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George from Little Match Girl and Joel from Action Directe plotting rebellion, the overthrow of the state, and yet another rock and roll party.
LMG's Vivian expresses her thoughts on life on the road, or rather life in the van. Does this count as a band wagon?
Action Directe's merchandisers threw some light on the scene to help sell the revolution to the people.
I'd seen Zeitgeist Zero once before, at a gig at The Fenton in Leeds (also supporting Action Directe), so I was looking forward to their set and had an idea of what to expect.
They moved smoothly into their distinctive sound, very dark and moody yet at the same time with an edge and degree of passion that grabs the attention and hangs onto it through the set.
Zeitgeist Zero's distinctive cover of Iron Maiden's legendary "Powerslave" went down a treat!
I would say this looks like someone you don't want to meet on a dark night, except that I have met her several times in an even darker Goth club (the band are sometimes to be found amongst the regulars at Black Sheep), and she's not really as scary as she looks, honest!
ZZ put a great deal of emotion into what they do, and you can hear the results in the music. Here Teresa Dead on vocals and Sarah Tonin on bass are giving it some serious drive.
Corin Moo on guitar, with QS Kerry lurking with a violin behind the keyboards. Note the band's branded Marshal amplifier in the forgeround. Clearly this particular revolution will keep branding alive, even after the evils of capitalism are overthrown.
QS Kerry on the violin. The band's newest member, Kerry is quite an accomplished musician in his own right, with some interesting solo projects in the works as well!
In an impressive display of skill, Zetgeist Zero managed to build up a serious crowd at the front of the venue. I'd managed to drag a couple of mates along who're more normally found at either traditional heavy metal gigs or state of the art dance venues, yet they too were impressed by Zetgeist Zero's performance. Move over mainstream, the Goths are coming through!
This gig had attracted a fair few of the scene's known faces, here are Michelle, Faelis, and Phono Paul from Black Sheep, and someone from The Wendyhouse who's name I've forgotten(!). In keeping with Action Directe's revolutionary theme, note Paul's "People's Republic Of West Yorkshire" t-shirt. Even if the real people's republic was in South, not West, Yorkshire. Sheffield City Council Uber Alles and all that!
If Zeitgeist Zero had been impressive, Little Match Girl were truly stunning! Never a band to underestimate, they have improved their live set beyond all recognition since their return to performance at the April 2002 Whitby Gothic Weekend. Then they showed promise, but now they are delivering, firing at full power on all cylinders and with the kind of impact you'd usually associate with an artillery barrage!
The LMG Setlist:
Intro / Victim
Space Witch
Bullet
My Queen
Black Days
Burn Me Up
On That Road
Vivian sang like a fallen angel, deep, brooding, powerful vocals. How so much vocal force can come from someone so angelic is one of the greater mysteries of life...
George, guitarist and programmer. A hard man to photograph at the best of times, tonight the task was made all the harder by the venue's engineer interpreting LMG's request for "moody lighting" as "switch all the lamps off"! The picture on the right was actually taken during the sound check, and shows George playing a different guitar borrowed for the first two tracks to save re-tuning.
Burn Me Up! Boil My Blood!
The haunting and moody "My Queen", which along with "Burn me Up" is now getting club play in both Leeds and York, broke over the crowd like a wave of power.
Attitude with a capital everything - LMG are a serious musical force to be reckoned with.
Little Match Girl's pile-driver of a set attracted en even large crowd than Zeitgeist Zero had done, and they drew significant applause at the end.
Note: Next sections are still under construction, more pics will be added in the future.
In the special guest slot were Libitina from Sheffield. Unfortunately, though they certainly filled the stage with presence, somehow the band didnt' manage to generate the same atmosphere as the two preceding bands. Possibly their more traditional darkwave sound just couldn't compete with the uber-industrial sounds of LMG preceding them, but for whatever reason they just didn't impress, and quite a few people wandered back to the main bar during their set. Perhaps in a different setting it would have worked better?
There is a legend that the Josephs Well is cursed, with a curse which manifests by plaguing any headline band who play there with endless equipment problems, and it certainly kicked in with a vengance tonight. Action Directe did their best to rise above it, and in the end stomped it into submission, and by the time they reached "The Internationalle" they were back to form and blasting along. Long live the revolution!
All in all, an interesting night. Both Little Match Girl and Zeitgeist Zero delivered seriously impressive performances, definetly bands to watch.