Live show reports / comments

[FreakAnimalFinland]

SI report with videos and photos etc will follow on the website as soon as I catch up with all the work done during week long German trip..

[Goat93]

So, it was the Last Tower Transmission. I attendet every Year since the Third one and it became a Regular Vacation Trip.
The Last one showed the Difference between the small venue Concert and the Big Festival it endet. It was more like a Student Party than an Electronic Festival. More seeing Friends and get in touch with new People than attending a Festival. In other Words the Attention and Party was not in the Crowd before the Stage.
Looks like seeing the same Faces since Years and less people watching the Concerts. Reminds me a lot like Underground Black Metal Concerts were in Germany.

But to the Artists:
Robert Revell - Young Artist make a Solid Classic Industrial Set. Some Tech Problems but i liked it a lot. Raw Energy from the Stage without the Provocation Background. Focus on the Music

Green Army Fraction:
Technical good, but Play Safe and seen such Performance quiet to often. Militant Outfit with Provocative Background Video and Zero Emotional attachment. The Finnish Acts have a Hooligan Attitude on Stage, which isn't perfomed. The Swedish are too cold and miss these Emotions. Like Green Army Fraction and wasn't dissapointed. But it was like a repeat of too many Shows.

Darja Kazimira & Zura Makharadze
Reminds of Teatro Satanico. Stageacting was good and interesting to watch. Music was Ritualistic and it was easy to get into the Music. Was a positive Surprise

Pain Appendix:
Same Situation like Green Army Fraction. Good Set, good Performance but don't get into it.

Bomb the Daynursery:
I was pretty drunk at the Time and had too much Caffeeine , so it was absolute Brilliant for me. But won't argue if someone thought its boring after watching some YT Videos afterwards.

Prurient:
Really liked it and Highlight was for sure the Last Song with Ke/Hil on Stage.

Anna Gardeck and AntiValium:
Don't see them or don't remember them.

Galerie Schallschutz:
Was intense and i like the Concerts of Galerie Schallschutz. It was even better than Inade 2 Weeks before

Ke/Hil:
Seen Anenzephlaia 2 Weeks before and so it was not so intense like Anenzephalia.

[k.p.g]

This past Thursday, a local showcase of artists from Philadelphia / New Jersey took place in the city of brotherly love at a new venue, 2nd Street Brewhouse.  Was told it would be a pretty primitive setup in the backroom of the bar.  Thought that maybe we would be sequestered off from the main bar area, but nope!  There is barely a divide between sections, so now the local patrons have their Phillies game soundtracked to the local flavors of this scene.  Hah.  Great...

First performance was held by Canker Sore, who booked the entire thing.  The artist has recently been upping their noise activity since the last time we performed, and things are really starting to take shape for them, as evidenced by the performance I saw.  Good mix of digital synth churning, manic microcassette and even a clarinet to add to the delirium.  I know the latter can really turn some people off in noise but the inclusion here made total sense with the gory soup the artist had already created.  Rather than sound like free-jazz, trip metal whatever, it instead sound closer to another piercing lash of feedback.  Very cool stuff.  Came out really well on the tape I recorded of the show.

Next up would be Tchernobylists, a duo that features myself and John of Pleasure Island / Mistletoe / Amphibian fame.  Project has always been simple in terms of approach; 2 synths dual it out in a delay-filled swirl.  Being the first performance though, we took some time to rehearse and found that such simple setups could lead to some interesting developments, namely delay stutter loops that brought us into more ambient leaning territories at points.  People seemed to enjoy it a great deal; was told the volume level was pretty ridiculous at points.  Not bad for just a single PA speaker and bass amp serving as our outputs!

Inarticulate traveled down from Jersey and delivered one of my absolute favorite sets of his ever.  With a rig that fit in just a milkcrate, the audience was transported to a beautifully unsettling territory that merged absurdist tape cut-up and brooding synth noise.  Despite the rather crappy PA setup, this set shone through crisp 'n clear.  Not much more I can say beyond this being just a terrific performance and continuing to beg the artist to make some wider releases for people to hear.  More should be attuned to what's going on here.

Closing out the entire shindig would be Jolklore, a new collaboration between Fricker & Max Julian Eastman.  Being made privy to rehearsals the night before, I knew the duo would bring something great for this show.  Delivered they did, as they chose to use the PA situation to shift their sound into a more acoustic improv territory, using not much more than a couple of amps and studio monitors.  Instruments used included a disembodied guitar neck, a microphone a CD player and a toy California Raisin.  I am sure you could picture the absurdity that ensued, hah.  It had its rough moments but how can you expect that to not happen when this duo is still fresh?  They show plenty of promise in working together though, and I look forward to what comes next!

Hoping this venue sticks and we have some future shows here.  Bar patrons surprisingly engaged with our activities at points, with one man in a polo shirt coming up to ask Fricker if he's going to bring down the house or not.  He then came up to me and said "I know I'm not your usual audience, but I was just wondering what they got planned!"  I laughed and shook his hand.  Great show.

[Phenol]

Tower Transmissions felt like a big family gathering and catching up with many regulars was a pleasure. As for the music:

Friday:

Robert Revell – saw 5-10 minutes, decided this was not for me and would rather catch up with friends.

Green Army Fraction – I loved it, but it was divisive. Many thought it was too tame and too monotonous. I liked how restrained it was and enjoyed all the little details with feedback etc.

Darja Kazimira & Zura Makharadze – Skipped this because I'd rather hang out with friends. I heard it was good though.

Pain Appendix – Overall fine, but I couldn't really get into it. I prefer noise in smaller venues where it's more in your face.

Bomb The Daynursery – Good performance. I can't say I liked the box set much outside of being an interesting historical document and a rough collection of ideas which would be executed better in Brighter Death Now, but it worked this night. Quite experimental and at times close to falling apart which gave some sense of danger, and the decision to perform in almost darkness was genius

Prurient – I'm not that into Prurient, really, but this was a shockingly good performance. Extremely powerful and very varied set.  GO came on stage as well in the end as a nice bonus. This was big surprise for me and one of my personal highlights. Some people thought he had put too many elements in there, but for me it was done just exactly right.

Saturday:

Anna Gardeck – I liked this a lot. The visuals on screen were nice, the stage performance was, however, a little bit kitsch. But the sound was good. I like this Ambient/industrial blend with lots of metallic clanging and a bit of a martial vibe as well (it is Wappenbund after all). Many people thought the stage show was too cringy, but I really enjoyed this performance in spite of that. BUT: never do such a lame spanking on stage again!

AntiValium – saw a little bit, decided it was OK but also maybe the right time to step outside, catch some air and get a bit of alone time to conquer the hangover.

Galerie Schallschutz - this was excellent and another personal highlight. Powerful and restrained at the same time. Perfect ambient leaning heavy electronics.

Derniere Volonte – I have the early albums of DV and still listen to them every now and then, but this night I just couldn't get into it. The sound was good, but the disco vibe, hip grinding and so on was just a hard NO from me on this night. I came back every now and then to give DV another chance when I recognized an old song, only to leave again after a few minutes. Easily the worst gig of the festival (to my taste).

Ke/Hil – This was the undisputed highlight for me. Cold and authoritative. Loud but very clear sound. Everything worked perfectly and I just love seeing these guys on stage. Not a finger to put on anything. Simply flawless!

Linekraft – Let me just say, this was very good and for almost everyone the highlight of the festival. It was an extremely energetic performance, and everything just came together and he was having a party on stage. However, I'm just not a big fan of the Japanoise stage antics. All the jumping, wild gesturing, crawling on monitors etc. takes the heavy and serious vibe out of the music for me. So I understand why people loved this, but it was not up there with He/Hil, Galarie Schallschutz and Prurient for me personally. It was a good way to end the festival, though.

So, overall, I'm very happy with everything. I guess we will not get anoter one, but it seems Tower Promotions will keep on making smaller one day events. See you back in Dresden in December!