v.X.5

Sept
08
[ Online Journal - v. X.5: Amphi Festival 08 ]
   

Tanzbrunnen, Köln (D)
19-20.7.2008

Photos © 2008 Michael Schmid

Full Photo Gallery here

   

The Amphi Festival exists for 4 years and was first located at the Amphitheater (where it got its name from) in Gelsenkirchen. Then it was moved to a new location in Cologne and it's held at the fairground "Tanzbrunnen" near to the Rhine. The location is very nice, you're not so weather-dependent like at other outdoor festivals. The reason for that is, that most of the area is made of asphalt, so there is no mud or dirt
when it's raining. Of course you have some nice green spots where
you can sit down and relax for a while. This year they opened the
beach club with deck chairs and some sand. Summer feeling in
the city! They have two stages at the Amphi. An outdoor stage
and an indoor stage called "Theater". The "Theater" is small,
but not too small. But to get sure, that you'll see a band at
the indoor stage, you better get in early. Sometimes it could
get very crowded there. For me it was the first visit of the
Amphi festival. But I'm sure,
it wasn't the last one.

 

 

 


 

I arrived there on Saturday noon and wanted to start my festival day with the German minimalistic electro band WELLE:ERDBALL. Unfortunately they started 30 minutes ahead of schedule and I missed most of the show. Well I was able to see the last 10 minutes, but I was kind of disappointed. I'm accustomed that bands at festivals start too late but never too early. Bad organization, but it was the only annoying thing as far as the line-up was concerned.

After WELLE:ERDBALL there was the band ZERAPHINE on the mainstage.
They've got lot of emotional songs and while there were playing it started to rain. How suitable that they played Be My Rain! We were lucky that it was just a short downpour. An another advantage of the mainstage is, that there is a kind of a roof over the audience. And this is great for the photographers, too. They don't have to be afraid, that they are ruining their equipment with rain while they're taking pictures.
COVENANT were in a great mood when they entered the stage. Even if one of the keyboardists was injured as the previous day he played soccer at the Amphi-Cup and hurt his leg. But they did their best and played famous hits like: Dead Stars, We Stand Alone, and the actual club hit Ritual Noise.

If you had enough of standing in the crowd and watch some bands, you could do some shopping. That belongs to every festival. There were lots of nice shops with cool things. X-tra-X, Germany's biggest gothic store, had its shop located on a stage in the middle of a fountain. Very unusual place, but pretty impressive.

The whole festival was really crowded: it sold out 3 weeks ahead of the starting day with over 12000 people to enjoy the weekend. There were lots of styled people, not so extreme like at the Wave Gotik Treffen, but for an open air festival it was quite impressive. Of course there were again lots of neon colours and cyber hair but there also were some plain gothic styles, EBM styles, Rockabilly, Horrorpunk and Visual Kei.

 


After the exuberant Covenant, it got calm on the stage, because DEINE LAKAIEN began to play.
Their songs are so full of emotions and Alexander Veljanov's voice is so powerful that you have a goosebump guarantee. Perfect for couples to stand in front of the stage and cuddle all the time. I missed my boyfriend when DEINE LAKAIEN were playing but he was busy taking photos, so he has a valid justification! So I was glad being in good company with two friends of mine. We were sitting between the stage and the fountain, listening to the music and having lots of fun. It was great. This is how a festival should be. Good music, nice people, shopping, tasty red mead, having fun and a great atmosphere. We were lucky with the weather, but when it was getting dark, it became a little bit cold.

But OOMPH made it hot for us with their show. Dero the singer entered the stage wearing a straight-jacket. He is famous for his crazy show and his weird faces. They rocked it! They played all their smash hits, including old and new stuff and entertained the audience with some phrases.

This great show wrapped up the first festival day. Who hadn't already enough, could still go to the aftershow party and celebrate until dawn.

 
 

When we arrived at noon at the Tanzbrunnen on Sunday, the italian band THE LOVECRAVE was already on the main stage. I really liked that goth rock style and the powerful front lady. Hard goth rock sound and a strong female voice was a great match. My favourite song was Vampires.

There were already lots of people who were enjoying the second day of the festival. This day was colder than the Saturday but there were enough girls (and boys) wearing short clothes. It was not boring to look at the people, there was always something interesting.

The band LETZTE INSTANZ was for all the medivial music fans. Not the kind of music that I prefer so I dared to go into the "Theater" to see CINEMA STRANGE instead. They were really strange again. But I love them. The frontman Lucas performed some acrobatics with his chair before the show began and we were a little bit afraid that he could break his neck. But it seems that he didn't do that for the first time. Then the real show started. It was awesome. Lucas ran over the stage with his high heels, jumped all the time and interacted a lot with his band members. That's entertainment!!

And the next band on the mainstage was entertainment, too. DAS ICH started to rock the audience. Lead singer Stefan Ackermann was all over body painted in red colour. He seemed almost naked. But no panic, he was wearing red trousers. He made his crazy faces, animated the audience and jumped over the stage. The two guys on the keyboard should be mentioned, too. Bruno Kramm and Marty Soeffker had movable keyboards and they could move them together. So they were more able to interact. Bruno Kramm sported his red horn hair style again and Marty looked like a butcher. White clothes splattered with blood. They pulled a really great perfomance.

Now it was the time for a female voice again. L'AME IMMORTELLE started their show. Some years ago I liked that band more than today, but they did a great job. Sonya has still a powerful performance.

During their show it started to rain again and I thought it was a good time to go to the "Theater" to see SOKO FRIEDHOF. I wasn't the only one to get that idea and so the "Theater" was so crowded that I wasn't able to get in. What a pity. And while I was standing under my umbrella and was waiting, lots of electro people passed my way. They were getting ready for SUICIDE COMMANDO.

So I went back into the direction of the stage. But I was standing very far away, because I didn't wanted to stay in the crowd while there were dancing and did some pogo dance. The hard beats started, Johann entered the stage, showed his tongue and the crowd freaked out. The highlight of the show was when a fan with a really huge SUICIDE COMMANDO tattoo on his back jumped on the stage to hug Johann. For him it seems okay but the security got the guy off the stage very quickly.

After SUICIDE COMMANDO the next electro band was ready: PROJECT PITCHFORK. With a blue and golden stripe on his face and chest and with his open shirt the singer looked like a warrior from Braveheart. It was a surprise when SARA NOXX came on the stage to perform with him together. Her voice is really amazing and is generally highly praised.

Much to our surprise a friend and me found out that the red mead was sold out.

But the normal mead is delicious, too. So we bought a cup and got ready for the last show on the main stage. The stage seemed empty but with a bang the curtain fell and we could all see AND ONE. Almost the whole festival crowd was standing in front of the stage to celebrate. Everyone was in motion. It was great and the band played one hit after the other. "And One" played one hit by one. Technoman, Steine sind Steine and of course Military Fashion Show. Steve Naghavi enjoyed to be on stage. It was an awesome finish for two wonderful festival days.

Next year we'll definitely be there again!!!

Sarah Marx

Photos © 2008 Michael Schmid (aka Therion)

Full Photo Gallery: www.digitaledunkelheit.de