Wave Gotik Treffen 2013 report
The 22nd edition of the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, Germany has come to an end. I traveled exclusively for Brutal resonance to write a report on this festival. Well, not really, since i go there every year for 10 years now, and since i write for Brutal Resonance i thought it was wise to see if i could get in as a member of the press. This turned out to be very well possible, so here i am now writing the report. Maybe i should have thought about that first. Well, no turning back now! Write, or Patrik will have my head!
I stopped going to WGT for the bands years ago. I have seen most bands who play there several times now, and the program of the WGT is solid, but not really progressive. However: compared to the average German dark scene festival they are very progressive. More on that later. WGT is for me more a festival to enjoy with friends, go party, buy merch and do some networking in the music business.
I did go with a group of friends and colleague DJs from the Netherlands, and we have a friend in our company who rents an entire apartment building for the WGT on which we all can sign up for a bed in the apartments, making our WGT very cheap.
Thursday.
The official program starts at Friday, but a few places in Leipzig already have stuff going on on the Thursday. One of these venues is the Moritzbastei. A famous phrase there is the "Das WGT fangt im Moritzbastei immer an Donnerstag an" and so after an easy trip with no problems by car we arrived in Leipzig, and after getting a meal and a few hours rest we went to the Moritzbastei.
We missed out on Controlled Collapse and Radioaktivists playing because we were relatively late. A pity, because i wanted to see those bands, and especially Radioaktivists. That will have to be for a next time. We installed ourselves with drinks and the Moritzbastei's famous "Spinatlasanga" and went for the night program of the Global Noise Movement who always host three nights there at the WGT, and also organize their events during the year.
First act we saw was Underhill, who delivered a fine mix of ambient electronica and triphop. Good stuff, but since the Dutch party crowd likes it hard and violent, the 16 Pad Noise Terrorist show was where it was for us. A good mix of industrial drum&bass with some mild crossbreed influences made for a good start of the WGT.
Friday.
For me personally the Friday was the most interesting day, given that this was the day the Hands label had a lot of their acts play at the new location Altes Landratsamt. After a good night of sleep and a stroll over the market at the AGRA, i went to the location to see <1979> because i liked their album on hands very much. And they did not disappoint. Their set was filled with groovy crossovers between rhythmic noise and moombahton/dancehall, making them one of the few active acts in Moombahdustrial. Impressive set. Something which i could not say for the next show by Incite/ which was too cerebral for me. Their electro/IDM mix seemed to be made from a limited amount of sounds, and the music lacks groove. But the audience seems to like it, so this might very well be a taste thing. Their visuals were very good though. Excellent work.
Proyecto Mirage was fun as well, though i am personally not really a fan of the way they do vocals, but it was an energetic set. Biggest surprise was seeing Hypnoskull's return to form. I already had heard the new album and was pleasantly suprised he had shed the way to experimental breakcore sound for an old school rhythmic noise sound. And such was his live set. Very groovy aggressive material. Much better than the sometimes disastrous live sets he did until recently.
Closing was rhythmic noise superstars Winterkalte, who despite not having released an album in 9 years (Come on Udo! Everybody is waiting!) are still a live act to be reckoned with. WInterkalte delivered the goods and everybody was dancing and sweating in a warm Altes Landratsamt. After that it was back to the Moritzbastei for partay, cocktails, crazy scenes and spinatlasagna!
Saturday.
This day was pretty uneventful WGT wise. Lots of weird stuff happened, and that's nice as well. We got up and fired up a barbecue at our apartment complex and proceeded burning and eating pigmeat our Austrian guests brought. When we finished this debauchery Sami from Faderhead walked in, and we did hang with Faderhead a while because we know the rules. Afterwards we went to the AGRA for running around at the market and do some more hanging with Faderhead and lots of other people and completely forgetting about the shows there. I have seen Suicide Commando 15 times now, and VAC never bothered me much, so we just partied, ate German stuff and had fun.
As usual we got to the Moritzbastei early to see if we could see the shows of Asche and Iszoloscope, which didn't work out because of crowdyness, though Andi from Asche told us it didn't look too bad from stage. But the hall at Moritzbastei only has one small entrance so if that is cluttered with people it looks full, so we just went for the Spinatlasagne instead. And as such the evening proceeded into the general hanging around at the Moritzbastei.
This was also the day the Eurovision Songfestival was held, and The Netherlands finally had a decent song which wasn't written by an old schlager retard, so we were curious if we had a chance. We finished 9th, which is not bad, and we went on to congratulate the Danish party squad with Sumez and the lads from Goth and Guns (check their Cybergothic dance tutorial on YouTube!) from Copenhagen with their victory, because Denmark won this edition.
Fortunately the noise hadn't stopped and the night was filled with more Global Noise Movement yummies. I saw and heard excellent DJ gigs by Jana Dark and Gassman and a fine show by Maschinenkrieger 52 vs Disraptor filled with dirty rhythmic noise and harsh industrial.
Sunday.
After three days of straight party and not sleeping enough this day promised to be a bit slowish. I was in a better shape then most of my travel mates because i don't drink, smoke and do drugs, but with 5 hours sleep four nights in a row i was not really a happy camper myself.
Still getting up early we decided to go for ice cream. Near the Augustusplatz in Leipzig there is this AWESOME ice saloon called San Remo which offers HUGE sorbets which are really really good, so we went for an ice cream breakfast there. If you go to the WGT make sure not to miss this place. You going to be thanking me if you belch on that "Exclusiver nussbecher" after your visit. The big thing in the picture above this article is the gastronomical awesomeness which is the exclusiver nussbecher.
But there was work to do, so we moved to the Werk II to go see some more industrial stuff......hey, the tables and chairs are not taken outside the hall.....lets go SIT and get drinks! And so we missed Phosgore and the show of DirtyK, though DirtyK came to chat a bit with us before the show, so we saw one of their rare spoken words performances i guess.
We didn't miss Incubite however, though we should have. This is a cyber act with all the cliche leads from the Vanguard softsynth and boring beats. Their music is bad already, but live they managed to make it a total shit fest by falling in the "OMFG WE NEED TO BE MOAR LIVE SO WE GOTTA HAVE GUITARS AND LIVE DRUMS!!!" trap. I was watching this utter drama unfold while one of the bookers of a big European festival was standing next to me, and he said: "We are soooo not gonna book this band!" to me. And rightly so.
Though i love Peter and Wendy from Shiv-r and they are totally awesome people, their music isn't really my taste, and i don't like what Noisuf-X is doing at all nowadays, so we went to check out A Split Second. Most old school bands returning from the eighties don't do too well in a live setting. But A Split Second did do a fairly decent job, and the show from these old timers was pretty good. We went to the Moritzbastei (again? yes again!) after this and when it turned out they had boring goth rock DJ's in two halls. Daniel Meyer was doing the big hall, but the stuff he was playing, while good, wasn't what we were into, so we decided to cut it short and get some sleep early.
Monday.
The final day of WGT! The program was not very interesting this day. First off to San Remo for MOAR ICECREAM. We went to the AGRA after that to see if there was something nice on discount, because a lot of the stalls offer discounts on the final days. After that it was a bit of lounging and talking to friends. We missed the shows at the AGRA because i have seen most bands a few times already (Orange Sector, Patentbrigade wolff) or they don't interest me (KMFDM). The headliner VNV Nation i have seen about 20 times now, because i used to get booked as a DJ every time they played the Netherlands. I like that band, but i am not the "OMFG, I am so gonna see them a 21st time!" fan boy. So we went to the Moritzbastei for the final Global Noise Movement evening.
Our countryman Joost from Mono-Amine was in our company, and he had to play here, so we went to support him. Before his show we checked out the DJ set from Signalstoerung vs Elias Zorn, which was very interesting, but also very experimental for a crowd who expects harsh industrial music. I am certain his set would have been appreciated in the underground techno clubs in Berlin, but here it was misplaced.
Fortunately Mono-Amine ripped the place apart with his 160 BPM rhythmic noise/industrial hardcore/techno crossovers, and he showed why the Dutch are currently the leading force in harsh industrial music. Only letdown would be the limiter in the hall keeping Mono-Amine from a pure sonic apocalypse. After this hour of violence Udo Weissman from Winterkalte took over. But while he is among the best DJ's in the rhythmic noise scene, after a Mono-Amine show it is just too quiet what he was doing. They better had Mono-Amine play after him i think, but we decided to relax some more, and get prepared for the long journey back.
Impressions
Though i haven't seen that many bands, the WGT is still the best dark scene festival around. Opposed to most German festivals they at least book some interesting bands instead of the boring bands they book every year at the other festivals. There was even indie goth booked here like Die Selektion and Karin Park, which i wanted to check out, but didn't due to other obligations, and general laziness.
Still WGT offers much more than the usual festival vibe, because its in the city of Leipzig itself, making it possible to do your shopping in normal supermarkets instead of paying bloated prices at the festival field itself. Shopping, sightseeing, museums, affordable prices, music, parties and general craziness all in one festival. If you haven't been there, you are sure missing out on the best dark scene festival at the moment!
I stopped going to WGT for the bands years ago. I have seen most bands who play there several times now, and the program of the WGT is solid, but not really progressive. However: compared to the average German dark scene festival they are very progressive. More on that later. WGT is for me more a festival to enjoy with friends, go party, buy merch and do some networking in the music business.
I did go with a group of friends and colleague DJs from the Netherlands, and we have a friend in our company who rents an entire apartment building for the WGT on which we all can sign up for a bed in the apartments, making our WGT very cheap.
Thursday.
The official program starts at Friday, but a few places in Leipzig already have stuff going on on the Thursday. One of these venues is the Moritzbastei. A famous phrase there is the "Das WGT fangt im Moritzbastei immer an Donnerstag an" and so after an easy trip with no problems by car we arrived in Leipzig, and after getting a meal and a few hours rest we went to the Moritzbastei.
We missed out on Controlled Collapse and Radioaktivists playing because we were relatively late. A pity, because i wanted to see those bands, and especially Radioaktivists. That will have to be for a next time. We installed ourselves with drinks and the Moritzbastei's famous "Spinatlasanga" and went for the night program of the Global Noise Movement who always host three nights there at the WGT, and also organize their events during the year.
First act we saw was Underhill, who delivered a fine mix of ambient electronica and triphop. Good stuff, but since the Dutch party crowd likes it hard and violent, the 16 Pad Noise Terrorist show was where it was for us. A good mix of industrial drum&bass with some mild crossbreed influences made for a good start of the WGT.
Friday.
For me personally the Friday was the most interesting day, given that this was the day the Hands label had a lot of their acts play at the new location Altes Landratsamt. After a good night of sleep and a stroll over the market at the AGRA, i went to the location to see <1979> because i liked their album on hands very much. And they did not disappoint. Their set was filled with groovy crossovers between rhythmic noise and moombahton/dancehall, making them one of the few active acts in Moombahdustrial. Impressive set. Something which i could not say for the next show by Incite/ which was too cerebral for me. Their electro/IDM mix seemed to be made from a limited amount of sounds, and the music lacks groove. But the audience seems to like it, so this might very well be a taste thing. Their visuals were very good though. Excellent work.
Proyecto Mirage was fun as well, though i am personally not really a fan of the way they do vocals, but it was an energetic set. Biggest surprise was seeing Hypnoskull's return to form. I already had heard the new album and was pleasantly suprised he had shed the way to experimental breakcore sound for an old school rhythmic noise sound. And such was his live set. Very groovy aggressive material. Much better than the sometimes disastrous live sets he did until recently.
Closing was rhythmic noise superstars Winterkalte, who despite not having released an album in 9 years (Come on Udo! Everybody is waiting!) are still a live act to be reckoned with. WInterkalte delivered the goods and everybody was dancing and sweating in a warm Altes Landratsamt. After that it was back to the Moritzbastei for partay, cocktails, crazy scenes and spinatlasagna!
Saturday.
This day was pretty uneventful WGT wise. Lots of weird stuff happened, and that's nice as well. We got up and fired up a barbecue at our apartment complex and proceeded burning and eating pigmeat our Austrian guests brought. When we finished this debauchery Sami from Faderhead walked in, and we did hang with Faderhead a while because we know the rules. Afterwards we went to the AGRA for running around at the market and do some more hanging with Faderhead and lots of other people and completely forgetting about the shows there. I have seen Suicide Commando 15 times now, and VAC never bothered me much, so we just partied, ate German stuff and had fun.
As usual we got to the Moritzbastei early to see if we could see the shows of Asche and Iszoloscope, which didn't work out because of crowdyness, though Andi from Asche told us it didn't look too bad from stage. But the hall at Moritzbastei only has one small entrance so if that is cluttered with people it looks full, so we just went for the Spinatlasagne instead. And as such the evening proceeded into the general hanging around at the Moritzbastei.
This was also the day the Eurovision Songfestival was held, and The Netherlands finally had a decent song which wasn't written by an old schlager retard, so we were curious if we had a chance. We finished 9th, which is not bad, and we went on to congratulate the Danish party squad with Sumez and the lads from Goth and Guns (check their Cybergothic dance tutorial on YouTube!) from Copenhagen with their victory, because Denmark won this edition.
Fortunately the noise hadn't stopped and the night was filled with more Global Noise Movement yummies. I saw and heard excellent DJ gigs by Jana Dark and Gassman and a fine show by Maschinenkrieger 52 vs Disraptor filled with dirty rhythmic noise and harsh industrial.
Sunday.
After three days of straight party and not sleeping enough this day promised to be a bit slowish. I was in a better shape then most of my travel mates because i don't drink, smoke and do drugs, but with 5 hours sleep four nights in a row i was not really a happy camper myself.
Still getting up early we decided to go for ice cream. Near the Augustusplatz in Leipzig there is this AWESOME ice saloon called San Remo which offers HUGE sorbets which are really really good, so we went for an ice cream breakfast there. If you go to the WGT make sure not to miss this place. You going to be thanking me if you belch on that "Exclusiver nussbecher" after your visit. The big thing in the picture above this article is the gastronomical awesomeness which is the exclusiver nussbecher.
But there was work to do, so we moved to the Werk II to go see some more industrial stuff......hey, the tables and chairs are not taken outside the hall.....lets go SIT and get drinks! And so we missed Phosgore and the show of DirtyK, though DirtyK came to chat a bit with us before the show, so we saw one of their rare spoken words performances i guess.
We didn't miss Incubite however, though we should have. This is a cyber act with all the cliche leads from the Vanguard softsynth and boring beats. Their music is bad already, but live they managed to make it a total shit fest by falling in the "OMFG WE NEED TO BE MOAR LIVE SO WE GOTTA HAVE GUITARS AND LIVE DRUMS!!!" trap. I was watching this utter drama unfold while one of the bookers of a big European festival was standing next to me, and he said: "We are soooo not gonna book this band!" to me. And rightly so.
Though i love Peter and Wendy from Shiv-r and they are totally awesome people, their music isn't really my taste, and i don't like what Noisuf-X is doing at all nowadays, so we went to check out A Split Second. Most old school bands returning from the eighties don't do too well in a live setting. But A Split Second did do a fairly decent job, and the show from these old timers was pretty good. We went to the Moritzbastei (again? yes again!) after this and when it turned out they had boring goth rock DJ's in two halls. Daniel Meyer was doing the big hall, but the stuff he was playing, while good, wasn't what we were into, so we decided to cut it short and get some sleep early.
Monday.
The final day of WGT! The program was not very interesting this day. First off to San Remo for MOAR ICECREAM. We went to the AGRA after that to see if there was something nice on discount, because a lot of the stalls offer discounts on the final days. After that it was a bit of lounging and talking to friends. We missed the shows at the AGRA because i have seen most bands a few times already (Orange Sector, Patentbrigade wolff) or they don't interest me (KMFDM). The headliner VNV Nation i have seen about 20 times now, because i used to get booked as a DJ every time they played the Netherlands. I like that band, but i am not the "OMFG, I am so gonna see them a 21st time!" fan boy. So we went to the Moritzbastei for the final Global Noise Movement evening.
Our countryman Joost from Mono-Amine was in our company, and he had to play here, so we went to support him. Before his show we checked out the DJ set from Signalstoerung vs Elias Zorn, which was very interesting, but also very experimental for a crowd who expects harsh industrial music. I am certain his set would have been appreciated in the underground techno clubs in Berlin, but here it was misplaced.
Fortunately Mono-Amine ripped the place apart with his 160 BPM rhythmic noise/industrial hardcore/techno crossovers, and he showed why the Dutch are currently the leading force in harsh industrial music. Only letdown would be the limiter in the hall keeping Mono-Amine from a pure sonic apocalypse. After this hour of violence Udo Weissman from Winterkalte took over. But while he is among the best DJ's in the rhythmic noise scene, after a Mono-Amine show it is just too quiet what he was doing. They better had Mono-Amine play after him i think, but we decided to relax some more, and get prepared for the long journey back.
Impressions
Though i haven't seen that many bands, the WGT is still the best dark scene festival around. Opposed to most German festivals they at least book some interesting bands instead of the boring bands they book every year at the other festivals. There was even indie goth booked here like Die Selektion and Karin Park, which i wanted to check out, but didn't due to other obligations, and general laziness.
Still WGT offers much more than the usual festival vibe, because its in the city of Leipzig itself, making it possible to do your shopping in normal supermarkets instead of paying bloated prices at the festival field itself. Shopping, sightseeing, museums, affordable prices, music, parties and general craziness all in one festival. If you haven't been there, you are sure missing out on the best dark scene festival at the moment!
May 30 2013
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