Location: Hildesheim (Germany)
By: Nina Mende
I arrived in Hildesheim earlier than I had expected, so I was able to see two bands before the one I actually planned on seeing first. It was still early and empty, the festival was just waking up for the day and the weather forecast announced sun. Actually that’s a good thing and I was happy about it. But I was at M’era Luna and all these Goths didn’t seem too happy about a sunny Sunday.
 Only a few early birds had already come to the main stage to see the terribly early bands. One of them was Leichtmatrose. This German band with a singer dressed as sailor and the female backing vocalist dressed as bluish Goth kept the cliché we have of Goths: Sad, melancholic and slow, no sign of positive emotions and life is oh so bad. The audience felt related to them, the security and I didn’t. Ok, I was coming from Open Flair where it was all “Guuuuude Laune” (great mood). Their performance only lasted only 20 minutes. The black audience sang and danced (?) along to this slow unhappy music. I watched it from afar while making my morning coffee order. The band seemed in need of some as well. They hardly moved around. The drummer seemed like a happy spirit though and was smiling almost all the time having fun!!! |
| Next band was just as slow and melancholic but the audience danced way more and more extreme. So did the band. I wonder how because there was really no beat or anything that could have let you figure how they did it. But ok, once a Goth told me “there is more to this music than you hear” so I guess I just stick with this explanation… The band was Scream Silence, a Goth rock band from Berlin. They played for 30 minutes and people started waking up, coming to the stage to watch the bands. Since this was not WGT there were hardly any highly dressed up Goths with these amazing dresses and such, but maybe they were still at their tents or hotel rooms getting ready since that kind of dress-up takes forever. |
 Finally the band I planned on arriving in time for came on stage: Zeromancer. And finally some happy people on stage that showed their happiness and appreciation for the still early crowd. Zeromancer is a Norwegian Synth-Rock band that knows how to rock you. Their performance was very energetic and powerful. People cheered and danced, some kids in the front row even had a Norwegian flag in front of them. The band filled their 40 minutes show time with many thank yous to the audience, old and new songs and a lot of positive vibes and energy that got you going along. Alex (singer) played and danced a lot on stage, but so did Kim (bass). It was an amazing show. Now I’m sure everybody was hundred percent wake. |
| Next band we watched played at the Hangar, but they began early so we were quite lucky that we went there early after a short peak into the Schelmisch performance. Spetsnaz are two guys from Sweden doing EBM. The venue was crowded, extremely dark and airless. All the cyber ravers and Goths were here dancing a lot to the electro beats. The music was very danceable and the singer moved around a lot on stage. There was a lot more movement going on in the audience than it was outside. |
| Since the sun had come out outside we decided to walk around a little bit on the festival ground and happened to catch some of the Crüxshadows performance. I used to like them a lot but I haven’t seen them since the radical line up change. And from what I had seen that day on the festival, I didn’t like the new line up too much. The music was not as great as it used to be and not as catchy. Rogue and Jessica didn’t seem as happy anymore either. But maybe they were only tired. |
| After a few hours break and just walking around on the festival ground, seeing and finding friends, we went back inside to the Hangar to see IAMX. This band somehow didn’t quite fit in to the festival but it was still quite crowded and IAMX convinced the audience with his music quite fast. At first not many people were dancing but as the show went on more and more began. IAMX played mostly songs of the new album but also many old songs such as “The Alternative”, “President” or “Kiss and Swallow”. It was an amazing and odd performance as usual, with only little light. Chris Corner as well as the rest of the band moved around quite a lot on stage and put up a gorgeous performance. |
| Next band we watched was Deathstars fro Sweden. But only half of the show since their performance was overlapping with The Prodigy’s. They had a sort of dance performance going on, at least the guitar players and the bass player. The band played old and new songs, the audience didn’t move around too much, but still enjoyed the show. The guys seemed to speed through the set a little, because they also wanted to go see The Prodigy. That was also why they didn’t play an encore even though the audience had asked for it. |
| Last band and highlight of the weekend had begun now: The Prodigy. As we heard their first beats we rushed over to the other stage where it was crowded but not many people were dancing. The stage was colorfully lit and the band jumped around like there was no tomorrow. They played all hits and animated the crowd big time. They played for over an hour and couldn’t stand still even a second. Both singers went down to the audience and into the pit during their performance. Keith even walked on the crush barrier from one side to the other. It was an amazing and extremely energetic performance we couldn’t get enough of. This was an amazing closure for the festival and the weekend. |
Links:
Mera Luna Website
Leichtmatrose Official
Scream Silence MySpace
Zeromancer MySpace
Spetsnaz MySpace
IAMX MySpace
Deathstars MySpace
The Prodigy MySpace
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