M'era Luna 2011 bands
Starting the M'era Luna posts with the band reviews:
Winterspring
A rewarding show for getting up to see the first band of the festival.
Blitzmaschine
Opened with a good DAF cover. The self-written songs that followed showed a good performance, but would benefit from more lyrics.
The Mission Veo
Didn't catch my interest.
Omnia
These had my interest up until they started talking about casting a curse. I went shopping instead, then the curse turned out to be a performance of MacBeth's opening.
Blind Passenger
Good performance, will be remembering while listening to the CD later.
Leaves Eyes
Good performance, will be remembering while listening to the CD later.
Julien-K
Good performance, can't remember the specifics.
Mesh
What I heard was good.
Saw them two weeks previously at DV8, and I wanted to be at the front of the other stage for the next band, so skipped most of their set.
Nachtmahr
This is becoming a guilty-pleasure band for me. They are great to dance to, put on an interesting show, but are well over the boundary of good taste. The songs aren't political, but are written to sound as if they are, and I'm afraid to play them through speakers.
Equilibrium
Didn't catch my interest.
Blutengel
Fun music and a fun stage-show. The crowd had already gathered. so I went for food while listening instead of trying to watch form the back.
ASP
Their own stuff was good, and their cover of Temple Of Love was far more fun that seeing the original band perform it last year.
Patrick Wolf
Take a goth band, and substitute the lead singer from a boy band. Odd, but enchanting.
Within Temptation:
On good form, and clearly showing why they're headlining.
Dyonisis
Only caught a short snippet, what I heard was good.
Had a bit of confusion about when they'd be playing, due to the Gazebo stage being invaded earlier in the night. On seeing them on-stage, I went back to get the rest of the group, and ended up coming back to hear some reprobate singing about his canine love-life.
Sunday
Pakt
The part of the set that I caught was a good wake-up.
Formalin
Danceable beats and good-looking drummer in a rubber top. An eye-candy band, but there's nowt wrong with that ...
Beauty of Gemina
The first band of the day that I intended to see, and they didn't disappoint.
Coma Divine
I don't know what's going on with this one, wondering if there's a disagreement between band and label. The band's name wasn't displayed or spoken during the set, although a different band-like logo was flying behind the band (Sea Shepard); I was listening through the set for an announcement that they're changed their name. The performance itself was a bit tired and unemotional.
Mid way through the set, the stage's roof started leaking spectacularly, and continued for the rest of the set. This seemed to wake Persephone up, and there were about 30 seconds of quality performance. Then she dropped back to tired and unemotional.
Coppelius
The only band that I'd rated as must-see, and they didn't disappoint.
The rain was alternating between umbrella-up and umbrella-down; the band entered the stage to the Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy, with an audience of umbrellas recreating the mushrooms' scene from Fantasia.
A wonderful set followed, with clarinets that had the tones of happy laughter.
M'Era Luna seems to lack a CD stall that specifically sells the CDs of the bands that are playing. It also lacks restocking when those bands' CDs sell out; as Coppelius deservingly did.
Teufel
Caught the end of this set, and it was an enjoyable Tanzwut spin-off.
Tying Tiffany
Having been tipped off during Coppelius' set that Tiffany was good, a group of us from the UK were right at the front.
A great set but being at the front was giving too much prominence to the bass, couldn't hear the words.
Gothminster
Stayed where I was after Tying Tiffany, putting me at the front for Gothminster. Fun but not outstanding, and being at the front meant a lot of theatrical smoke.
VNV
These guys are back to being good again. Saw them from the back, where we had an industrial dancing pit.
Winterspring
A rewarding show for getting up to see the first band of the festival.
Blitzmaschine
Opened with a good DAF cover. The self-written songs that followed showed a good performance, but would benefit from more lyrics.
The Mission Veo
Didn't catch my interest.
Omnia
These had my interest up until they started talking about casting a curse. I went shopping instead, then the curse turned out to be a performance of MacBeth's opening.
Blind Passenger
Good performance, will be remembering while listening to the CD later.
Leaves Eyes
Good performance, will be remembering while listening to the CD later.
Julien-K
Good performance, can't remember the specifics.
Mesh
What I heard was good.
Saw them two weeks previously at DV8, and I wanted to be at the front of the other stage for the next band, so skipped most of their set.
Nachtmahr
This is becoming a guilty-pleasure band for me. They are great to dance to, put on an interesting show, but are well over the boundary of good taste. The songs aren't political, but are written to sound as if they are, and I'm afraid to play them through speakers.
Equilibrium
Didn't catch my interest.
Blutengel
Fun music and a fun stage-show. The crowd had already gathered. so I went for food while listening instead of trying to watch form the back.
ASP
Their own stuff was good, and their cover of Temple Of Love was far more fun that seeing the original band perform it last year.
Patrick Wolf
Take a goth band, and substitute the lead singer from a boy band. Odd, but enchanting.
Within Temptation:
On good form, and clearly showing why they're headlining.
Dyonisis
Only caught a short snippet, what I heard was good.
Had a bit of confusion about when they'd be playing, due to the Gazebo stage being invaded earlier in the night. On seeing them on-stage, I went back to get the rest of the group, and ended up coming back to hear some reprobate singing about his canine love-life.
Sunday
Pakt
The part of the set that I caught was a good wake-up.
Formalin
Danceable beats and good-looking drummer in a rubber top. An eye-candy band, but there's nowt wrong with that ...
Beauty of Gemina
The first band of the day that I intended to see, and they didn't disappoint.
Coma Divine
I don't know what's going on with this one, wondering if there's a disagreement between band and label. The band's name wasn't displayed or spoken during the set, although a different band-like logo was flying behind the band (Sea Shepard); I was listening through the set for an announcement that they're changed their name. The performance itself was a bit tired and unemotional.
Mid way through the set, the stage's roof started leaking spectacularly, and continued for the rest of the set. This seemed to wake Persephone up, and there were about 30 seconds of quality performance. Then she dropped back to tired and unemotional.
Coppelius
The only band that I'd rated as must-see, and they didn't disappoint.
The rain was alternating between umbrella-up and umbrella-down; the band entered the stage to the Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy, with an audience of umbrellas recreating the mushrooms' scene from Fantasia.
A wonderful set followed, with clarinets that had the tones of happy laughter.
M'Era Luna seems to lack a CD stall that specifically sells the CDs of the bands that are playing. It also lacks restocking when those bands' CDs sell out; as Coppelius deservingly did.
Teufel
Caught the end of this set, and it was an enjoyable Tanzwut spin-off.
Tying Tiffany
Having been tipped off during Coppelius' set that Tiffany was good, a group of us from the UK were right at the front.
A great set but being at the front was giving too much prominence to the bass, couldn't hear the words.
Gothminster
Stayed where I was after Tying Tiffany, putting me at the front for Gothminster. Fun but not outstanding, and being at the front meant a lot of theatrical smoke.
VNV
These guys are back to being good again. Saw them from the back, where we had an industrial dancing pit.