25-02-2010 Dead By Sunrise

Supports: The Delta Fiasco; Venue: E-werk, Cologne (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Tonight I went to Cologne, for an interview with a band, but seeing two different bands live on stage. Well, almost. The interview was with Julien-K. The members of Julien-K also happen to play in a band called Dead By Sunrise. And Dead By Sunrise was the band I would see on stage that night. Opening act was The Delta Fiasco.

The show was sold out and many of the fans were waiting outside all day already. Only to be up front when Chester, Amir, Ryan, Brandon, Fu and Elias do their “thing” on stage, or to catch them walking outside and get a picture as well as a signature with them. All the fans outside were totally excited. Most of them wore Linkin Park shirts. Half an hour earlier than originally planned, the doors opened and everybody tried to squish in as fast as possible to catch a spot in the front row.At 8pm sharp The Delta Fiasco entered the stage. Liverpool’s The Delta Fiasco exude an elegantly wasted allure of expansive proportions. Their blend of heavy guitars, intense drums and mutant bleeps combine sublimely with Nathan Walzack’s twisted falsetto to create an intoxicating rush of head-swirling sound. Smelting avant-garde rock with European electronica, they have created a ‘happening’ of dizzying originality. With strobe light and little other light they entered the stage. Fast and psychedelic, thriving thoughtful and melancholic … So much was in their music. The vocals set in way later and the songs seemed never-ending. They all seemed to float right into the next one, hardly anybody was really getting when one song ended and the next one began. Speechless watched the audience in the sold out E-Werk the band, silent. It took about 10 minutes before the silence broke and they all cheered amazed. The Delta Fiasco is an awesome band, but it takes a while until you grasp what is going on. For half an hour they sucked us into something unknown and left us standing there and wondering. An amazing opening act that played electronic music like you have never heard it before. You have to check It out.

Up next was Dead By Sunrise. Dead by Sunrise is the side project of Linkin Park’s vocalist, Chester Bennington formed in 2005. The band also features Amir Derakh, Ryan Shuck, Brandon Belsky and Elias Andra from Julien-K and Anthony “Fu” Valcic. Now everybody was going wild, screaming loudly. Most people scream Chester’s name, which I found awkward in a way, because there were more people in the band than just Chester. And each band member is a gorgeous musician, not only Chester. But I guess most of the people in the audience did not know much about Julien-K or other projects of the members, but most probably were Linkin Park fans. Anyway, this did not matter at all. The atmosphere in the venue was amazing. The band was blown away by the gorgeous feedback they got. Dead By Sunrise rocked through their songs and gave their everything. The light was awesome and the sound was great. Amir and Ryan rocked the guitars while Chester ran around on stage from side to side, jumped and turned while singing. It was a very energetic performance. As Dead By Sunrise played their released singles, the audience sang along loudly. After 45 minutes the band was done. The audience wanted more though, so the guys came back on stage to play an encore. I was surprised that one of the encore songs was a Misfits cover: 20 eyes! After that gorgeous cover song it was all over for good though. A great show by two wonderful bands.