Hell Nights Festival Review

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Entry posted by Cybergoth · July 23, 2007

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The Damned

Hi there!

So, finally I'm able to report from this great festival

First of all, there's two things I learned the hard way this weekend:

1. I'm not used to two 6-7 hour drives within 24 hours.

2. I am used to catch some sleep at night though.

Well, due to a string of events mostly beyond my control, instead of going with my sister to the Back to Future Festival, I ended in Essen with my sister-in-law. As I should learn today, this was in fact the much better deal, as the BtF festival seems to have suffered from a very heavy storm that not only flooded the camping site, but also brought the festival to an early end on sunday.

Back to Essen.

The "Funbox Amalie" is some old industrial hall it seems, that usually is open for skateboard kids. Still made a very good location this evening. I'd assume there were some 250-300 visitors this night. Maybe halfway filling it, so it was pretty comfortable. There was an interesting mixed bag of people showing up, lotsa Goth and Psychobilly folks, but for example there was also a couple in their late 40s-50s coming with their children or some 15 year old punk kiddies.

Advertised as "Hell Nights Festival", there where six bands playing in this particular order:

Devil in Disguise:

Hm... they didn't leave an impression at all, even though we stood the whole gig in the front row. Average guys doing average rock'n'roll, no clue what else to say.

Zombie Ghost Train:

The first real highlight. Cool band coming all the way from down under. Sporting some zombie-esque black/white face paintings they played some hellish goth'n'roll. We again made it to the front row and had a very good time. The band were also very friendly and they really seemed to enjoy the whole event, since after their show they joined the audience and watched all the other bands. They also often visited their merch-boot, chatting with everyone, signing stuff, were posing for photographs and really won some new fans here I think.

Heartbreak Engines:

They played some very hard and very fast Psychobilly music - which I didn't like at all. They also attracted some larger "wrecking crew" type crowd that were not only trashing their own brains out, but also often enough hit some innocent bystander, so my sister-in-law and me went a floor higher, watching the spectacle from some higher balcony spot.

The Other:

Made almost the same music as the Heartbreak Engines. The singer had an incredibly cool voice though, which was a real waste on the uninspired instrumet trashing of the rest of the band. They also did some pretentious-kitsch show bits, like handing out some eyebally looking things to the people in the front row - can't be long until they will attract the attention of the Mansonites :lolblue:

But right now it was still the Wrecking Crew continuing their tries to kill each other...

Rezurex:

Well I already knew that they were good. So when after the two hardcore bands the survivors of the front third of the audience needed a break, we took a chance and sneaked back into the front row!

Rezurex exceeded my already high expectations by far. They were brilliant. Cool stage appearance, excellent music, all fell into place. Look at their spooky singer:

Absolute highligt was their performance of "Devil Woman from outer Space":

With no other choice, I just had to buy their album right after the show!

The Damned:

Well then, after a longer break, finally it's time for the band we actually came here for: The Damned!!!

A band that never lets you down, they just did their usual: A simply perfect gig!

Says the fanboy, I know. But really. They played a very fast set, focused around the more popular tunes from Damned Damned Damned and Machine Gun Etiquette. Here's the songs they played as good as I remember it: (wrong order though)

New Rose

Neat Neat Neat

See Her Tonight

I Fall

Machine Gun Etiquette

Love Song

Smash it Up (1&2)

Plan 9 Channel 7

I just Can't be Happy Today

Anti-Pope

13th Floor Vendetta

History of the World Part 1

Ignite

Generals

Disco Man

Democracy

===

Eloise

I Feel Alright

Well, I already knew from the MGE25 DVD that they were playing "History of the World" lately, so the only real surprise was "13th Floor Vendetta", over which I'd honestly preferred "Wait for the Blackout" or "Curtain Call", but still, at least it was something you don't hear that often

All in the band were in pretty good shape, the songs were performed fast and flawless. One thing that had me puzzled was that Dave didn't do the "howling" bit at the end of P9C7. Definitely need to check if he usually does that live, or if I only noticed it missing for the first time... :ponder:

Also notably that they kinda fell back a bit into a greatest hits routine. (I was at least hoping to get to see "Little Miss Disaster" live this time). Well, probably no wonder with all the "30 years of Punk" hype these days

Still, no real complaint here - a perfect 10/10 once again!

Regarding T-shirts and stuff, the only thing that was offered was an ugly black/white 2006 UK tour shirt which I managed to avoid somehow, thank heavens. HEY GUYS! Your last tour here was in 2000, I sure had some time to save some money for something better than that! In fact I fear I'm very soon running out of The Damned bumper stickers! /hint :lol: