Tag Archives: Wave Gotik Treffen

Wave Gotik Treffen Leipzig Festival Day 3 (Saturday) – Rotersand, Moonspell and When We Were Young

Posted by missashjade on

Editorial note:

At Wave Gotik Treffen days do rather beautifully melt into one and other. That is why I mistakenly said that When We Were Young took place on Friday when in fact it took place on Saturday night. I have no clue where I was on Friday Night (therefore probably Sixtina) and if anyone can remind/enlighten me I would be most grateful!

After an afternoon trip to Morrison’s Irish Pub to meet with friends, we missed Luxury Stranger (who after endorsements from friends, I was eager to see) due to some stupidity on my part. We didn’t realised we had missed the gig until we turned up so spent some time milling around the Werk II area and had some food and drinks.

We then decided to investigate the Pagan Village for a bit. The Pagan Village is a fantastic place to just lay back and relax at the festival. At the Pagan Village you can taste all kinds of freshly made food from freshly baked goods to a whole pig roast! All can be consumed with mead (from a drinking horn if you are willing to pay extra) or beer. There are also many stalls full of everything from homemade elderberry wine to medieval style clothing.

After the Pagan Village I made my way to the Agra Halle to see a band who’s performance turned out to be one of the highlights of the festival – Rotersand.

Rotersand performing at Agra Halle

Rotersand performing at Agra Halle

As a recent EBM convert, I really only knew Rotersand for “Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy” (especially being the Doctor Who geek I am) but unlike some electronic bands they really put on a tremendous show. They opened to an expectant and excited crowd to “Basterds Screaming” – a brilliant call to rebellion from their new album “Random is Resistance“.

Rascal Nikov and Gunther Gerl really got the crowd going – jumping around on stage and looking like they were having a fantastic time. One of the things that I think sets a decent performance apart from a great performance is interaction with the audience which Rotersand did beautifully – talking to the audience and jumping down to party with the rest of the Agra Halle.

Rotersand performing “Waiting to be Born”

Just to add to what would have been an already fantastic performance, Rascal then unexpectedly invited a very special guest onto the stage – Ronan Harris of the fantastic British/Irish Futurepop kings VNV Nation!

Ronan Harris of VNV Nation performing with Rotersand

Ronan Harris of VNV Nation performing with Rotersand

Rascal and Ronan did a special duet version of “Merging Oceans” - Rotersand‘s breakthrough hit. This really was a great treat for the audience at Agra – seeing these two giants of the alternative scene perform together and if the crowd weren’t excited enough, then this sent them wild!

Ronan leaving the stage took the tone down a little but Rotersand’s top performing skills kept the pace. Of particular note, during “War on Error” Gunther Gerl donned a dollar sign mask which added well to the tone of the song which is about being against a “big brother society”.

As a finale to Rotersand‘s set the voices of the Daleks were heard to introduce Rotersand‘s most famous track – “Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy“.

Rating: 5/5

Rotersand‘s latest album Random Is Resistance is available here from amazon and this and their back catalogue is also available from missjade’s alternative music & culture shop.

Then, on the recommendation of a friend, we went to see Portugese Goth Metalers Monspell. Despite not particularly being a Metal Head myself it was an enjoyable gig. They gave a good performance and the graphics and music videos on the wall behind the band definitely added to the performance. As previously stated I’m not a metal fan so I can’t really say that the music was to my taste but by the reactions of a friend who is a fan of Moonspell it was a good performance.

Moonspell Performing at the Kohlrabizirkus at Wave Gotik Treffen 2010

Rating: 2/5

Moonspell‘s latest album Night Eternal is available from Amazon and this and Moonspell‘s back catalogue is available from missjade’s alternative music & culture shop.

Wave Gotik Treffen Leipzig Festival Day 2 (Friday) – Shopping, Zeromancer and Kirlian Camera

Posted by missashjade on

The next morning we had breakfast at the Sleepy Lion Hostel before collecting our wristbands at the collection point near Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Leipzig Main Station). We then headed off to do some serious shopping at XtraX discount shop.

For those who haven’t heard of XtraX before, XtraX is a chain of large Gothic fashion shops which are at four locations throughout Germany. Although they do have a permanent shop in Leipzig, during Wave Gotik Treffen, they setup an additional, temporary shop in order to have a massive sale of their old, excess or damaged stock. Flogging cheap clothing to Goths is of course not difficult as they know how to bargain hunt and with so many descending on Leipzig from around the world for WGT, it’s no wonder that XtraX have a sale shop every year. At prices of up to 50% off and 3 for 2 on all items, this is an absolute must for those who want to flesh out their wardrobe.

Although you can see why some outfits are in the sale, you will be able to find some gems in amongst the racks so as with any thrift shopping, be prepared to search and battle fellow shoppers for the right piece. The reward for those with enough persistance is that you can find an entire new outfit for around €40.

Rating: 3.5/5

Even mainstream shops in Leipzig ensure that their blackest, Gothiest wares are on display so we continued shopping, only breaking to stop for coffee with some new found friends and later on for a late lunch/early dinner

We got so involved with shopping that we almost missed the fantastic Zeromancer at the Agra Halle who I became a fan of after seeing them at last year’s Mera Luna festival.

Zeromancer Performing at the Agra Halle

Zeromancer Performing at the Agra Halle

The thing that strikes you most about Zeromancer is how spot on their live performance is. The industrial rockers blend driving rhythms with beautiful vocals provided by front man Alex Møklebust who spends most of the set with his shirt off in true rock star style. The Norwigen rockers have a definite Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails influence even taking on a similar violent themes for songs such as suicide and abusive relationships. The band play tracks such as “Doctor Online” and “Sinners International” from previous albums as well as tracks from their current album “The Death of Romance”. They also play a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Photographic” which I had not heard before but have since found out it was released as a track on the EP “It Sounds Like Love (But It Looks Like Sex)”. The driving guitars work really well with this track and it is definitely the highlight of the set. As a finale, they invite Conjure One vocalist and the original vocalist on “House of Cards” a track from the “Clone Your Lover” album, Free Dominguez to sing with them on stage. Personally, although great to hear this duet sung live, this track was a little slow for a finale.

Zeromancer performing Photographic at Agra Halle – Wave Gotik Treffen

Zeromancer’s back catalogue is available at missjade’s alternative music & culture shop and their latest album “The Death of Romance” is available from Amazon

Rating 4.5/5

As we were in the Agra Halle anyway, we took a look at the Market area. The Market at the Agra Halle is a great place to shop for Gothic merchandise from all over Germany and around the world but beware, it is very easy to spend a lot of money! In the Arga Halle I met Amelia Arsenic who I met a few months ago at Angelspit‘s Gig at Slimelight last April who this time was there selling her Miss.X Range of Jewellery and Makeup. After a quick chat about makeup and my varied results in using false eyelashes, I bought a set of Marquis De Sade lashes – lovely unusual lashes that have three elongated outer lashes with tiny feathers attached.

Rating: 4/5

I then left the Agra Halle Market to go and see Kirlian Camera in the performance area of Agra Halle. I went to see Kirlian Camera mainly because a friend was interested in seeing them live and I have to say that seeing them at Wave Gotik Treffen, I was not particularly impressed. I think that their music is a little boring and sounds like it has been put together using standard out-of-the-box music software samples. The lead singers vocals were pleasant enough but nothing special. Their performance was also fairly bland and disinteresting.

Kirlian Camera’s back catalogue is available at missjade’s alternative music & culture shop. Their latest album “Odyssey Europa” is available here from Amazon

Rating: 1/5

Our final stop of the night was the club “When We Were Young“. The Alternative 80′s/90′s Trad Goth nostalgia club is a yearly festival event and year’s club took place at Städtisches Kaufhaus, a strange but not unpleasant little venue with a tiny and packed dance area. The weather was too hot for a crowded dance floor and the slightly rude bar staff meant we spent most of the night sitting in the basement area of the club talking until and drinking into the small hours of the morning.

Rating: 3/5

Wave Gotik Treffen Leipzig Festival Day 1 (Thursday) – Arrival in Leipzig

Posted by missashjade on

This year’s Wave Gotik Treffen was a first for me and it was so fantastic I am already planning my trip next year. Over the next few days, I will be giving a day-by-day view of the festival overall with some reviews of bands, shops, restaurants/bars, club nights etc. Please also see my page of WGT recommended places in Leipzig which I will be adding to yearly.

We flew to Berlin and made the short train ride from Berlin to Leipzig. Our train arrived around 7:30pm so after dropping our bags off at the Sleepy Lion Hostel we headed to meet up with some people from at the Bayerische Bahnhof, a restaurant/bar serving traditional German food and and a wide selection of beer which is located towards the south east of the city centre. Our intention was to meet up with the American WGT meet up but the venue was so vast, with so may rooms that we ended up finding the Swiss meet up instead and sat near them. As ever with German food, there is little-to-no variety for vegetarians so if you are vegetarian eating here may not be for you. Myself an omnivore, I choose the Sauerbraten (beef marinated in a vinegar gravy/sauce to tenderise it) which came with traditional potato dumplings and red cabbage. The food was very good and the prices reasonable as a main meal should be no more than around 10 Euros. A group of us gathered at the bar increased and the drinks were flowing until we realised that the waitresses were trying to close the bar.

Eating at Bayerische Bahnhof

Eating at Bayerische Bahnhof

Rating : 5/5

We headed back into town to absinthe bar Sixtina where we stayed until about 3am. Sixtina is a great place to meet people at the festival as it has a vast outside seating area with benches which inevitably causes you to strike up a conversation with the person or group of people sitting next to you. During the Wave Gotik Treffen weekend Sixtina is open 24 hours and in addition to a range absinthes, also serves Black Hole (I believe a pre-mixed bottled mixture of Cola and absinthe) and beers for those who don’t want a visit from the Green Fairy. Sixtina has their own-brand absinthe which is the cheapest in their range and which, unless you are a absinthe aficionado, is fine to stick to. In order to melt the sugar cube that is provided with your absinthe, you can either use the paperclip the bar staff provide as a (perfectly acceptable) absinthe spoon, or pay extra for use of a proper spoon. Sixtina also has some small festival events taking place but unfortunately all that we managed to see whilst there was some people doing readings of their bad Goth poetry – a Goth stereotype I personally feel is unnecessary.

At Sixtina with Absinthe

At Sixtina with Absinthe

Rating: 4/5