Prologue
Its 2.00pm on an August afternoon. Glancing over gothic fashion
in the pages of a financial Times supplement, I try gathering my thoughts of
the gothic music calendar of this year.
Growing from a small festival that saw
a few hundred patrons attend, Amphi festival transformed to a weekend that sees
over 18,000 gather in black lace, rubber, cyber dreads and colours of all, not
just from Europe, but the whole of the black globe, verifying the success and
impact Amphi has had on the alternative scene. For it’s convenience in regards
to transport & travel, family-friendly, as well as good quality has kept it
in that stage for many years.
Friday
The weather looks dreary outside in
Edinburgh, so no need for sun protection. With a quick shower, croissant and a
strong black tar coffee it’s off to the airport. My charming Goth morning looks
get me away with 3kg
over the baggage limit (thank goodness for the tar
coffee!). Now just past the x-ray to watch the security guard’s reaction to my
New Rock’s and another festival is about to commence!
This year saw a change in the Amphi
venue, from the legendary Tanzbunnen situated on the side of the Rhein; with
its three stages and Goth patented Beach Club. Located nearby, the Laxness
arena was chosen.
An impressive venue, when first
glimpsed at online, maybe a bit too impressive in size for the Grufti culture
to handle. However sometimes experiments must be made, in order to continue on
improving the festival experience. Over the years the Tanzbunnen had become
overcrowded, in certain situations, with issues such as rain creating problems
for entry into certain stages, it could be seen that this was part of
eliminating this issue.
So with a bit of ‘Aesthetische’s’ new promotional
tracks blowing through the eardrum, the warm-up parties are under-way!
Call
the Ship to port, was an impressive experiment of making use of the Rhein,
as a floating warm-up venue, that has become a permanent add-on to the
festival. Combine that with the new Alter Watersaal’s location in the Köln hafen complex, which hosts the
official Amphi Festival warm-up party, improvements are being made every year.
The Essig Fabrik was visited for the first time, breaking tradition and is a
great warm-up substitute if wanting a change from the Depeche Mode Amphi Party.
Saturday – The Perfect Storm
The new venue did not get off to a
flying start, literally… Köln that Saturday experienced seriously high storm winds,
that led to the two outdoor stages including all the stalls being shut down
until further notice. Mainly due to the possible capsizing disasters caused by
triple platform boots!
The major issue created by the wind was
a wave of disarray, which led to overcrowding within the laxness arena. There
was really not enough clear signage in regards to the two outdoor stages and
indoor stall area. However kudos must be given to Amphi management, for doing
their utmost to tame the situation and create a solution to the health and
safety hazard.
The end result led to the outdoor
venues remaining closed, and having acts squeezed into the main Arena stage in
order to get as many acts back on the list. There had been querying over the
improvement of the vegetarian and vegan options available at Amphi this year.
Either I was unaware to find them, though there seemed to be no change. It must
be pointed out though, there was indeed a change in the variety of food
available and I was happy with my Bratwurst and Met; and my personal EBM dance
of joy was given to the introduction of Guinness!
The likes of D.A.F.’s Gabi Delgado
brought down the drum to the beat with old skool EBM. The advantage of the
Arena could already be seen, watching the Beer and body movements
bring me back to Cold War, also reminding me I was missing out on fun
in the pit!
Leaving Mussolini in the past, we travelled into dream world. Chibi let her pigtails go; drawing her audience to
a place of cake, blood and wonderland dark swirls; as the Canadian project ‘The
Birthday Massacre’ delivered a little slice of nightmare to the Arena. Flying
around the stage, the band delivered purple and black romance of young splatter
tales to the pit, and as an act to observe from the medium level was quite
perfect. The songs covered the entirety of their work from the sewing up of
‘Pins & needles’ to the waltzing nightmare fairy-tale of ‘Lovers End’.
Whatever was left of the bloodcake, got
finished off with Agonoize. They walked onto the stage; transforming the Arena
into a church and preached gospels to a crowd that rose into a blood-coagulated
tornado. Having the masses gathered at the Arena stage; the Guinness and met
stand looked like boats from afar, becoming engulfed in a alcoholic energetic black wave. Chris,L ramped up the volume and cut-throat bass. Using the rage of his voice and dark joy, he worked the blood-lust
of the disciples to his advantage. By now the floor was dashed in salt and muscle juice.
Front 242 made it onto the Main stage,
an anticipation after not playing last year due the sound issues that plagued
not only the Tanzbunnen’s main stage but that also of the Stattenhaus.
Sunday - We shall rebuild!
From a festival goers perspective
having acts such as [:SITD:] so early in the morning, was an unfortunate solution
due to time as well as knowledge of the rescheduling being short. Carsten did his best to salvage the scrap metal and bring a beast out with Slow deep
pulsing EBM reactor. With the help of Chris. L, the crowd got their morning
stomp in the face.
If any of all the bands that can make
an amusing drama, the building lords ‘Patenbrigade: Wolff’ are the Kings of construction electronica. A few sight levels, orange visibility vests and we
have ourselves progress and beer! Taking the light movement with their own
patented style of music and there movement through the ages, the festival awoke from the grave and found some new life.
The Arena played to ‘Combichrist’s’
Joy of Gunz, with heavy drums and blasting bass, with a combined dash of guitars. Andy
La Plauega has taken his project’s act much more metal in his performances, in comparison to previous live acts, a great performance to
show off his Rammstein touring experience, for the gigantic venue.
‘Henric de la Cour’ was an exceptional
act for the orbit stage, producing a meteor of synthetic waves, combined with
guitar strings that left a lasting impression. An interesting group of
zombified keyboardists and a single guitarist gave an amusing touch to the
fantastic vocals and performance of their lead singer. For the first time seen all weekend, they electrified the crowd and for me made the best new act of the festival.
The lasting thoughts were that the
orbit stage had the best vibe of the overall Sunday. The dense energy from the
nearby stalls and light chitty chatting of the back, and Guinness at arm’s length was perfect.
Down Hill
I am over critical of sound and
atmosphere; as I believe it is the secret key to most spectators, that these conditions will create the
best for any act, producing the feeling of nerves standing up upon
the skin to the right resonance that cannot be beaten.
For Diary of Dreams, I have seen them
on previous occasions outdoor and regardless of sunlight, I am aware it can
still make the night-time crawl in. I left the vicinity of the green stage, as
I believed that if I listened to Adrian Hates any longer on stage under these
conditions, my thoughts and place in my head for the band would be tarnished.
The sound was far from acceptable if you were to listen not that far away. As much as props and the movement of
artists can catalyse the mood, the sound is the greatest multiplier and in this case , negative.
Oomph came alive, opening with ‘Alles
Aus Liebe’ for a packed black Arena. It had a mixed proportion of alive Oomph
maniacs at front of stage, and a representation on the upper floors of a few tired
looking faces recovering from Saturday. However still able to enjoy the sound of the industrial Goth
rockers. For the Laxness Arena, here I could definitely see an advantage for
this point in time, but it recreated the feeling of being in a Museum?
The orbit stage saw the acoustics of
Rome reign in and feel the Neofolk force of Jerome Reuter, producing his ballad
of fury and desolation of society amongst the blades of grass. Rome bestowed a clean chill of melodic rituals, of death and power, that erased the earlier sounds.
VNV Nation closed the Amphi epilogue
for 2015, and by far was the best choice. Watching Ronan Harris perform his act
and use the sheer size of the Coliseum before him to its full potential was spectacle at its finest. Engaging the crowd from the pit to the rafters the sheer
volume of spectators was horrifying; at the same time what a fantastic adrenaline rush! The highest moment was seeing the darkness of the laxness arena become
illuminated. Phones and lighters, brought the whole of Amphi together at, before the curtain closed until the following summer...
Epilogue aka The Post Morton
Monday came and over a spot of lunch
including a strong cup of black resurrection, in the inner city of Köln, I
compiled my thoughts of the Gothic long weekend.
Having two outdoor venues reduced the
atmosphere for a lot of bands, which would have been better suited to indoor
acoustic environment. The sound quality was dire if listening in the vicinity
of the green stage. The orbit stage however was a good size; it did create
overcrowding, but was made up by the quality of sound and overall feeling of
the acts and atmosphere by dark festival goers.
The Arena was a spectacle, but only
for the bands that would see the space being filled and for the music artists
that had developed the skills to channel the audience from the stage, to the
metal sky. I think also a festival such as the laxness arena may have positives
with such are large seating area, however overall you felt very disconnected
from it all and I did not come to a festival to sit and watch bands.
The Tanzbunnen, was a much better
location, I believe the towering size of the laxness arena, reduced the feeling
of the festival and caused claustrophobia outside. The ability to see a great
distance over the whole festival at the previous grounds was only brought to my
significance this year, and I believe produced a better feeling of black community.
There was too much feeling of disconnection for it to be a festival for me .
Experiments are there for taking risks
and seeing if a better result came and as much as it can be said the negatives
were far greater this year. I am happy Amphi attempted it, as it shows innovation and a management that is alive and trying to improve on a great
festival.
So To Next Year!
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