Aeterna's Blog

This weekend was another filled with concerts and drinks, oh good times! Directly after having an extremely stressful day at work on friday I headed over to Amsterdam to visit a friend. We went to her place so she could feed her kitten and ofcourse we played with the adorable little bugger a bit and had a drink or 2. Then we went to a metal-/rockbar which I love; The Cave in Amsterdam. It’s one of the very very few bars where they play real metal and as a result of that; metalheads hang out at. They also have live bands playing regularly and I’ve not heard one that wasn’t actually really good there.

So we ended up staying there until 4am when they sadly closed. So we grabbed a taxi and went back to her place and.. well, I can’t really remember but I think we had some more drinks and suddenly it was 7:30 and we decided to sleep. The next morning I woke up lying against her with my arm around her, which was nice except for the fact that I had said I’d meet a friend in another town 20 minutes from that time. So eh, I sorta headed out a little after that and made my way to Utrecht to meet up /w a friend who at that point in time had been waiting for over an hour for me.

Once I got there I expected a punch in the face or something, instead I got greeted with a hug. After apologizing, a sigh from her and a mean look, all was fine.. somehow. So we went into town and went to Tivoli De Helling to see some bands. The first of which was Formalin, which… I found boring and rather ridiculous. The thing that got to me was the ‘drummer’, the second guy on stage who drummed on a small electronic drumkit… but all the songs were so slow-paced he was just standing there most of the time and looked absolutely ridiculous.

Then we decided to get some food since I hadn’t eaten yet and we ran into a lot of people that she knew so we ended up talking for a good time and it was really fun talking to all of them. I expected to get some shit dressing as a metalhead, but no such thing. Alternative is alternative, but I don’t think that even mattered (much). It’s kind of awesome seeing the mixes of Metal, Punk, Gothic, Lolita and Cyber(goth) there. But oh lordy, the photographers.. they were everywhere. Not that I blame them as you don’t see so many people dressed up like that too often. So lots of eyecandy and there was even some nice folk music playing in the background.

After that we headed back to Tivoli De Helling to see Aesthetic Perfection. I had listened to some of their songs and definitely liked what I had heard. Their live performance was really good and I have no problem recommending  them to people. A plus point was that they actually had a real drummer, who was even quite good and played with some real force! This ensured that it felt a lot more lively and got people going as well. After aesthetic it was time for Straftanz which seemed rather popular. However, I couldn’t get into it and found the general attitude of the 2 vocalists annoying; they were quite full of themselves. Nevertheless; we watched most of their show and then headed back over to the market and ended up talking to some more people after we grabbed a bite to eat.

Then it was time for the real music to start though as next up was Nachtmahr. I had been seeing quite some people in specific outfits, or people with this “N”-symbol, which were of Nachtmahr. I can totally see why though as they put up a great show! Their theme I can say might get them into trouble in some countries, including their looks as they’re all around the Nazi’s. The singer wearing a long coat with some medals and having a very hitler-esque look. But it’s fine with me, it’s all a game/act, though my friend expected me to have a stronger reaction to them.

At the end of Nachtmahr though, the concerthall had become so incredibly hot that me and I think everybody inside of it had become soaked in sweat and the moment of getting outside felt godly as it was rather nice out at that time since it was in the evening. Cooling down a little and talking to some people I met before was fun, but it was time for the final real band of the night, Combichrist. Going back into the hall was not a fun experience, but they had opened up the top floor so people could go there, which I guess spread people a bit more. Not that it had any effect on it being way too fucking hot, but I guess it was something.

Combichrist started late, but I have to say that they really did make up for it in the show which was.. amazing. Even as someone who had maybe heard one or two songs by them beforehand, this was amazing. I had heard good thing about them beforehand, but that’s it really. It all proved to be true as they fucked about on stage, interacted with the crowd and seemed to constantly trash the stage. I swear they had 1 or 2 crewmembers there just to put things in the place again, which they often didn’t let them even do.

I have to say that I loved the hell out of Combichrist and despite it being grossly hot, the 90 minute-ish show flew by in the blink of an eye. I liked them so much I even grabbed one of their shirts, something I never expected I would do! Combine that with seeing all these alternative people, the (cyber)goths… yes, I had a terrific weekend!