Leipzig - Wave Gotik Treffen 2009
Wow. That would be my one word summary of the past six or so days.
Disembarking from the plane down the boarding corridor in Edinburgh I saw my employers name & logo splashed in foot-high and it looked like something from another lifetime. Currently feeling like what happened prior to WGT was a world away and have a positive energy to do stuff just now.
That is of course if I have the energy. The strategy that quondam and myself came up with was useful for the gigs but I completely forgot to stock up my glycogen reserves! Had an exercise fail this morning due to it :)
So my holiday began a long, long time ago which can be handily be called Tuesday last week. Going out on a week night without the worry of getting up the next morning is such a novelty to me that having a slap-up meal & a couple of pints was great. Packed Wednesday and then flew down to Brum and was put up for the night by the lovely Sarah and Simon after demanding curry. At no extra charge I had managed to pack a cold with me to share with everyone at WGT. Flinkin' typical about the cold as I have not had one in months!
Flight to Berlin was fairly painless and included a view of an off-shore windfarm near the Netherlands (I think). I loved the contrast of the white masts sticking out of the water in a square grid in a vast expanse of blue sea. Trains caused slight consternation simply because of not having used 'em before but it was fairly easy in the end. No sudden platform changes or half hour delays in Deutschland! Didn't really do much on Thursday due to all the travelling and collapsed into the comfy hotel room.
I should say here I might be a bit sketchy on the order of what happened; not due to any variety of drugs (didn't even drink that much!) but so much happened it's all blurred into one bleepy, flashy, sexy, sweaty and breakfasty 'festival montage'.
Each day was started with the buffet at the Novotel to fuel us through the day ahead. The staff had the foresight to extend the breakfast buffet out till 1 in the afternoon for all the sleepy goths. Next was generally the tram. Well there was usually a clothes-faff by either myself or Sarah before heading out but I won't bore you with details of that.
Our wrist band allowed us free public transport around Leipzig which was a genius idea. I imagine the local authorities organised this due to the sudden influx of twenty to thirty thousand goths caused many problems in previous years. Free trams meant you could hop on and off between venues and I really doubt you would want to walk the several kilometers between them!
So breakfast, clothes faff and trams out of the way we arrived at the Werk 11 Hall A on Friday to find a HUGE queue. Apparently due to limited venues being open on the Friday everywhere is rammed. Eventually got in and saw Leandra and Staubkind. The Werk 11 (Werk zwei as it's pronounced and not 'work house' in an oliver twist manner which is what I kept saying...)
was a great looking venue for an industrial club. It was an old (looks like early 20th century) brick conglomeration of a iron working or similar 'heavy metal' construction. It still had a the huge winch and controllers room inside. Sound was good too.
We took off to the Agra to see Combichrist, The Eden House and Project Pitchfork. Worst part of the weekend was Sarah's phone disappearing which put a dampener on the evening. I was feeling tired from the cold so headed off early. The Agra venue inside was another amazing looking venue for industrial music; my guess is it used to be an aircraft hanger or other similar huge warehouse facility.
Friday was off to the Agra again for shopping and bands. The Agra the venue with most happening. The 'aircraft hanger' for the bands to play in had an identical hanger attached which held the stalls with enough variety and numbers to probably match Camden market. I bought some expensive and nifty looking tops for too much money and almost picked up some goth sponges. Yes, gothic sponges (one was a skull, another a bat) from the 'household' store. I could have also got a nice skull and bones breakfast set, some skull towels and maybe 300feet of gothic wallpaper...
Pretty much anything from medieval dildos to gothic wallpaper was somewhere in this venue with more stalls arriving on the Saturday when I had a second browse.
Bands on Saturday; TANK, Dolls of Pain, Yelworc, Feindflug and VNV Nation. All but Yelworc where varying degress of greatness with Feindflug being the bestest. VNV did another good performance but as i'd not seen Ff before it was bouncy drum goodness of the highest order. Again an early night on Saturday, when I say early it was still midnightish and having been standing/dancing/shopping/waiting for six hours it's pretty tiring.
Sunday was spent at the Werk 11 for a noise special: Fabrik C, Unternehmen Stahlklang, Sam, Geistform, Shnarph! IWR and Winterkalte*. All where good with the exception of IWR which was just painful. Not entirely sure how they got to that position in the lineup! Danced for a stupendous amount of hours (at least 4 for the bands) and then stayed for a wee while for the noise club afterwards. Strangely a 'pit' formed for Winterkalte. I guess it's not entirely surprising but my usual thought about noise is it's full of skinny music geeks who just nod appreciatively not 6 foot plus musclar germans throwing each other around! Still once I realised it the was a traditional good natured pit I just stood on the outside and made sure I wasn't crushed.
Finally staggered back to the hotel, still not really going full tilt but again it's pretty tiring just doing the events! Clubs are open until 6am so you could do 12 hours worth of stuff each day but you'd need marathon runner like endurance. Or lots and lots of drugs.
Forgot to mention Nurzery Rhymes! Prior to the Werk 11 we went to Parkbuhne to see Nurzery Rhymes which involved a good bit of 'lively discussion' as to where it was due to appalling sign-postage. Hidden in the tress is a smaller, open air venue. Dancing in the sun and early afternoon (er, 3pm) seemed strange but enjoyable. We then had a quick walk to a tram stop to get to the Werk 11.
Monday my cold seemed to have cleared after a number of false starts (I guess it slowly cleared over several days) and we headed to the Kohlrabizirkus. Another odd but amazing looking venue, though the acoustics of this place depended on where you stood. At the front pretty good, near the bank the huge venue produces multiple echos which bounced around and produced a surreal sound, especially if lying down near the back....
Tram took us a short distance in a different direct to get to the Kohlrabizirkus which appear to be two huge 'domes' on top of a warehouse like building. I'm not sure what in the world this used to contain, possibly zeppelins...Due to the huge dome over the venue it caused the previously mentioned echos which we only noticed after retreating to the back for some poor bands.
Combat company made a good effort, I wanted to like what they where doing but there was 'something' missing to their display. When I saw Fixmer/Mccarthy at Dark City he was so angry it worked really well, while this guy was just singing. Violin was a nice change too. FGFC820 might have been acceptable except for their jingoistic style. It might have all been ironic but I really couldn't sing along to his song about god bless america or whatever it was. Volkmar, a trad goth band came on late and played some forgettable guitar music. I don't think much was wrong with it but really wasn't outstanding. I do occasionally like trad goth, like when I saw voices of masada but these guys? Nah. Alice in Videoland after that was a lead female vocalist wailing something was the last straw.
Hot-footing it to the Moritzbastei we saw: Amnistia, Patenbrigade:Wolff, Sonar and Scandy. Amnistia where ok but didn't really stand out, Patenbrigade:Wolff where great in the 'what the hell is going on?' kind of way. Dressed as workmen they destroyed a keyboard then draped it in an east german flag and took it off stage. Music was good too! Sonar was good as expected with Scandy starting poorly but really picking up later on in their 'set'. Socialising occurred followed by the noise club and a 2amish stagger home as we had to pack and be off the next day.
Moritzbastei gets a special mention and I recommend reading the attached link about it. I suspected it was part of an old fortification. I could claim due to some arcane knowledge of fortifications in the 1500's but honestly I saw a little model of a fort and the strange design of the place seemed like it might be the underground to a city wall. It's a beautiful crazy building. Arched brick rooms - similar to the cavern that Dark City was held in 2007 - and when I wandered into 'the goth room' it was like something out of a film set;
Flight of brick steps down down with tables to your left and alcoves spaced evenly to your right with more seating. As the stairs drop down the roof does not and it could easily be 30 foot high arched, narrow room at the bottom. The floor was full of people so didn't venture down but I assume it continued on! Or at least that is how it appeared to me at the time.
Food & Milkshakes are also great at the Moritzbastei!
I have probably missed out all sorts of great random things that happened but that's the gist of it. Temperature was right, crowds of goths where often well-dressed and everyone seemed to be having fun. As the festival went on time seemed to speed up Sunday and Monday night coming around too quickly.
Looking forward to next year :)
*with added umlaut
Disembarking from the plane down the boarding corridor in Edinburgh I saw my employers name & logo splashed in foot-high and it looked like something from another lifetime. Currently feeling like what happened prior to WGT was a world away and have a positive energy to do stuff just now.
That is of course if I have the energy. The strategy that quondam and myself came up with was useful for the gigs but I completely forgot to stock up my glycogen reserves! Had an exercise fail this morning due to it :)
So my holiday began a long, long time ago which can be handily be called Tuesday last week. Going out on a week night without the worry of getting up the next morning is such a novelty to me that having a slap-up meal & a couple of pints was great. Packed Wednesday and then flew down to Brum and was put up for the night by the lovely Sarah and Simon after demanding curry. At no extra charge I had managed to pack a cold with me to share with everyone at WGT. Flinkin' typical about the cold as I have not had one in months!
Flight to Berlin was fairly painless and included a view of an off-shore windfarm near the Netherlands (I think). I loved the contrast of the white masts sticking out of the water in a square grid in a vast expanse of blue sea. Trains caused slight consternation simply because of not having used 'em before but it was fairly easy in the end. No sudden platform changes or half hour delays in Deutschland! Didn't really do much on Thursday due to all the travelling and collapsed into the comfy hotel room.
I should say here I might be a bit sketchy on the order of what happened; not due to any variety of drugs (didn't even drink that much!) but so much happened it's all blurred into one bleepy, flashy, sexy, sweaty and breakfasty 'festival montage'.
Each day was started with the buffet at the Novotel to fuel us through the day ahead. The staff had the foresight to extend the breakfast buffet out till 1 in the afternoon for all the sleepy goths. Next was generally the tram. Well there was usually a clothes-faff by either myself or Sarah before heading out but I won't bore you with details of that.
Our wrist band allowed us free public transport around Leipzig which was a genius idea. I imagine the local authorities organised this due to the sudden influx of twenty to thirty thousand goths caused many problems in previous years. Free trams meant you could hop on and off between venues and I really doubt you would want to walk the several kilometers between them!
So breakfast, clothes faff and trams out of the way we arrived at the Werk 11 Hall A on Friday to find a HUGE queue. Apparently due to limited venues being open on the Friday everywhere is rammed. Eventually got in and saw Leandra and Staubkind. The Werk 11 (Werk zwei as it's pronounced and not 'work house' in an oliver twist manner which is what I kept saying...)
was a great looking venue for an industrial club. It was an old (looks like early 20th century) brick conglomeration of a iron working or similar 'heavy metal' construction. It still had a the huge winch and controllers room inside. Sound was good too.
We took off to the Agra to see Combichrist, The Eden House and Project Pitchfork. Worst part of the weekend was Sarah's phone disappearing which put a dampener on the evening. I was feeling tired from the cold so headed off early. The Agra venue inside was another amazing looking venue for industrial music; my guess is it used to be an aircraft hanger or other similar huge warehouse facility.
Friday was off to the Agra again for shopping and bands. The Agra the venue with most happening. The 'aircraft hanger' for the bands to play in had an identical hanger attached which held the stalls with enough variety and numbers to probably match Camden market. I bought some expensive and nifty looking tops for too much money and almost picked up some goth sponges. Yes, gothic sponges (one was a skull, another a bat) from the 'household' store. I could have also got a nice skull and bones breakfast set, some skull towels and maybe 300feet of gothic wallpaper...
Pretty much anything from medieval dildos to gothic wallpaper was somewhere in this venue with more stalls arriving on the Saturday when I had a second browse.
Bands on Saturday; TANK, Dolls of Pain, Yelworc, Feindflug and VNV Nation. All but Yelworc where varying degress of greatness with Feindflug being the bestest. VNV did another good performance but as i'd not seen Ff before it was bouncy drum goodness of the highest order. Again an early night on Saturday, when I say early it was still midnightish and having been standing/dancing/shopping/waiting for six hours it's pretty tiring.
Sunday was spent at the Werk 11 for a noise special: Fabrik C, Unternehmen Stahlklang, Sam, Geistform, Shnarph! IWR and Winterkalte*. All where good with the exception of IWR which was just painful. Not entirely sure how they got to that position in the lineup! Danced for a stupendous amount of hours (at least 4 for the bands) and then stayed for a wee while for the noise club afterwards. Strangely a 'pit' formed for Winterkalte. I guess it's not entirely surprising but my usual thought about noise is it's full of skinny music geeks who just nod appreciatively not 6 foot plus musclar germans throwing each other around! Still once I realised it the was a traditional good natured pit I just stood on the outside and made sure I wasn't crushed.
Finally staggered back to the hotel, still not really going full tilt but again it's pretty tiring just doing the events! Clubs are open until 6am so you could do 12 hours worth of stuff each day but you'd need marathon runner like endurance. Or lots and lots of drugs.
Forgot to mention Nurzery Rhymes! Prior to the Werk 11 we went to Parkbuhne to see Nurzery Rhymes which involved a good bit of 'lively discussion' as to where it was due to appalling sign-postage. Hidden in the tress is a smaller, open air venue. Dancing in the sun and early afternoon (er, 3pm) seemed strange but enjoyable. We then had a quick walk to a tram stop to get to the Werk 11.
Monday my cold seemed to have cleared after a number of false starts (I guess it slowly cleared over several days) and we headed to the Kohlrabizirkus. Another odd but amazing looking venue, though the acoustics of this place depended on where you stood. At the front pretty good, near the bank the huge venue produces multiple echos which bounced around and produced a surreal sound, especially if lying down near the back....
Tram took us a short distance in a different direct to get to the Kohlrabizirkus which appear to be two huge 'domes' on top of a warehouse like building. I'm not sure what in the world this used to contain, possibly zeppelins...Due to the huge dome over the venue it caused the previously mentioned echos which we only noticed after retreating to the back for some poor bands.
Combat company made a good effort, I wanted to like what they where doing but there was 'something' missing to their display. When I saw Fixmer/Mccarthy at Dark City he was so angry it worked really well, while this guy was just singing. Violin was a nice change too. FGFC820 might have been acceptable except for their jingoistic style. It might have all been ironic but I really couldn't sing along to his song about god bless america or whatever it was. Volkmar, a trad goth band came on late and played some forgettable guitar music. I don't think much was wrong with it but really wasn't outstanding. I do occasionally like trad goth, like when I saw voices of masada but these guys? Nah. Alice in Videoland after that was a lead female vocalist wailing something was the last straw.
Hot-footing it to the Moritzbastei we saw: Amnistia, Patenbrigade:Wolff, Sonar and Scandy. Amnistia where ok but didn't really stand out, Patenbrigade:Wolff where great in the 'what the hell is going on?' kind of way. Dressed as workmen they destroyed a keyboard then draped it in an east german flag and took it off stage. Music was good too! Sonar was good as expected with Scandy starting poorly but really picking up later on in their 'set'. Socialising occurred followed by the noise club and a 2amish stagger home as we had to pack and be off the next day.
Moritzbastei gets a special mention and I recommend reading the attached link about it. I suspected it was part of an old fortification. I could claim due to some arcane knowledge of fortifications in the 1500's but honestly I saw a little model of a fort and the strange design of the place seemed like it might be the underground to a city wall. It's a beautiful crazy building. Arched brick rooms - similar to the cavern that Dark City was held in 2007 - and when I wandered into 'the goth room' it was like something out of a film set;
Flight of brick steps down down with tables to your left and alcoves spaced evenly to your right with more seating. As the stairs drop down the roof does not and it could easily be 30 foot high arched, narrow room at the bottom. The floor was full of people so didn't venture down but I assume it continued on! Or at least that is how it appeared to me at the time.
Food & Milkshakes are also great at the Moritzbastei!
I have probably missed out all sorts of great random things that happened but that's the gist of it. Temperature was right, crowds of goths where often well-dressed and everyone seemed to be having fun. As the festival went on time seemed to speed up Sunday and Monday night coming around too quickly.
Looking forward to next year :)
*with added umlaut