Last concert of the Germany tour and due to that the crew had imagined many funny things for the four guys of BRDigung. First the band banner was hanging upside-down on stage and in the beginning they had to use bananas instead of microphones. Also the playing was first really hard as on the stage monitors xxx-rated films were shown. At some point in the middle of the gig two members of the crew appeared on stage and threw red hearts into the audience.
After 2.5 years it finally was the day that the latest opus of Epica should see the light of the world. That of course should be celebrated by a true release concert and so the 013 at Tilburg was completely filled when at 21:15 the first drum sounds came out of the speakers. The stage was covered with a black cloth and a simply not ending intro opened the gig. finally the drums went over into the intro of their new album "Requiem For The Indifferent" "Karma". After that passed with a loud band the cloth was removed and opened the view onto the new stage setting whilst the band intonated "Monopoly On Truth".
Not even half a year ago that I watched Stream Of Passion live for the last time. It was at the Belgian Wieze on Metal Female Voices Fest to that time and now as support acto of Epica during their release show for the new album "Requiem For The Indifferent". For singer Marcela Bovio it was quasi a "home game" as she is momentarily living at Tilburg.
Shortly after 21:00 the light at the Ahoy went out and several spotlights were targeting to the sideentrance of the infield. From there the musicians of Rammstein were cutting their way through the crowd towards side stage. Lead by the bassist and torchbearer Oliver Riedel first keyboarder Christian "Flake" Lorenz was following with the Dutch flag whilst drummer Christoph Schneider was waving one from Rammstein. Shortly before from the roof of the venue a bridge had been lowered connecting the small side stage with the big main stage. After the musicians found their formation on the big stage the bridge rose and with the opener "Sonne" it was directly going from 0% to 100%.
The support act for Rammstein was formed this time by the Swedish industrial and gothic metaller of Deathstars. They fit way better to Rammstein from my point of view than Combichrist did on the last tour. I did not know the band beforehand and so the first thought running through my head after they started was: 69 Eyes on industrial. This thought was mainly influenced by singer Andreas Bergh whose voice is quite similar to the one of the 69 Eyes front men. A nice sonorously clear voice.
The Guano Apes are back on tour. As you can see on my event list my very first concert was one of Guano Apes. To that time at the Ebertbad at Oberhausen in front of 150 they introduced their new CD "Walking On A Thin Line" and were on the climax of their carreer. Shortly afterwards the end was there and each of them tried to westle through with more or less success. 2009 the four from Göttingen reunited and the result, their current album "Bel Air" was forming the basis of this evening.
You had to wait for a long time in frostiness in front of the venue until you finally could enter to defreeze. The Stahlwerk was already quite well filled when the guys of the band Alpha Academy from Göttingen entered the stage at 20:00 to fire us up.
Towards 22:00 it finally was the time and the guys of Amorphis entered the stage. The Hyde-Park was meanwhile quite well filled, the visitors really in a good mood so everything was prepared for a great concert.
The guys of Leprous brought as second band of the evening some harder sounds onto the stage. With their progressive metal they hasted very energetic across the unfortunately quite dark stage. They played except "Dare You" only songs of their latest longplayer "Bilateral".
The evening was opened by the Finnish band The Man-Eating Tree. Founded three years ago by the former Sentenced drummer Vesa Ranta. That was unfortunately not with them on this tour as he was waiting for his addition to his family at home. As replacement they could get hold of Aksu Hanttu who did a perfect job.