WGT Friday
28 May 2018 22:45![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vampyresheepThe first day of the festival proper! Got breakfast from the station, so that we could get dressed at leisure in our room and then met up with people at the station to head to the Victorian Village together.
The Victorian Village has become a bit of a monster - apparently 8000 people attended it this year! There seemed to be less of the uber-dressed up types this year but this was partly due to the overwhelming numbers of people and a bit of a stroll around the wooded areas of the park revealed the usual impressive picnic set ups.
many more photos here!
We couldn't stay long however, as today, bands wise, was the big one for me, with two of my all time favourite musicians performing in the same line-up (Dirk Ivens and Douglas McCarthy, squeee!) I also needed to get there for the first band, Formalin, and the venue was a new one so we'd no idea how to get there. Found the place with no problem, despite engineering works on the tram route, resulting in us needing to catch a replacement bus.
Westbad was formerly a swimming pool, which was a little surreal but overall a pretty good venue, albeit with no seats and limited food facilites. We also found out later that there was a mahoosive queue to get in from Dive onwards, so it was a good thing we got there early and stayed put.
rather cute ceiling decor
Formalin were fab (and cute looking!) as ever. I'm not such a fan of their latest album and would have preferred to hear more older stuff but they performed the new tracks well and still full of confident energy on stage.
Next up were Brits, Sulphur. I'd seen them before and knew they weren't my thing, guitar industrial - the first blast of the very loud guitar sent us off to the cafe area to shelter from the sound, and they sounded somewhat better from there whilst I was sitting on the floor with a coffee and a surprisingly tasty homemade chilli.
As soon as they finished, I dashed to grab my spot at the front of the stage for Dive. Dirk was fantastic as always, a great set with a mix of new tracks and the classics; his simple set up of strobe light, tape deck and megaphone is just so powerful. I'll never tire of seeing him live, in any of his projects, but Dive is definately my favourite.
and this, one of his very rare videos, was produced by a friend, Gabi Edvy - it is rather good indeed!
The venue filled up for [SITD] whom I've seen before and find a tad over-rated (one good song!). They were OK, if they weren't sandwiched between my two favourites I might have appreciated them more but after Dive, just a tad generic EBM for my liking.
Managed to grab exactly the same spot for the headline act, Black Line. Not as busy as expected but I think many weren't aware it was the latest project of Douglas McCarthy and Bon Harris (both Nitzer Ebb), with DJ cyrusrex and various other collaborators. I loved it very much although it didn't retain Rob's attention so much - but for me, such close proximity to one of my all time musical heroes, it was gig-heaven. Bon Harris was so entertaining to watch too, such a flamboyant drummer!
We managed to get a tram as soon as we left, spotting a couple of WGT pals Sandi and Raphael from Florida, whom we met last time. We got off the tram near Haus Leipzig for the Dunkelromantischer Tanz clubnight but realised it was way too early, so we stopped off at a kebab restaurant for a snack and sit down.
halloumi kebab or work of art? ;-)
Despite this, when we got to Haus Leipzig it still hadn't opened and there was quite a queue outside. Spotted Wendy and Gerrit, along with Sarah and pal, so we "queue jumped" a tad by standing with them.
Unfortunately the busy first day had taken its toll on my feet and one G&T at the club tipped me over the edge, so we didn't stay long and got a tram back to our hotel - also encountering our first chavs in Leipzig, just as nasty in Germany as they are in the UK!
All the photos for the day are here
The Victorian Village has become a bit of a monster - apparently 8000 people attended it this year! There seemed to be less of the uber-dressed up types this year but this was partly due to the overwhelming numbers of people and a bit of a stroll around the wooded areas of the park revealed the usual impressive picnic set ups.
many more photos here!
We couldn't stay long however, as today, bands wise, was the big one for me, with two of my all time favourite musicians performing in the same line-up (Dirk Ivens and Douglas McCarthy, squeee!) I also needed to get there for the first band, Formalin, and the venue was a new one so we'd no idea how to get there. Found the place with no problem, despite engineering works on the tram route, resulting in us needing to catch a replacement bus.
Westbad was formerly a swimming pool, which was a little surreal but overall a pretty good venue, albeit with no seats and limited food facilites. We also found out later that there was a mahoosive queue to get in from Dive onwards, so it was a good thing we got there early and stayed put.
rather cute ceiling decor
Formalin were fab (and cute looking!) as ever. I'm not such a fan of their latest album and would have preferred to hear more older stuff but they performed the new tracks well and still full of confident energy on stage.
Next up were Brits, Sulphur. I'd seen them before and knew they weren't my thing, guitar industrial - the first blast of the very loud guitar sent us off to the cafe area to shelter from the sound, and they sounded somewhat better from there whilst I was sitting on the floor with a coffee and a surprisingly tasty homemade chilli.
As soon as they finished, I dashed to grab my spot at the front of the stage for Dive. Dirk was fantastic as always, a great set with a mix of new tracks and the classics; his simple set up of strobe light, tape deck and megaphone is just so powerful. I'll never tire of seeing him live, in any of his projects, but Dive is definately my favourite.
and this, one of his very rare videos, was produced by a friend, Gabi Edvy - it is rather good indeed!
The venue filled up for [SITD] whom I've seen before and find a tad over-rated (one good song!). They were OK, if they weren't sandwiched between my two favourites I might have appreciated them more but after Dive, just a tad generic EBM for my liking.
Managed to grab exactly the same spot for the headline act, Black Line. Not as busy as expected but I think many weren't aware it was the latest project of Douglas McCarthy and Bon Harris (both Nitzer Ebb), with DJ cyrusrex and various other collaborators. I loved it very much although it didn't retain Rob's attention so much - but for me, such close proximity to one of my all time musical heroes, it was gig-heaven. Bon Harris was so entertaining to watch too, such a flamboyant drummer!
We managed to get a tram as soon as we left, spotting a couple of WGT pals Sandi and Raphael from Florida, whom we met last time. We got off the tram near Haus Leipzig for the Dunkelromantischer Tanz clubnight but realised it was way too early, so we stopped off at a kebab restaurant for a snack and sit down.
halloumi kebab or work of art? ;-)
Despite this, when we got to Haus Leipzig it still hadn't opened and there was quite a queue outside. Spotted Wendy and Gerrit, along with Sarah and pal, so we "queue jumped" a tad by standing with them.
Unfortunately the busy first day had taken its toll on my feet and one G&T at the club tipped me over the edge, so we didn't stay long and got a tram back to our hotel - also encountering our first chavs in Leipzig, just as nasty in Germany as they are in the UK!
All the photos for the day are here