M'era Luna Part 2
Memory is getting a little hazy since I have left a while to update but here it goes anyway!
I was up on Sunday in time for the first band Leichtmatrose who I had never heard of but were quite like Wolfsheim and a pleasant enough start to the day. Scream Silence were a pretty good guitar based gothic rock band that followed. Glad I got to see them after missing their London gig earlier in the year. Zeromancer then did their electro-rock thing quite well and I was surprised at how many of their songs I recognised just from hearing them in clubs. Then it was the arival of the bagpipes with Schelmish who were great fun. Definitely recommend going to see on their forthcoming UK tour if they play at a town/city near you. L'ame Immortelle were next and opinions seem to be very divided on their performance. If you are really into their earlier darkwave stuff then you would be disappointed as I don't recall them playing any of it, but I like the newer (Als Die Liebe Starb album and after) stuff too which dominated their set. Sonja was mesmerising to watch too. :) As an aside, their guitarist is also the singer of Whispers in the Shadow who played the previous day. The Cruxshadows were ok but after seeing them for the ninth time, they kind of lose their appeal IMHO and Marilyn, my bitterness was strangely missing from the end of their set.
I then took a quick break for food as there was a nice veggie Indian stall that did a 3 course meal for 6 Euro before returning to the main stage for Alexander Veljanov. I didn't really know what to expexct not being familiar with his solo materail, but this was better than I expected and surprisingly sounded rockier than his Deine Lakaien stuff. I moved nearer the front for Tiamat, one of the highlights of the festival for me, who were every bit as intense as their performance in London earlier in the year. M'era Luna regulars Subway to Sally were next and this was the fifth time I've seen them (though never in the UK). There were plenty of pyrotechnics and Julia und die Räuber is always great to finish on (although I didn't hear many people singing it throughout the night this time, maybe that's more a Wacken thing?). Surprisingly no Kleid aus Rosen in their set on this occasion. Emily then spotted our friend Daniel from Hannover, so it was great to catch up with him for a while. Then came the surprising headliners of the festival The Prodigy. I always make a point of supporting bands from my original home county of Essex when they play (as I did with Nitzer Ebb in 2006) but really they did far exceed my expectations! I danced throughout their set and they were great at getting the crowd motivated. It was a really cool atmosphere to be in at the time, and more than made up for the disappointment of Nightwish the previous night.
After the bands we then went to the Medieval Market where I met someone called Ashleigh who lives in London. We had a couple of dodgy people come to talk to us while we were sitting (I suspect one of them stole Ashleigh's phone) but otherwise it was a chilled night. We then went back to camp and drank for the next couple of hours before getting some sleep.
We were up early on the Monday for the long coach journey back to England. We caught the ferry from Calais to Dover this time and I enjoyed watching the waves outside more than the canteen food. We got to Potters Bar at about 11.30 where I alighted the coach and was greeted by Emily's Grandad. It was a great festival.
I was up on Sunday in time for the first band Leichtmatrose who I had never heard of but were quite like Wolfsheim and a pleasant enough start to the day. Scream Silence were a pretty good guitar based gothic rock band that followed. Glad I got to see them after missing their London gig earlier in the year. Zeromancer then did their electro-rock thing quite well and I was surprised at how many of their songs I recognised just from hearing them in clubs. Then it was the arival of the bagpipes with Schelmish who were great fun. Definitely recommend going to see on their forthcoming UK tour if they play at a town/city near you. L'ame Immortelle were next and opinions seem to be very divided on their performance. If you are really into their earlier darkwave stuff then you would be disappointed as I don't recall them playing any of it, but I like the newer (Als Die Liebe Starb album and after) stuff too which dominated their set. Sonja was mesmerising to watch too. :) As an aside, their guitarist is also the singer of Whispers in the Shadow who played the previous day. The Cruxshadows were ok but after seeing them for the ninth time, they kind of lose their appeal IMHO and Marilyn, my bitterness was strangely missing from the end of their set.
I then took a quick break for food as there was a nice veggie Indian stall that did a 3 course meal for 6 Euro before returning to the main stage for Alexander Veljanov. I didn't really know what to expexct not being familiar with his solo materail, but this was better than I expected and surprisingly sounded rockier than his Deine Lakaien stuff. I moved nearer the front for Tiamat, one of the highlights of the festival for me, who were every bit as intense as their performance in London earlier in the year. M'era Luna regulars Subway to Sally were next and this was the fifth time I've seen them (though never in the UK). There were plenty of pyrotechnics and Julia und die Räuber is always great to finish on (although I didn't hear many people singing it throughout the night this time, maybe that's more a Wacken thing?). Surprisingly no Kleid aus Rosen in their set on this occasion. Emily then spotted our friend Daniel from Hannover, so it was great to catch up with him for a while. Then came the surprising headliners of the festival The Prodigy. I always make a point of supporting bands from my original home county of Essex when they play (as I did with Nitzer Ebb in 2006) but really they did far exceed my expectations! I danced throughout their set and they were great at getting the crowd motivated. It was a really cool atmosphere to be in at the time, and more than made up for the disappointment of Nightwish the previous night.
After the bands we then went to the Medieval Market where I met someone called Ashleigh who lives in London. We had a couple of dodgy people come to talk to us while we were sitting (I suspect one of them stole Ashleigh's phone) but otherwise it was a chilled night. We then went back to camp and drank for the next couple of hours before getting some sleep.
We were up early on the Monday for the long coach journey back to England. We caught the ferry from Calais to Dover this time and I enjoyed watching the waves outside more than the canteen food. We got to Potters Bar at about 11.30 where I alighted the coach and was greeted by Emily's Grandad. It was a great festival.