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| 2012-10-10
DE – Essen - Turock |
| VOIVOD is one of those bands that already became iconic and legendary in their early days (mid-80s), not only for their unique style and techniques but also for their lyrics, skills, and graphic design around the band (Michel Langevin). Though, I never saw VOIVOD performing live. Okay, they did not so often tour Europe and not every festival can be attended or is impossible to reach (time/work issues as well as distance). :: pics :: However. But sometimes life is wonderful and wants to make you happy as surprisingly a European VOIVOD tour got announced with a stop in Essen :) At first Corrosion Of Conformity were announced as support act too but that did not happen. Unfortunately. Well, you can’t have it all, right? To my luck I already was on vacation and had enough time to go to Essen earlier, relaxed and free of stress, getting entertained at a delicious dinner. Ah yes, I was very much looking forward to this show. When I entered the • Turock • my first walk led me to the merch for some new and rare tees ;) Unfortunately the club was not that filled as band and organizers would have deserved. At the end maybe 200 fans appeared. I actually expected a packed venue but friends said VOIVOD would be too special for that… Hmm…
Tour support
and show kick-off came from Finnish Hardcore powerhouse ::
UNKIND
:: Never heard of them before to be honest. Anyway,
UNKIND blew everything and everybody away, nailed the crowd
down on the wall behind. They had an immense powerful and brutal
sound and the drummer definitely went insane. I could see my jaw
hit the ground. Really. Sadly tracks sounded quickly equal to
each other, as if every new song would have the same introducing
riffing and so on. Especially since UNKIND played without
any stop and taking a breath. Interaction and communication with
the crowd? No way! UNKIND played songs from all of their
releases. There was only one track I could not assign, so I guess
it was a new one. Makes sense as the most recent record Harhakuvat
was released over one year ago. With hindsight, after having dealt
and listened to UNKIND, I have to admit that I like their
stuff on CD. There they sound much more varied and differentiated.
Tada, time
has come. The audience already started to freak out during the
change-over time, pushing hard to the front of stage. When the
setlists got nailed down on the speakers fans started to crane
their necks to catch a glimpse and then got a Cheshire cat’s
face ;) :: VOIVOD
:: entered the stage, blew up and burnt down everything
to pieces. VOIVOD played such hell of a show, highly energetic
and enthusing, while jumping, running and headbanging as if there
were no tomorrow and tonight’s show the last one on earth.
Man, I haven’t seen a band for a long time that had so much
fun and delight to play for their fans. I know many young but
bored to death bands that could learn here a thing or two. However,
VOIVOD thanked for the frenetic sympathy with heartfelt
words and smiles all over their faces. Of course, to satisfy every
fan VOIVOD would have to play at least a 10 hours marathon
show to consider all albums and all classic as they would have
to play some albums in its entirety. Maybe in our next lives ;)
I personally found the setlist a nice best-of through the entire
history. They changed the setlist every few days, what left every
few venues jealous due to the songs others got and they not ;)
Well, a few more songs, a half hour more playing time would have
been great though… On the other hand VOIVOD kicked
off with Voivod (War And Rain, 1994), followed
by Ripping Headaches (Rrroooaaarrr, 1986).
How fucking great is that? And then… a brand new track from
the upcoming album, the title track of Earth Target
got played, out on January 2013. Awesome! I’m blown too.
Too fast the show is over and, as it is usual during the week,
the Turock swept quickly *sighs*. What an asskicking show, what
a great evening! Thank you guys!
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| story & pics © Dajana |
