It's
just great that often enough a tour is planned right after an
album release. And if you got to know about a band through the
new album, you are able to become even more convinced about its
qualities visiting a concert right away.
Therefore I treated myself to a weekend in London topped off by
a gig of DIARY OF DREAMS from the Nigredo
tour in London's The
Underworld.
A long
time we waited in the drizzle and cold wind in front of the World's
End until we got admission to The Underworld.
The club in the basement with a large bar-area was not particularly
inviting, but appropriately gloomy. The 'concert-hall' was small,
the stage even smaller and strangely subdivided. It was cold inside.
Just a few fans gathered in the 'auditorium' and it was easy to
get some space directly in front of the stage.
::
pictures ::
Waiting again
for ages, finally PSYCHE
head Darrin Huss entered the stage and introduced a good deal
of PSYCHE's new longplayer The 11the
Hour as well as several older titles - Darrin even
performed the song Misery from the 89's album The
Influence, which rounded off his programme nicely.
He was supported by DOD-man Bernd Servos, who touched the keys
in a quite unmotivated way, which can't be taken against him:
it was too obvious that the keyboard just served as a camouflage
for the much more important mp3-player.
Darrin's voice and show was convincing and by all means swept
along the handful of fans. The ultimate peak was his performance
of Goodbye Horses (Lazarus Cover), at which all musicians
of DIARY OF DREAMS - except for Adrian Hates
- stood in the background and sang along with Darrin.
After a short
rearrangement of the stage it again stayed empty for a long time
and everybody more and more started watching the gap in the black
background-curtains. Then the lights changed and the live-crew
of DIARY
OF DREAMS appeared on stage. Their faces were smeared
with black colour - but when you looked closer, you noticed that
the black paint was applied in patterns. Singer and mastermind
Adrian Hates didn't wear make-up, but, like guitarist Gaun:A,
a long black coat and his guitar. His gorgeous hair was tied into
a tight plait.
Hardly believable was the fact that it was really Torben Wendt
who stepped behind the synthesizers.
Propulsive the performance began with the title-song of the latest
mini-album MenschFeind and to my pleasure
continued powerful with Reign Of Chaos of the album Nigredo.
The extremely sparse lightshow was still beautifully arranged.
And it was heart-warming to witness that British fans, too, enthusiastically
sang along songs like Traumtänzer. Actually it was very interesting
to learn, which kind of people were visiting the concert and that
they weren't few at all. Well, the auditorium wasn't full, but
the crowd was big enough to rouse restrained but good concert-atmosphere.
Above all, one almost fanatic fan with a Nigredo-banner-tattoo
I kept in mind, who repeatedly called Adrians name and wouldn't
hold back an "Adrian, I love you", even though his girl-friend
was standing right next to him...
DIARY OF DREAMS performed a big variety of songs,
which were carefully selected. But frankly spoken, I personally
missed some of the 'pearls' of Nigredo, especially because the
tour-title was the one of the album.
Having two guitars on stage, one might have expected a guitar-dominated
concert, but often enough I couldn't make out one single guitar-sound,
even though especially Gaun:A was playing his instrument with
great fervour. Those must have been the songs of which Gaun:A
uses to say that there are titles in which you don’t hear
any guitars, although they are there in the entire song - on the
opposite there are those, in which you seem to hear them, but
there is not played a single one.
Excellent live-atmosphere created drummer Beam (Feindflug), who
lively and somewhat demonic stood behind his quite large drums
- yes: stood!
Torben Wendt - well, I need not say much about him, because everybody
knows how confident and concentrated he handles the keys. No doubt
he didn't play everything live, nevertheless in his playback he
went for authenticity.
There is no need to make any comment about Adrians voice, as well.
He used it in a very professional way, even though he seemed to
be quite tense and aloof in the beginning and still was somehow
later on after getting rid of the coat and hair-tie. The guitar
suited him very well and I wondered why he doesn't use it more
for his music, thinking that he literally grew up with the classical
equivalent of this instrument.
Two times the guys disappeared behind the curtain, only to be
called back intensely by the audience. The climax of the concert
was the last song, the acoustic-performance of AmoK:
just Adrian's voice and Torben's piano – wonderful.
The intimate atmosphere of this concert finally became obvious
at the after-show-party, when all the musicians joined us in the
bar-area and chatted with everybody who was able to approach them.
No question,
DIARY OF DREAMS' live-performance was absolutely
convincing. I had been sceptical beforehand, if I would like a
live-concert of electronic music, because something always has
to be playback there. But I was taught a pleasant lesson.
Wonderful impressions in mind we went back through rainy London
toward our accommodation, not without a last glance back to The
Underworld and the night liner of the band that was
parked behind it.
It is no wonder,
when people are already curious and full of expectations about
a new DIARY OF DREAMS album and the appropriate
tour.
Setlist:
MenschFeind, Reign Of Chaos, The Curse, Giftraum, End Of Flowers,
Methusalem, Chemicals, But The Wind Was Stronger, Play God!, Butterfly:
Dance!, Soul Stripper, Sin Skinner, O’Brother Sleep, Kindrom
// Traumtänzer, She // Panic, AmoK (piano version)
