As it should be on Sunday just as warm and sunny as on Saturday, the second day started a little bit later for me. So, I was only around 14:00 in front of the Main Stage to watch an excellent gig of the band dArtagnan which could also have been one of the headliners. Afterwards, there was with Das Ich one of the old hands of the dark alternative scene on the Club Stage, before I went back to the main stage. There it continued medieval with Schandmaul. I was really happy to see front man Thomas Lindner after his cancerous disease back on stage. Unfortunately the chemotherapy had affected his voice so that he is not yet able to sing again. But ex-Russkaja front man Georgij Makazaria was perfectly able to replace him.
Next, I want to upload my accumulated photos online. These are various things I did over the past year. I’ll start with the concert of the band Die Ärzte, who made a stop at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen in October 2023 as part of their "Herbst des Lebens" tour. I was lucky enough to see the final concert and was truly rewarded with a very comprehensive cross-section of their work.
The tour of the local zoos continued in the autumn. First, I visited the small zoo in Bochum for the first time, which I really enjoyed. Two weeks later, I visited the gardens at the Emsflower Garden Center, which also featured some animals. The tour concluded with a visit to the NaturZoo in Rheine, which I had last visited two years ago.
On second weekend in August the time had come: The first time on the M'era Luna festival at Hildesheim. The big meeting of the dark alternative scene at best weather. Temperatures were not yet that high but the sun was burning permanently and so there was only one thing to do: drinking, drinking and again drinking (but of course only very little alcohol). On Saturday the day started for me after that I had already been on the festival area to listen to the reading of Lydia Bennecke on Friday evening, with Schwarzer Engel, who, although it was still quite early, delivered a very impressive performance in front of a respective audience. Also Alex Wesselsky was luckily healthy again an so he could play through some older Megaherz classics together with his men.
This year, I will break new ground and visit the M’era Luna for the first time. Already since 2000 the festival of the dark culture is taking place at Hildesheim on the airport and is besides the Wave-Gothik-Treffen at Leipzig one of the biggest of its kind. Also this year there will be up to 25000 people coming for sure when the big ones out of Gothic, electronic music, alternative, medieval-rock and other genres will play on the stages.
Last year in August Heaven Shall Burn and Trivium went onto a continuation of their tour they had during the last winter. But despite to then, this time on the Summer Battles 2023 tour the smaller location were on their plan. At the Junkyard at Dortmund it took place in a great frame. In best junkyard atmosphere Bleed From Within was the opener. The Scots really had fun during their gig and so the spark directly leaped over to the audience.
Today, there is part 2 of the last and first concerts before and after the corona break. The last bands befor the pause were in November 2019 at the one hand the to me unknown Rosy Vista who were in the past already a quite well known female heavy metal combo, as well as the guys from John Diva And The Rockets Of Love that passed by the Turock at Essen during their "Mama Said Rock Is Dead" tour. It was a lively evening that was really fun.
It has been a long time that you heard of me.Many things left so few time to me that it was impossible to write new articles and upload pictures. But here we go again.
Initially, there is a new base for the homepage and the website received a slight facelift.
Content wise the band and concert lists as well as the equipment was updated.
After 10 years it was finally a new album to be released by Rammstein. Appropriate to that they went onto the first stadium tour of their 25 years lasting band history. The first stop was the Veltins Arena at Gelsenkirchen where I joined on the second evening.
First, I spontaneously paid a visit between Christmas and New Year to the small Dutch town Zwolle. At the local exhibition hall respectively a specially built tent next to it a small but very impressive ice sculpture festival took place. After one was able to admire the artworks at arctic temperatures one was finally quite happy to get back into the warm.