10.08.2024 London After Midnight

M'era Luna

Hildesheim (Germany)

Spontaneously, I remained at the Club Stage, although I also wanted to watch ASP in each case. London After Midnight canceled last year their show on short notice and so it was now that they were able to make up for this. Preparations had finished when directly the video screens at the back of the stage started playing advertisements for the upcoming album which went seamless over into the first song “Hot Stuff”.
Also London After Midnight can already look back onto a long history, releasing their first album back in 1995. The opener instead is of the last one called “Oddities Too” and to the forceful sounds of the song there are not less impressive pictures running across the video walls at the back of the stage accompanied by texts that prove how we slowly but surely are breaking our planets back. Singer Sean Brennan seemed to be vocally a little bit instable at the beginning but that went away already during the second song “Psycho Magnet” of the equally named 1996 album. Bass player Michael Areklett was standing easily next to him backing quite unexcitedly together with drummer P. Pace and Sean Brennan on keyboards the front man. It was quite crowded in front of the Club Stage and all were really following. This was also especially added by the fascinating videos that played at the background. All in all this show of London After Midnight remembered me strongly to Ministry although the musical style is clearly a different one. Nevertheless, they do have in common that they again and again are trying to transport clear messages to the people.
Actually, I only wanted to watch the beginning of the show and then change over to the Main Stage after 2-3 songs in order to watch ASP. However, I found this performance that fascinating that I really could not break away and decided to have a compromise by leaving the end of London After Midnight as well as the beginning of ASP in order to be able to watch as much as possible of both of them. Let me be entirely honest: The songs on their own did not really knock my socks off but in combination with the stage performance and the charismatic appearance of Sean Brennan it was finally casting a spell over me. It had in each case been the first wholly positive surprise of this festival to me which I did not plan on.