Die Kur, Snakebite, MaxDmyz, Lilygun
Another legendary venue DJed, the London metal pub, ‘The Intrepid Fox’ to do support slots for event organisers ‘Die Kur’ (3rd time) and ‘MaxDmyz’ (5th time!). Joining me today was Alan Hicks of Rock Matrix, who supported the other two bands.
Anyway, time and space was tight which meant both band and DJ sets were quite short. Anyway, here’s what I ended up playing.
Set 1 – MaxDmyz Support
Strapping Young Lad – Love?
Static-X – Love Dump
Atrocity – The Great Commandment
Pig – Here To Stay
Set 2 – Die Kur Support
Hate Dept. – Beat Me Up
Gothminister – Hatred
Sister Machine Gun – Addiction
NIN – You Know What You Are
Rammstein – Feuer Frei!
A Life Of Live Music Part 6 – 2005
After a promising start, 2004 sort of fizzled out live-music-wise. Into 2005, then, and time to scratch one of the biggest live music itches of them all. Back in 2000, I had tickets for an event called the ‘Lost Weekend’ with NIN headlining, a band I’d previously tried and failed to see, despite being the act that drew me to this whole dark-scene place initially. They pulled out at the last minute owing to ‘illness’ (though many believed this story was cover for some contractual/political reason), and my day-after-graduation party was cancelled. The festival went ahead, but I wasn’t interested in Ash and Groop Dogdrill (who?) and got a refund. No news of a replacement show thereafter, nor any action from the band at all, for that matter. Until now.
Reptile – January 2012
I post my setlists to capture some of the feel of the event I played at. On this occasion, it’s impossible to do so. The dozen songs listed below might just look like a fairly average setlist for me, but they don’t sum up the atmosphere of the night as a whole. This was something special. Having put in some darkwave classics early on, for the second set, I aimed for a kind of ’90s Full Tilt Revival’ sort of concept – which actually worked.
Set 1 – 11:15pm-11:45pm
In Strict Confidence – Set Me Free
Die Krupps – Bloodsuckers
Das Ich – Destillat (VNV Nation Remix)
:Wumpscut: – Christfuck
Project Pitchfork – God Wrote
Diary Of Dreams – AmoK
Set 2 – 1:00am-1:30am
Cubanate – Oxyacetylene
Front 242 – Happiness (Re:Boot Version)
Underworld – Cowgirl
VNV Nation – Solitary
Apoptygma Berzerk – Love Never Dies Pt.1
Depeche Mode – Everything Counts (Live 101)
A Life Of Live Music Part 5 – 2004
Time to resume the story. An ankle injury scuppered any hopes of a wild and crazy end to 2003, but 2004 started with a fresh and promising collection of gigs to look forward to. One short-lived but welcome venture was the ‘Pity For Monsters’ nights run by the Devlish Presley duo and a number of allied friends. Despite ties to London’s deathrock revival scene, the bands they put on were varied in style and fanbase and it was one particular hidden gem that provided my first truly memorable gigging moment of the year.
Forthcoming Sets – Early 2012
It’s back to the DJ booth in early 2012, with a couple of sets that I’m really looking forward too.
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After my adventured last March, I return to Reptile for their January 2012 wake-up call. The event is held at The Minories, near Tower Hill tube. Expect to hear a selection of goth, industrial and 80s classics, plus the odd surprise or two. I’ll be mainly hovering around the darkwave/industrial end of the spectrum, but don’t count anything out. Seriously, if you’re the kind of person who’s into all the things I write about on here, there is no better way to beat the New Year Blues. |
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Here’s one of my favourite type of event to DJ – a showcase of UK industrial bands at the Camden Underworld on Saturday 10 March, organised by Synchrotrax Events (aka Machine Rox). One of my favourite UK scene bands (Deviant UK) are headlining, whilst I’ll be reprising my role from the previous year, filling in the bits between the live music. If you want to get a sample of the cutting edge of the UK industrial scene, this is the place you want to be. |
A Life Of Live Music Part 4 – 2003
The focus of the last part was my discovery of the wonders of European festivals. It may therefore come as a surprise that my one overseas trip of the following year came as very much a last-minute thing. There were many other things to distract me of course, and the move to a London-based job meant that I was never far away from some kind of gigging action whenever I felt like it. And I felt like it a lot. Rather too often, in fact, as my first major gig of the year would reveal.
A Life Of Live Music Part 3 – 2002
At the end of 2001, my stagnant life finally turned around and come January 2002, I entered a continuous period of employment that leads right up to this day. This of course meant more money for gigs, CD and (for the first time) full-blown music festivals. What the year didn’t provide was any one performance that really stood out….it was a year where the event as the whole was more that the sum of it’s parts. It was also the first year I saw more that 100 bands over the course of the year. Though the tendency for the same bands to crop up time and time again made bagging the last few quite hard!
A Life Of Live Music Part 2 – 2001
The first part of this feature saw how I began to dip my toe into the world of live music. But with the exception of Gotham, these gigs were all about ‘going for one band’. Come 2001, and I began to push the boundaries at bit further. But not much further. Outside of scene events, 2001 was a dead year for me. The only work I could get was mind-numbing temporary admin work, which left me turning up to several events in no state of mind to enjoy myself.
Despite that, there were a few stories to emerge from the years gigging adventures, concluding with a show that I still maintain is the best I would ever see.
A Life Of Live Music Part 1 – 1997-2000
Every live gig I’ve ever been to has given me some kind of story to tell. You could ask me about any of them and I could come up with at least one occurrence that captured the spirit of the gig. But not every live show has been truly ‘special’. I’ve seen excellent performances by bands as big as Depeche Mode, Gary Numan and The Chemical Brothers which were just ‘very good nights out’. No more, no less.
No, it’s those gigs that leave you buzzing all the way home that count. Sometimes the whole gig doesn’t have to be brilliant, a single ‘magic moment’ is all you need. And it’s those events that have kept me coming back for more. Most people just settle for a few favourites and watch them every time they come round. I’m not like that. I’ve rolled the dice on catching relatively unknown bands plenty of times (especially at festivals). You never know what you might discover.
It doesn’t always work. I’ve had my share of dead nights, shitty soundsystems and line-ups that seem to shift every time you look at them. But there’s also those character building moments where somehow I still managed to watch some live music despite near-intolerable circumstances. It’s also worth saying that virtually all my experiences have been from a man-in-the-crowd perspective. The recent take-off of my DJing endeavours has given me a few backstage access privileges, but the VIP tent at M’era Luna and the queue-jump passes at WGT have always been off-limits to me. I’ve paid for this, financially, mentally, physically and aurally, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
So…..shall we begin?
EOL-Audio Review Archive – Z
This is Part ‘Z’ of an archive of CD and digital download reviews from EOL-Audio (1998-2007) and the early versions of Terminates Here (2008-2011).
Please note that this writing is varied in quality and is not intended to be representative of the new content I’m creating for this site. It has simply been uploaded in order to preserve the many hours of work devoted to previous websites.
