onsdag 17 Okt 2007, 18:28
Well i suppose its about time i did my rubbish review for m'fest bear in mind most of this was viewed after copious amounts of german beer ;D
day one
as i missed skincage the first act i managed to watch was ab ovo. and boy what a start to my first maschinenfest, tight rhythm's building up to a stomping finale with second to non ambient structures throughout. I stepped in for some of detune x's set but found it a little lacking in substance for my taste, too simplistic and a bit dull tbh. Next was Scrap.edx , damn josh gets better every fucking time i see him and this was no exception, some of the crowd seemed a little confused by the breakcore start to the set but once he got going we had the first of the weekends "inappropriate mosh pit's" about time to as i've always felt a little rough housing should be involved in noise gigs, i bet you wouldn't see this at bradford festival for the musically retarded… Speaking of which Greyhound where next up, personally i don't get em. there's rhythmic noise and then there is this din, sounds just as dull live as it does on cd. not my cup of tea what so ever. This morn 'omina where probably one of my highlights of the weekend boasting 2 drummers 2 laptop monkeys and small string and wind section they provided one of the strongest and most convincing performances of the week right up there with a couple of other acts i'll mention later ….. After all the hype that had surrounded them since i got to kulturfabrik i was really disapointed by twinkle granted the boy painted himself up and twitched around a bit but that alone does not a live performance make, lets just say i thought his live skills a tad 'suspect'. One of the bigger suprises for me this weekend was probably Catholic Boys In Heavy Leather. Swaggering onstage like a camp version of 'REVCO' and sounding like they had twice the talent, these boys rocked so hard another pit took over the front of the gig and well, i just had to dive in and get me a few more bruises :D as well as a POGO crew badge for mah troubles which now has pride of place on my hat :D The final act for the first night was Synapscape and while they aint my favourate act and my feet where dying i stayed for a bit a was impressed by the sheer ferocity that was blasting out of the speakers as i shuffled somewhere at the back of the room
verdict - i haven't had that much fun in years my legs ached and i think i may have done some damage to my knee but fridays never had it so good!
day two
Finally staggering in as ahnst anders where finishing i thought the better of grabbing some of their set and plowed into some more 'german pain killer' before the uk's 2 heavyweight idm acts started up both detritus and keef baker pulled off fantastic sets i've seen both of em quite a few times and this was a milestone for both acts Dave's new stuff sounds bloody amazing both on cd and live and keef did what he does best, playing fantastic mosaics of his collected work and get horrendously slaughtered on free beer! 100 blumen took up around 100 seconds of my time before i ran to the bar feeling i'd heard it before, really didn't grab my attention span long enough for the beer monster to stay at bay! ordo rosarius equilibrio where a fantastically set out 3 piece, the songs where well written and performed by people who obviously knew their shit! the trouble was i found the guys voice so similar of numerous artists in neighbouring genre's still they where very enjoyable for a style which is slightly outside my comfort zone. Next was ¥pi¥ Who have admittedly got a hell of a lot better since last i saw em, still not entirely my cup of tea so a wandered off at the half way point, fed my beer monster and ended up playing table football with the slimes massive and a few other noise monkeys too…. i decided to give config.sys a miss as i wasn't impressed with stuff i'd heard so i fueled myself on more beers, chatted shop with dave and a few others then went down to the frontline for what was THE band of the weekend 5f-x was the craziest, cutest, most endearing act i've seen on stage EVER! with ray guns, satalites, some crazy robotic claw that lit up and moved and constumes that looked like they'd either mugged the flaming lips costume department or knew someone at the jim henson creature shop, this band should be huge! They should be on every festival going they are simply that amazing, this really was inappropriate but yes, yet another pit ensued and i was somewhere in there reprasenting the uk at slamming round like a homocidal pinball! these boys made cardboard robots look like a thing of yesteryear! really after them i didn't see much point in sonar so stuck to getting very, very drunk and heading back to the garden hotel with my lot and our two new found german friends chris and constantin where we got stuck into more beer and shits and giggles….
verdict - i ached, i bruised, i came back with an ant zen hoodie, i can see me coming to this for years to come
day three.
By now i was a shell of my former self, two days of constant alcohol abuse had taken its toll and i was broken so i only watched about 4 or 5 of the acts on offer today. We arrived in time for eva|3's set and i'm glad we did as paul has definately improved his skills since last i saw him live my only thought was that he should have paced the tracks a little better other than a few teething issues the boy played a competant set which i bounced my way through with comparative ease. The next act i got my shit together for was S.K.E.T there was no way i was missing one of my favourite hands acts after coming all this way and as usual it proved to be something of a spiritual experience needless to say i was dripping in sweat by the end of that monster of a set! there where a few errors in timing, but to be honest i felt they humanised the act and at least you knew they REALLY WHERE playing live, second in this communist double feature was Ambassador 21. Now, i'd never seen this lot before and i was blown of my feet by the sheer energy they threw into the live set. It was like a better written atari teenage riot only minus the rather hot nic endo the beats where there the screaming was there i limped away from this fucker! i think it may have been a bit too far, must remember to get me a knee support and some steel toe caps for next year but oh yeah next year the pogo crew shall ride again!!!!!!! finally i managed about half of ah cama-sotz set before i had to admit defeat, my body was shattered and even though they did an amazing job i just had to go back to the hotel and die for a while before my body gave up completely!
verdict - i really need to go get some ambassador 21 to spaff myself silly too!
well i came, i saw, i cried "for sparta" a lot and i had one helluva time, there are a few people i think should come to it next year, granted i know its not everyones cup of tea. But variety is the spice of life and it would seem to me that is something we are missing from that rather formulaic jamboree we have in this country for a festival, this one had variety in spades and there wasn't and irish pie muncher in sight still i had a mint time, i just cant wait to see what they come up with next year! till then i suppose its of to london for some decent gigs!
signing out
Rhys x