Infest
Infest was a lot of fun. We drove out on Friday, I made it up to the hotel in time to get bits to asha, relax a little before dinner and then rush out to see the first band. We picked up passes on the way in, keris even that stopping to read the small print (which turned out to be useful later in the weekend when Simon and I needed to know.)
Schmoof are a London-based synthpop band, who will seemed to be quite fun, but I have to admit that I wasn't able to take in the music that well for this band, house. I had to only a very small amount of time trying to get a few shots off them. I wouldn't mind seeing them again, so that I could get a better idea off them. I had bumped into Destroid before, this year at Leipzig. This was the first outing off the weekend for Daniel Myer, who seemed to show up in pretty much every other band that was on. This time, and they seem to like some of the audience bound to her that they had in Leipzig, which didn't make the stakeout suffer. I do think it's very hard for EBM based acts (i.e. a few blokes behind diddly knobs) to have a very strong stage presence, or rather, it is very easy for them to have practically new stage presence. Destroid were not to bad, but it was disappointing is that they did not do as well as they did to the last time I saw them.
Headline act were Lab 4. Musically, they were not as good destroid in my opinion, but they had to stage presence, down to a tee. Though it was two guys and their assorted electronica, , everything supported by scaffolding arms. The band members themselves jumped around a great deal, had a lot of energy and were generally very entertaining. I would have certainly danced if I had not the camera kit kicking around.
That was it for the evening. There was a bit of dancing before we wandered back to the hotel and took it easy. Getting up is always easier when you are getting up to someone cooking a big breakfast for you. Somehow we managed to fill the time between breakfast and getting to the venue. I suspect that most of this was snoozing in the room, before going to try to find people at the bar. A quick drink with the DA crowd and it was off to the bands again. The first up were OVNI, who were a lot better than I was expecting (After memories of being very underwhelmed by Spermwhale a few years ago at Whitby.) but they had a bit more stage presence, and did some interesting sounding stuff. SKET then went all knob-twiddly and powernoise. Still, the fact that overenthusiasm meant that they accidentally twiddled one of their knobs off, and shot it into the audience made up for anything else.
Reaper were much more visually interesting, as they did try to do something (With two figures dressed as monks on knobtwiddling, and a guy in a mask as vocalist) even if it was a bit silly and gimmicky. Unter Null would have been good, but for the amount of strop the lead singer was throwing around. Actually, in general her stage presence was very good, just occasionally she'd be stroppy about something, that that irked me for some reason. Dunno why.
From my point of view it was much more enjoyable than Architect, who I just really couldn't find any enthusiasm for. Having the Dark Arts stall was great, as I kept wandering back over there to say hello to people. It also gave keris somewhere she was likely to see me after the band finished.
The Saturday bands finished with Rotersand. Much better than everything else on Saturday, I enjoyed them a lot, watched karohemd sing along when offered the mic, and when I'd finished taking pictures, dropped my bag off and danced around energetically until the end of their set. They even had some songs that I recognised, which is always a bit of a bonus at Infest (It doesn't happen that often, I am weak in the ways of bleep.)
Sunday I got up for breakfast again, but decided that since I was planning on driving the following day, at least a bit of rest would be good, so had a nap afterwards, whilst keris wandered off to have a nosey around the market thing that was in Bradford that weekend.
Fitz was right, Autoclav were rather good. Bleep from behind a laptop, but interesting noises and onstage personality made it work. keris was keen to see Frozen Plasma. I enjoyed them too. They were very synthpoppy, and my first though on seeing the stage was,
"Good grief, its Patrick Swaze in a goth band."
(I didn't mean that in a bad way)
Stromkern! Stonkingly super! They very much stole the festival. They were very enthusiastic on the stage, undo some people it didn't like the rap element, that certainly did not stand in my way of enjoying them. They were mainly composed off the lead singer and the main guitarist. In at least these were the guys in front of the stage really looking like they were enjoying themselves, and watching the audience enjoyed themselves as well.
Wai Pi Wai Were not my thing. Powernoise, with offensive amounts of bass. Offensive as in cruise missile, not offensive, as in the rude. It was quite amazing in the photo pet, I was in front of the subwoofers, everything seemed to vibrate. It was an exciting sensation, but I left fairly quickly. As I couldn't really be enthused about the music, or taking photographs also get more people behind twiddly knobs, twiddling.
FLA were fantastickeyboards, guitars, and a lot of drum, I was looking forward to seeing this lot, even though I'd slightly embarassed myself by chatting for ages, before asking one of them who they actually were. Loads of stage presence, and ... well, just great.
That evening we gathered up our bits and pieces and went back to the hotel bar slightly early, and I hung around there talking to battyblingtrash and jruske until the small hours.
Schmoof are a London-based synthpop band, who will seemed to be quite fun, but I have to admit that I wasn't able to take in the music that well for this band, house. I had to only a very small amount of time trying to get a few shots off them. I wouldn't mind seeing them again, so that I could get a better idea off them. I had bumped into Destroid before, this year at Leipzig. This was the first outing off the weekend for Daniel Myer, who seemed to show up in pretty much every other band that was on. This time, and they seem to like some of the audience bound to her that they had in Leipzig, which didn't make the stakeout suffer. I do think it's very hard for EBM based acts (i.e. a few blokes behind diddly knobs) to have a very strong stage presence, or rather, it is very easy for them to have practically new stage presence. Destroid were not to bad, but it was disappointing is that they did not do as well as they did to the last time I saw them.
Headline act were Lab 4. Musically, they were not as good destroid in my opinion, but they had to stage presence, down to a tee. Though it was two guys and their assorted electronica, , everything supported by scaffolding arms. The band members themselves jumped around a great deal, had a lot of energy and were generally very entertaining. I would have certainly danced if I had not the camera kit kicking around.
That was it for the evening. There was a bit of dancing before we wandered back to the hotel and took it easy. Getting up is always easier when you are getting up to someone cooking a big breakfast for you. Somehow we managed to fill the time between breakfast and getting to the venue. I suspect that most of this was snoozing in the room, before going to try to find people at the bar. A quick drink with the DA crowd and it was off to the bands again. The first up were OVNI, who were a lot better than I was expecting (After memories of being very underwhelmed by Spermwhale a few years ago at Whitby.) but they had a bit more stage presence, and did some interesting sounding stuff. SKET then went all knob-twiddly and powernoise. Still, the fact that overenthusiasm meant that they accidentally twiddled one of their knobs off, and shot it into the audience made up for anything else.
Reaper were much more visually interesting, as they did try to do something (With two figures dressed as monks on knobtwiddling, and a guy in a mask as vocalist) even if it was a bit silly and gimmicky. Unter Null would have been good, but for the amount of strop the lead singer was throwing around. Actually, in general her stage presence was very good, just occasionally she'd be stroppy about something, that that irked me for some reason. Dunno why.
From my point of view it was much more enjoyable than Architect, who I just really couldn't find any enthusiasm for. Having the Dark Arts stall was great, as I kept wandering back over there to say hello to people. It also gave keris somewhere she was likely to see me after the band finished.
The Saturday bands finished with Rotersand. Much better than everything else on Saturday, I enjoyed them a lot, watched karohemd sing along when offered the mic, and when I'd finished taking pictures, dropped my bag off and danced around energetically until the end of their set. They even had some songs that I recognised, which is always a bit of a bonus at Infest (It doesn't happen that often, I am weak in the ways of bleep.)
Sunday I got up for breakfast again, but decided that since I was planning on driving the following day, at least a bit of rest would be good, so had a nap afterwards, whilst keris wandered off to have a nosey around the market thing that was in Bradford that weekend.
Fitz was right, Autoclav were rather good. Bleep from behind a laptop, but interesting noises and onstage personality made it work. keris was keen to see Frozen Plasma. I enjoyed them too. They were very synthpoppy, and my first though on seeing the stage was,
"Good grief, its Patrick Swaze in a goth band."
(I didn't mean that in a bad way)
Stromkern! Stonkingly super! They very much stole the festival. They were very enthusiastic on the stage, undo some people it didn't like the rap element, that certainly did not stand in my way of enjoying them. They were mainly composed off the lead singer and the main guitarist. In at least these were the guys in front of the stage really looking like they were enjoying themselves, and watching the audience enjoyed themselves as well.
Wai Pi Wai Were not my thing. Powernoise, with offensive amounts of bass. Offensive as in cruise missile, not offensive, as in the rude. It was quite amazing in the photo pet, I was in front of the subwoofers, everything seemed to vibrate. It was an exciting sensation, but I left fairly quickly. As I couldn't really be enthused about the music, or taking photographs also get more people behind twiddly knobs, twiddling.
FLA were fantastickeyboards, guitars, and a lot of drum, I was looking forward to seeing this lot, even though I'd slightly embarassed myself by chatting for ages, before asking one of them who they actually were. Loads of stage presence, and ... well, just great.
That evening we gathered up our bits and pieces and went back to the hotel bar slightly early, and I hung around there talking to battyblingtrash and jruske until the small hours.