Nachtmahr – Electrowerkz

Last night was a chance to listen to some classic Austrian Industrial music at Electrowerkz. It’s in Torrens Street, Angel, which is a tiny little cul-de-sac with a smart pub at its entrance and an Alien-themed industrial-alternative club for other people at the other end.

I think last night was the forth time I’ve got clothes on and ready in another person’s driveway. I park in spaces that people don’t use, but I’m not a thief, I pay for the privilege to keep my car there.

First band on at Electrowerkz was Dunkelsucht. This probably translates to either dark thoughts or depression. I’m not sure and in this day and age it’s terrible that I haven’t looked up which it is. Maybe I’m too lazy. OK, I just went and did it and it apparently means Dark Investigated. I suspect not!

Dunkelsucht
Dunkelsucht

This band comprised a male singer and a female computer controller type person. They are from Switzerland and I quite enjoyed them. It seemed quite pop-like to me, but I suspect that in reality it’s quite heavy stuff? I’m never sure and I hate the fact that it’s all so subjective. I wrote in my notes that it was OK, they had good beats and I enjoyed it overall. I did find that in the middle of a few songs it suddenly went strange with melodies that seemed out of place.

The next band on were DKAG and I’ve seen them before a number of times. Smith and I stayed in the bar. I spent thirty seconds watching them, just to check they were the same. There’s a limit to how much I can take. I’ve kinda come to the conclusion that I really enjoy about forty five minutes of any band and show but after that I start to get bored because all the songs sound the same. I think that’s either because I enjoy M’era Luna and the shorter sets that I generally see there or the causation is the other way around and I just find shorter sets more interesting.

The headliners were Nachtmahr. As with the last time I saw them here there were only two of them. The singer, Thomas Rainer, and the computer controller were all by themselves. I know there were about five people on stage at M’era Luna although two of those were female stage show actors.

Nachtmahr - March 19
Nachtmahr – March 19

Nachtmahr played for a solid ninety minutes and if I’m honest I only started to struggle in the last fifteen or so, even given my rant a couple of paragraphs ago. They were pretty good, but I don’t think Rainer is a natural frontman. To me he looks like he’s playing an act, which all singers are to an extent, but he seems uncomfortable with it. I don’t mind that though. I’ve paid to see a show and I don’t want my musicians to look like they aren’t enjoying it.

Hello Crowd
Hello Crowd

This set had a load of classic songs you would expect to hear. I enjoyed it a lot.

What I found most interesting at the venue was that I would say it was easily a 50-50 split in the sexes of those attending. There was also a wide age spread from around 18 to around 65 from the looks of the people I saw. It was quite probably the most diverse audience I have seen yet for a gig. It was such a nice atmosphere, really enjoyable. A good night.

3TEETH – Electrowerkz

Yesterday I definitely wasn’t on a road trip and I definitely tweeted this.

In reality I was on a fast train into London town. I had just completed a live range at MGS and got changed quickly to see the LA band 3Teeth at Electrowerkz, that lovely quiet, beautiful little venue in The Angel.

The support band were called Creepiing. They were a bit shit really. They had one good song and another one that was borderline OK.

Creepiing
Creepiing

Unfortunately for them, Creepiing, just weren’t that good. The crowd gave them a good reception though.

The headline band were next and for just over an hour they played a solid set. The music is dark, slow and menacing. It’s a very good blend of heavy chugging riffs with keyboards and sampled sounds. The vocals, although distorted, are clear and understandable.

3TEETH
3TEETH

There are a couple of things I want to mention though. Most of the songs are heavy and slow so there weren’t really any upbeat songs to get your dancing shoes moving. I know slow is their style but overall the evening needed some bounce. It’s always seemed important to me that bands look like they are having fun and can enjoy the moment. 3Teeth managed that well. The little chats in between songs were personalised and friendly with plenty of smiling from the lead singer. The guitarist was a pretty happy chap too. The keyboardists didn’t really raise their faces much, but perhaps that’s because they are keyboardists.

The gig was rated 6 on a scale of something.

Before the encore the crowd were doing what seems to be an industry standard now of chatting “one more song”. I find this really irritating. Why stop at one more song? Why not ask for a whole album? “We want more” seems a more appropriate chant to make, thereby not limiting the band to just one more song.

My favourite encore chant was “We want Moore” when I saw Gary Moore back in the day.

Lea Porcelain – Electrowerkz

Some places just make you feel “right” when you get there. I’ve always loved Electrowerkz since seeing Combichrist there a few years ago. It’s a dark and brooding place with a calming courtyard bar:

Electrowerkz - A bar
Electrowerkz – A bar

There are quite a few other bars and rooms and levels but the venue can be turned into smaller venues by cunning closing of routes. The first band on last night we called Lectures. They seemed to me to be like Coldplay, a kind of public school, well written, guitar based music which bored me. At the end of their set Smith decided they sounded more like the Doors. They still bored me.

Lectures
Lectures

Would I see Lectures again? No. Was it OK? Yes.

The headliners were Lea Porcelain. When they opened it sounded like Blade Runner music by Vangelis. It was synths with a little bit of nasty, a good start. After that though they kinda settled into what I would call standard dark electric but far away from aggrotech.

Lea Porcelain
Lea Porcelain

I’d watch this band again if they happened to be on somewhere I happened to be but I wouldn’t seek them out. During the set I am sure I heard them say they were from Israel but looking into them a bit it seems they are from Frankfurt so I’m not sure what’s going on there!

3Teeth – Electrowerkz

Popped over to Electrowerkz last night to see 3Teeth play. There were support bands but I didn’t watch them due to spending time in the bar chatting to people. The support were:

  • Stereo Juggernaut
  • Deadfilmstar
  • Ventenner

3Teeth were on from 22:00 hours and I was quite impressed. They played a solid set. The first three songs were probably the best and I am sure that once they have created more music the rest will be as strong.

3 Teeth
3 Teeth

Oddly I got admonished by a man for talking too loudly in the main performance room! Very strange, the sound of the band was perfectly loud enough!

There’s a couple of gigs coming up soon so look to see what I think of them.

Angel

Here’s a picture of the guardian angel I have looing over my Christmas tree. We have a non-religious star at the top of the tree and this chap is standing to attention just below that. It’s nice to consider him overlooking the children and keeping an eye on them. Much like Obi-Wan in this comminication.

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