Quarta-feira 18 Abr 2012, 7h:17

Sat 7 Apr – Resistanz International Industrial Festival 2012

Before I get onto my comments on the bands. I will say that my taste in industrial music is more towards softer ebm and even synthpop rather than very harsh and pounding industrial ebm. Much of my non-industrial musical taste these days is goth metal - this just so you can see where my comments are coming from! I went to Resistanz last year as well, and enjoyed it a great deal, so coming this year was a no-brainer.

Sat April 7th

Memmaker 4:45-5:30
3 piece (3 guys in shirts and ties with MacBooks)
Very pounding, with minimal vocals, and nothing memorable about their music, but equally not totally awful either. We didn't stay for their whole set, but went to look around the stalls instead.

Be My Enemy 5:45-6:25
4 piece (guitar, bass, drums, male harsh vocals)
A real band, but rather a cacophony of sound which didn't appeal to me. Jen couldn't stand it and headed off straight away. I managed to stay a bit longer, and sometimes you could hear the keyboards (taped) which was an improvement, but still too harsh and noisy for me. I headed out after a few songs…

E.S.A. 6:45-7:30
1 piece (electronic drum pad, MacBook and vocals)
Harsh fast and furious electronics, with only semi audible harsh vocals. Sort of a one man (guitarless) Ministry but not as interesting. Still not bad, and definitely better than the first two bands. A bit too samey though for me. I lasted 30 mins of the 45 min set before I had had enough.

Soman 7:51-8:48
1 piece (with MacBook) + 2 dancers
Quite funky and very danceable ebm. Pretty much all instrumental, which means the tunes and beats have to be pretty special to stop it getting boring. They mostly managed this, but not entirely. What I'm not sure at all though is if this can really be called live in any meaningful sense at all… Overall I enjoyed the set, and was the first today I watched the whole of.

Frozen Plasma 9:08-9:56
2 piece (MacBook + keyboards, clean male vocals)
A band I only know a few songs of, but I like most of those, so I hoped to like them live, and they looked to be the best fit to my tastes so far today. They play a mix of mild ebm / synthpop, and I found it enjoyable, but while his vocals were decent and the keyboards and rhythms melodic, much of it doesn't really inspire me. Give me S.P.O.C.K (!) instead any day! Glad to have seen them though. They upped the quality of their songs towards the end, especially with Warmongers. At their peak really rather good, but much of the time quite a way off that peak for me.

Nachtmahr 10:12-11:18
3 piece (drums, male vocals + MacBook + keyboard, MacBook + keyboards) + 2 girls with (water) guns
What a scary looking frontman! Militaristic harsh ebm with mainly harsh vocals. I have listened to some of their music, but not a huge amount. On the other hand, I really love L'Ame Immortelle, so I was hoping that I would like this. Generally it is a bit harsh and poundy without enough melody for my taste, and this was true live too, though I did enjoy dancing to some of their more approachable songs. I also appreciated the way their drummer seemed to play while standing up and marching all the time. All a bit scary… Not bad though not really my thing. Not as good as Frozen Plasma or Soman for me.

Grendel 11:55-00:58
4 piece (drums, guitar, keyboards, harsh male vocals)
After a very odd start with a couple of very strange tracks, with vocals that were just not even close to right, things changed somewhat as they started Chemicals + Circuitry, and the sound seemed better to me, and the vocals were somewhat corrected, and suddenly this was the Grendel I have listened to so much but had never seen, and from then on their set was much improved, a continuous dance frenzy for me. Jen didn't feel the shift of gear though and felt disappointed by them. For me, ignoring their bad start, this was the highlight of the day for me, as the headliner should be.

Sun April 8th

I missed Surgyn, arriving about 5:15pm. Jen didn't come down till later.

Detroit Diesel 5:00ish - 5:42
2 piece (very harsh male vocals, lass with laptop and keyboards)
Enjoyable ebm tunes with good beats, effectively all instumental due to the mostly inaudible vocals. Very much danceable to, but in a rave type way rather than because of appreciating the songs. Still I have heard a great deal worse support bands, so a pleasant start to the evening.

FGFC820 6:00-6:48
2 piece (harsh male vocals, keyboards + electronica + male growls)
I love their music on CD and in clubs and had never seen them, and didn't know they were still active, let alone touring. So this was a real pleasure, especially as I only discovered they were playing a few days ago! The main vocals were fine, but when their front man spoke between songs it was way too quiet for half the set, soso the crowd shouted for him to be made louder, which he took as heckling… Other than this everything was great, and their very melodic industrial with both harsh vocals and growled vocals really works just as well live, so I was dancing around madly the whole time. They also actually felt pretty live - the vocals were a bit different and different to on the CD and sounded live (in a good way), and the keyboard was actually played rather than occasionally poked… Also interesting to see the difference between a German military style band and an American one. This was much less scary! Fantastic set, and definitely my highlight so far, ahead of Grendel last night. I hope I get to see them again and look forward to their new CD.

W.A.S.T.E 7:07-7:50
3 piece (2 guys with keyboards and electronica, one with laptop and keyboard)
Very harsh industrial / noise band. No melody at all that I could hear, so I stayed only 10 mins. Not for me. I went and got a baked potato instead…

Straftanz 8:18-9:01
3 piece (multiple MacBooks + effect vocals, harsh male vocals, bass)
Having listened to them a fair bit over the last couple of weeks, but not before that, I wasn't sure what to expect live. Recorded, they sometimes hit the mark perfectly for me with their hard and fast ebm, but with a good melodic edge. Other times they are a just a bit too hard and harsh for me. Live my feeling is much the same. Du Stirbst Aus and The Enchantment were great to dance to. Other songs were decent, but a few were over the edge for me (too much just drum and bass with only a little tune), but overall still very decent, so they get a thumbs up from me, with the highlights having been excellent.

Ultaviolence 9:15-10:05
4 piece (guitar, keyboards, male vocals, female vocals)
Having only listened to a few tracks of theirs before coming, I wasn't expecting them to be my thing at all. Thus I only dipped into their set, and heard one song so harsh and pounding I was going to head off straight away, but then they did a couple of slower songs, which were a lot more interesting, with clean female vocals. Then followed a cover of Ministry's Stigmata, then a dull instrumental. I was left with no real consistent picture of what they were like… Of course they finished with Hardcore Motherfucker. So not my thing, but interesting in parts.

Mind.In.A.Box 10:34-11:36
4 piece (clean male vocals + keyboards, drums, guitar, bass)
Quite a change from everything else at Resistanz! Performing with a pretty much normal rock band, here they came across as a quite mellow industrial / prog rock combination, which is I guess what they are, but I hadn't thought of them like that before, as normally the keyboards and voice effects are so much to the fore. Thus they were gently danceable, sometimes rocking out a bit more.They had some problems with their tech, but managed to just carry on anyway, which was really good, and gets my respect. I did enjoy them a good deal, and was quite surprised how non electro they were for this show, making a real change from all the other bands. Still not quite up to FGFC820 for me personally though, but a performance I will remember for a long time.

Icon of Coil 11:57-01:13
3 piece (cleanish mall vocals, 2x keyboards + electronica)
So at last the headliner! I have to say that I'm not a long time IoC fan. I know a few of there classics well enough and have listened to more of their songs over the last month or two, and I have enjoyed what I have heard, and wondered how well it would translate live. Pleasingly the sound was good, and the vocals came across cleanly and powerfully. Their melodic and danceable ebm kept me dancing pretty much their whole set, and by the end I was shattered and needed a good sit down! So they did their job admirably. However, this said they still aren't a band that truly excite me. Not in the same way FGFC820 did earlier.

My final comments: overall I think I enjoyed last year's lineup more, though
the larger 'outside' area for stalls and seats was a great improvement. Band I
enjoyed most this time: FGFC820. I hope to be back next year!