|
|
In fall days get darker and so it fits that the 'Into Darkness festival' tour is on its way to present some dark bands, an interesting billing, a terrific atmosphere. The weather was fine and it wasn't one of the dark days, but it was cold. After a short ride we arrived at 6 PM in Bochum at the Matrix. A lot of police officers at the place made us wonder, but as there is a super market next door we thought that there something had happened... We queued and waited for the doors to open, announced was 6:30 PM for doors open. At about time the doors didn't open, the queue got longer... At the door some cops gathered and then entered the club with a sniffer dog. No clue it all, but at a quarter past 7 PM some Matrix staff member showed up and explained that there will be some delay, coz the Matrix got a bomb threat and the police was checking the premises. Additionally we got informed that we should have our IDs read for checking at the door, otherwise the entry would be denied. After a moment of shock this was discussed. Finally at 7:45 the doors were opened and slowly the people were let into the venue - but first had to be checked by police.
Due to the police action there was a massive delay and so the first band entered the stage at 9:10 PM. The Dope Stars Inc. kicked off, but within minutes it got obvious that due to the bomb threat there haven't been a sound check. The volume was cranked up, so that ear protection was necessary. Mastermind Victor Love and his mates had only 5 songs and had to battle feedback and other technical problems. So I only remember 21st Century Slave of the industrial synthie rockers.
Lacrimas Profundere made a line-check during the change over and headed right into their set. They still had to fight technical problems, but compared with their performance at Castle Rock Festival they did better tonight. They did a good job and even if the sound was far from being perfect it was okay and they managed to cheer up the people a bit.
Time for another change over. It surprised us that the Into Darkness banners been replaced by banners of the Deathstars, coz Diary Of Dreams were announced for this slot. Anyway, we were looking forward to see the Swedish guys with the extreme sound. It's been said that live they are killer, so we had high expectations! Deathstars kicked off with an intro, as an intro they used Satyricon's K.I.N.G. while the band entered the stage. More people arrived and so the Swedish were welcomed loudly by their fans. During the 3rd track they had to face massive technical problems which forced them to stop and the Deathstars left the stage for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile the crew was trying to fix it. After they returned the Deathstars gave everything and songs like Mark of the Gun, Blood Stains Blondes, Blitzkrieg and many more offered a dark sound explosion. Last, but not least frontman Whiplasher asked the fans which songs to play. The fans could choose between Death Dies Hard and Cyanide. The songs would have loved to hear both tracks, but the reactions for Death Dies Hard was better and so they rocked the house. They did really good and next time around we will be back to see Deathstars live again. Whiplasher's voice will put you under a spell and some passages will give you goose bumps!
After the show of Deathstars almost nobody was expecting Diary Of Dreams to play, especially as the lights were turned on and the equipment was taking off. Someone collected the beakers and some fans were on their was to the disco. One more time the people started discussing the events and were wondering, if the police action and the delay forced the band to cancel... But to cancel the headliner seems a bit strange... It took awhile, but then the crew was setting up a keyboard and indicated that another band will play... After a lengthy change over the lights were turned down and in the stage smoke the silhouettes of Diary Of Dreams became visible. It was getting loud and right from the start the band was enchanting the fans with their dark, mystic sounds. The fans were following every move of the musicians and been dragged into the sonic universe of Diary Of Dreams. Songs like The Wedding, The Curse, Wahnsinn were played, but no show without Menschfeind. The fans celebrated this song as well as the current single King Of Nowhere which was released just today. The light show supported the performance and brought the darkness to life. Even if there were some feedback, etc. the sound was way better now. The fans wanted more and so the band had to return twice. But even the encores couldn't satisfy us totally, we missed songs like Traumtänzer, Oblivion or Giftraum. Anyway, perhaps next time we are lucky and Diary Of Dreams play these tunes...
Still under the influence of what we experienced we headed to the exit. It was half past midnight and the ones who didn't want to party at Matrix were heading home.
Resume: The evening didn't start positively, but Deathstars and Diary Of Dreams saved the night. Kudos for Dope Stars Inc. and Lacrimas Profundere who did their best to entertain the people while fighting technical problems and facing short stage times due to the massive delay.
|
|
