Man vänjer sig.

On my way back from the Tinitus festival. Interesting. Met a bunch of people, among others, krsfm, fluffboll and rockywuff. One drawback (of the evening, not of meeting friends) is that my eyes are burning, my feet are killing me deadly and my right knee seems close to giving out altogether. (It got better once I sat down, though.)


I got in at around 19.15 along with Daniel H (aka Tommten) and Jan, meaning I missed Nebelwerfer completely. Portion Control were halfway through their second song. While it's obvious that they had listened more than a bit to Cabaret Voltaire at the start of their career, they soon developed their own sound and later became of the most influential bands in the scene — more than once I thought that one of their harsh rhythms must have inspired a certain song by Skinny Puppy or The Klinik (whose former vocalist Dirk Ivens I spotted in the crowd). Too bad they played so early, as people were not nearly drunk enough to dance to them.

I also missed Xotox, as Jan and I were flitting around chatting to people (krsfm and the staff of Lobotom Records among others — although this picture was taken later that night), and most of Fixmer/McCarthy, having taken a walk to the office to pick up my mobile which I'd forgotten on Friday night. What little I heard of Fixmer/McCarthy sounded much better and tighter than in Arvika, where Douglas was out of time with the beat most of the time. There were no naked people on stage this time, though; whether that was a good thing or a bad thing depends on your perspective, I suppose.

After Fixmer/McCarthy (who, although I like the new album, are not Nitzer Ebb reborn), there was a half-hour gap before A Split Second entered the stage. A Split Second (who, not unproblematically, are sometimes abbreviated ASS) have always been the Billy Idol of the EBM scene, with the same bad-boy image, so it's only fitting that Marc Ickx (vocals and electronic percussion) looks rather haggard, as if he's sampled all the illegal substances of the world. Musically, it sounds like it's always done; the high points last night "The Colosseum Crash", "Crimewave", and "Mambo Witch". Hoping for new influences from them, or even new releases, is probably futile; this was purely a nostalgia gig, which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Met both Gustav from Sturm Café and journalist friend Fredrik Strage in the crowd; both seemed to be enjoying themselves.

And then there was Alphaville. Even if Marian Gold is 50, slightly fat and sporting a beard, they sound less old than when I saw them in 1996. Maybe they've realised that they can never be a rock band, and have settled for a pretty good pop band. Apart from the new songs, which I'm not sure are up to scratch, and the bloody reggae arrangement of "Sounds Like A Melody" which I had hoped they'd dropped forever after the 1996 tour, it sounds really good. "The Jet Set" still feels like a hedonist battle hymn. (I would have been much more positive towards "Forever Young" if it hadn't been done to death over the past 20 years. Especially if they'd kept the original lyrics ("Can you imagine how we won the war?/Little fascist lady she loves you so") and the up-tempo arrangement... I still maintain that "Flame" is a better ballad, though the single sank without a trace.)

More friends turned up: first Ebichu and pLu (aka Emma and Patrik, WANOLJ), then fluffboll and rockywuff. We also ran into Dirk Ivens, who recognised us from previous encounters and told us he'd hitched a ride with his friends in A Split Second to see Portion Control. "I have all their albums and all their singles and I've been a fan for 22 years, but I've never seen them before!" said Ivens. "Yeah, we know what it's like to be a fan," we said, "we went down to Antwerp to see you, remember?"

Caught a quick glimpse of Legowelt, but I wasn't too impressed: one guy in an anorak (surprisingly, he didn't die from heatstroke within the two minutes I saw him) with two laptops. While instrumental electronic dance music can be interesting — for example, I love Orbital — Legowelt's wasn't, so we left, skipping VNV Nation. I never liked futurepop much, although I admit there are worse bands than VNV Nation; still I've seen them twice already and they weren't very good on either occasion. So, Jan and I checked out our clothes and bags and parted company by the tube. And of course I had just missed the train to Norsborg by two minutes, so I had to wait almost half an hour; I got to bed at 2:50.

[EDIT 16:55 on Monday: added link to Strage's review.]