31-08-2010 Julien-K

Supports: Mayfield, My Passion; Venue: Collos-saal, Aschaffenburg (Germany)
By: Nina Mende

Julien-K’s first European tour ever started out in Aschaffenburg tonight. As support they had Mayfield from Australia and My Passion from the UK.

Julien-K’s album “Death To Analog” has been out for a while already and the guys are already working on a new album so it was about time for them to finally hit Europe. Unfortunately not too many people know of Julien-K just yet, even though they are basically part of Dead By Sunrise which many people know because of Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. But let me start in the beginning.

As Mayfield went on stage there were not too many people there yet. Mayfield is a grunge band from Australia, sounding a lot like Nirvana and also look quite a lot like them. Three guys playing the music just like Nirvana once did. Here is how they describe themselves: Mayfield is an alternative rock band from Adelaide, South Australia formed in 2004. They have forged their own unique blend of punk rock and explosive ‘new-grunge’ through their varied influences and at times controversial social views. They played for 30 minutes and entertained the audience. Everybody was swaying along, some more others less. It was a chilled opening that was more reminding of an open mic night in a town bar, but somehow that was what made it so special. The band asked the audience to come a little forward and not be so spread out throughout the audience and they did. 30 minutes went by really fast.

So now it was time for the next band. The venue had filled a little more and the people were gathering more in front of the stage. Up next: My Passion. My Passion is an English band formed in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England in 2005. They released their debut album, Corporate Flesh Party, in May 2009 on Mascot Records. Produced by John Mitchell at Outhouse Studios in Reading, the album features eleven tracks, six of which are re-recorded versions of older demos either presented only on the band’s MySpace, or released on their Style Suicide record label. In April 2010, My Passion re-joined John Mitchell at Outhouse to record their second album, titled “Inside This Machine”. It is slated for release in September 2010. In July 2009, My Passion were nominated for Best British Newcomer at The Kerrang! Awards and in 2010 toured the UK and Ireland on the Kerrang! Relentless Energy Tour. My Passion have played gigs with Kill Hannah, Jeffree Star, InnerPartySystem, The Faint and The Automatic as a support act and also headlined their own tours. They will headline a tour to promote their album in October 2010. The guys whirled around on stage as if there was no tomorrow and they were already in the middle of touring. Fast electro tunes combined with great rock – almost punk music- they got the audience dance along. Hardly anybody had ever heard of them before so not many people could tell that My Passion was also playing some of their new songs. The guys looked like professionals on stage. The light was bad though to catch a good shot of them rocking out on stage. Their show lasted for about half an hour. A great live band, you should definitely check them out if you ever get the chance to.

Now it was time for the headliner to enter the stage. The Death To Analog back drop has been hanging on stage all night already and making it even more exciting to finally see them on European stages. Julien-K is a music group that began as a side project for electronic music created by Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck from Orgy, with the later addition of Brandon Belsky, Elias Andra, and Anthony ‘Fu’ Valcic. Their debut album, “Death to Analog”, which was mixed by Tim Palmer, was released on March 10, 2009 in the U.S., and later on March 5, 2010 in Europe. The album was initially planned to be released on February 17, 2009, the date the United States switched from analog to digital television. Julien-K’s webpage was launched in the summer of 2003 with initial demo versions of songs “Look at You”, “Kick the Bass”, “Someday Soon”, “Everyone Knows”, and “Technical Difficulties”, the latter of which was later featured both in the film and on the soundtrack from Michael Bay’s 2007 Transformers. Up until 2007, the webpage said “Coming Soon.” Since the official webpage launch, the site has been redesigned and updated with a wealth of information, links, photos, and other media. They rocked from the very first second on. Most of the songs they played were off “Death To Analog” but they also played some new song which were just as awesome. Even though Ryan was sick, his voice was awesome and you totally could not tell that he was sick when he sang. The sound was amazing and so was the light. It was still kind of dark, but the way they used the spots was somehow brilliant. There was no need to animate the audience to go dance along, they already did. A couple times Ryan asked them to clap along though, and really everybody did. Almost everybody knew all the lyrics to the songs. Julien-K is an amazing live band and you should totally check them out whenever you get the chance to. The songs simply made you go along, you couldn’t help it. Leaving many people amazed and speechless Julien-K left the stage after an hour of performance. Julien-K definitely is a band you get addicted to.