were that many Feindflug fans around, and I think even them might have been surprised that we were so many knowing every beat of their songs! However, that was waaaay too short! 6 or 7 songs? I’d say that this band could deserve a headliner show of their own here!
This Morn' Omina: There was no way I could leave all pumped up like this, so I stayed for the rhythmic anthems of This Morn' Omina. The music was good and even relaxing after such an intense line-up. And I spent the show watching when the DJ would hit his head for the next time on the projection screen while jumping! I was amused to see the tough guys abandoning the front of the crowd and their mosh pit after 3 really heavy performances!
And that is all for me! Thanks a lot for the event, and see you next year, where the line-up will hopefully be as impressive as this year's!
The location: The room was just perfect. It never felt empty nor overcrowded (well, except during the mosh pits!). Aeration was excellent, and the sound, while being very loud, was never deafening nor reverberating enough to give headaches. Quick access to the outside and to some water fountains was a big plus! My only complaint would be that we couldn’t bring beer to the showroom!
Sellers: Very nice variety in CDs and merchandise. The Storming The Base kiosk had essential for the essential, and I liked the Hive Records kiosk as well. I bought 8 CDs overall, so yeah, I was glad to be in direct contact with material that you usually can buy only online.
In-betweens: I can’t believe how fast it was for the bands to pack up their stuff and to have the next band set up. The DJs could hardly fit more than 2 songs!
Run-down of the 3 Phases I went to and bands I’ve seen.
Phase 1
Ascii Disko: I didn’t knew anything about him, and I was greatly surprised. He seemed pissed off for the first half of the show, either because of the spotlight directly in his face, or by people not dancing enough, but I think the energy really picked up at the second half. One of my best discoveries of the festival.
Nitzer Ebb: Timeless. Extremely tight set, packed with all the classics and even new stuff. And a rarity for the festival: an encore! But my question is, how did they manage to sync the video during Join in the Chant? It wasn’t perfect, but that little detail really surprised me.
Phase 2
Headscan: Been a fan since a long time, so it wasn’t difficult to enjoy this one! I was surprised that there weren’t many songs from Shaper and Mechanics, but I heard those so many times, it didn’t bother me!
Memmaker: My big discovery of the festival. I knew they were locals, but never had a chance to see or hear their stuff except from one song there and there on radio shows and podcasts. The energy was totally crazy, and the guys really looked like they enjoyed it. I grabbed the CD afterwards, but I’d say that this band really need to be seen live!
Rabia Sorda: First, I’d like to say that the guys were always around, listening to others bands and chatting with fans most of the time. Erk was friendly as usual, and delivered an energetic performance. I didn’t expect something ear shattering (this isn’t Hocico after all!), but seeing something this organic in an electronic-heavy festival was really good.
Funker Vogt: I had very fond memories of their last visit in 2003, and had high expectations for that one! This was the first band of the festival that I thought really deserved a longer set. They played a few classics, and thankfully, they also fitted in City of Darkness. Bjorn looked pissed off as usual, Jens was super friendly, and Gerrit really seemed to appreciate the public’s response! The guitar was maybe toned down too much however.
Phase 3
Xotox: Great noise music, a nice discovery. After listening to their album, I’d say that the live show was really on par with what is recorded. Which is a good, and a bad thing. When dealing with that kind of music, I like to hear some more improvisation (see next entry!). But that was very clean, surprisingly for such an aural assault. And huh, the projection sure had ugly stuff…
Terrorfakt: That was killer, period. The music was intense as Terrofakt never were, but I guess what everyone will remember is the 2 guys hammering on steel and throwing sparks! Totally chaotic, and I loved it! The nearby supermarket “lost” a shopping cart, but I assure this was for the good cause!
Feindflug: The band I was looking after the most for the festival. Even more than Nitzer Ebb! Big props to the production team for bringing them here in North America for the first time, it was a tour de force. I didn’t know that there were that many Feindflug fans around, and I think even them might have been surprised that we were so many knowing every beat of their songs! However, that was waaaay too short! 6 or 7 songs? I’d say that this band could deserve a headliner show of their own here!
This Morn' Omina: There was no way I could leave all pumped up like this, so I stayed for the rhythmic anthems of This Morn' Omina. The music was good and even relaxing after such an intense line-up. And I spent the show watching when the DJ would hit his head for the next time on the projection screen while jumping! I was amused to see the tough guys abandoning the front of the crowd and their mosh pit after 3 really heavy performances!
And that is all for me! Thanks a lot for the event, and see you next year, where the line-up will hopefully be as impressive as this year's!