London After Midnight at the Wave-Gothik-Treffen : a day of darkness in sunfilled Leipzig

It was shortly after my arrival in Germany I discovered the band London After Midnight (well, to name it a "band" is not entirely correct, see further down). I was entirely new in Berlin and the city offered me some new gothic bars playing dark music all nights of the week. I felt like a child in a candy store and frequented clubs such as K17 and Dunckerclub. It was during one of those visits to the K17 that I heard the song Sacrifice. I did not know LAM yet: in Ireland they were not that well known and in Turkey gothic-orientated music in itself is nowhere to be found except for online shopping. I heard Sacrifice during that dark december night in K17 and asked the DJ which band it was. London After Midnight. The interest was there, and a bit of research and lot of listening later I quickly fell in love with the band. When it was announced LAM would be headlining the very well-known festival Wave Gothik Treffen in Leipzig, it was clear I wanted to be there.

 

Wave Gothik Treffen is a very well known festival, not only in Germany but all over Europe. Gothic fans from all over Europe travel to the Eastern German city during this weekend, to experience a weekend full of concerts of gothic-associated bands (note: the WGT programs all sorts of "dark music", not solely gothic bands). For one weekend per year the city literally turns black and venues spread across the city organise gothic festivities and concerts all weekend. Me and a friend from the LAM internet community had agreed to travel to Leipzig together and witness LAM live. The festival ticket cost me 58 euro and upon arrival is exchanged for a wristband which allows you to enter all venues used in the city as frequently as you want during the 4 day event. My friend came all the way from Paris and came only for LAM, and personally I did not feel like paying multiple train rides to Leipzig while LAM were the only band I really wanted to see. So we decided to keep it a Sunday-only trip. The trip started on 11:30 AM in the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central station) where a 1 hour train ride would take us to Leipzig. There awaited the first but luckily only really unpleasant moment of the event: the train ticket would cost 40 euro single ride. I love Germany and I enjoy living here, but if one thing needs to change it is the costs of public transport. With Deutsche Bahn's sky high prices you basically cannot afford to just decide on a morning to make a day trip to let's say Munich or Cologne, or it would cost you 20% of your month's salary. Luckily Berlin is an exciting city so you don't feel a strong need to leave the city often, but the prices of the trains in Germany is really a scam.

 

Upon arrival in Leipzig we quickly searched our way through the inner city towards a cinema theater called Cine Star. It was announced on the LAM messageboard by singer Sean Brennan (who frequently posts on the LAM internet forum to keep in touch with fans) that there would be a signature session in that cinema shortly past 1:00 PM. As this was not announced in the Wave Gothik Treffen website and as Sean has already talked to me and that friend often on the internet, we were hoping for a short conversation with Sean. However, bad luck: the train ran 10 minutes late, and there was a huge queue in the cinema. Seems everyone had somehow heard of the signature session and by the time we finally queued near the end of the line we just saw the band members leave. Talking of bad luck! But that happens, and our next plan was to discover the city and do some decent sight-seeing.

 

 

 

And this was a very pleasant experience. Leipzig is a really nice town which surprised me in many ways. It is small (in less than 2,5 hours we had seen the entire city center and photographed every corner) but it is cosy and there is a lot to see. Especially the architecture is really nice. Leipzig has a lot of small narrow streets full of old houses (at least several hundreds years old) and colourful buildings. There are especially quite a few nice churches in the city, some of them in gothic style but some have a more original look with decoration or roofs in quite unusual colours. It gave me the impression of one of those cosy Austrian towns with their colourful buildings and narrow streets. In a way Leipzig reminded me a bit of Salzburg, but obviously a lot smaller. Highlight was probably the Thomaskirche, the burial place of famous musician Johann Sebastian Bach. Apart from Bach's tombstone there is a small museum displaying some of his handwritten compositions and some really old instruments. The church itself has very nice stained glass windows, and a very nice decoration overall.

 

Other nice sights were the Nicholaikirche, the city hall and old city hall, and many old residential houses which were decorated with some really nice statutes. In the middle of all of this, you still have a modern vibrant town with many pubs and some big shopping malls. But somehow those modern malls don't bother you, old and new are going together well in this city.

 

So Leipzig is definitely worth the trip, especially if you like architecture. It is a cosy city (especially with this warm weather where all people dine outside on terraces in the streets) with many narrow streets and some really nice old buildings. In a way, when it comes to architecture, I like it more than Berlin. Yes, it is much smaller and with a lot less events to do, but purely in terms of nice buildings and lovely sights, I like it. Berlin is more an active city where you go for its many events, its sparkling nightlife and its interesting history, but if you like cosy cities with nice architecture than Leipzig is definitely worth a visit as well.

 

Also, this weekend it was a real gothic enclave for a couple of days. People in gothic clothing were walking all over the city, you could not enter any street or park or you would see goths walking around. The local population clearly didn't care or has become used to it after many years of the annual event. Especially interesting was a sort of gothic flee market. You needed to show your WGT wristband to be able to enter the area. Gothic jewelry, clothing items and drinks were sold were street musicians performed. I picked up my own souvenir there: a necklace displaying the Star of David, which I considered a nice item displaying my fascination for Israel.

 

 

 

 

The time flew by and by the evening a short ride to the outskirts of the city took us to the Agra Hall, the biggest and main venue of the festival where LAM would be headlining.

 

London After Midnight is a project started in the late eighties in Los Angeles. The project in studio only has 1 permanent member, being singer-songwriter Sean Brennan. On stage there is a live band which has changed line-up several times throughout the years, but basically the project is the creative outlet of Sean Brennan rather than a full-grown band. Beginning with a few local gigs in the famous LA goth club Helter Skelter, LAM (named after a black-and-white old horror movie) quickly gained a growing fanbase. Within only a few years LAM had fans not only all over the United States but also in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Russia.

 

LAM is very well-known for their strong political undertone and lyrics critical of society. Animal rights, human rights, corporate issues, and liberal politics are often re-occuring themes in the LAM music (with also lot of songs tackling emotions such as love, often using dark and macabre metaphors) and Sean Brennan has used interviews and internet discussion boards to also spread his views on these issues. It has gained LAM a cult following all over the world and a reputation of one of the most lyrically in-depth acts in the gothic scene. However, LAM itself has always rejected ties to the gothic scene as this tag is considered artistically limiting and associated with a scene that has lost its original values. Nonetheless many of LAM's fans are somehow connected to the gothscene, so the fact that the band headlined a big gothic festival was no coincidence at all.

 

The Agra Hall looked like a huge bunker in a field. The field surrounding the bunker was used as a camping spot for the people who attended multiple days of the festival, and with a lot of merchants selling drinks and fastfood the area had a festival outlook but small enough to keep a cosy feeling. Inside the Agra Hall there were two main halls, once was a big marketplace selling merchandise and souvenirs, the other contained the stage where the main acts were performing. There was also a cafe and a dancing attached to the complex.

 

I did not notice too much of the band performing in front of LAM, they did not leave a significant impression so I wouldn't even know for sure what they were named. By the end of the set I assured myself of a spot very close to the stage, 4th row. Ready for the main act!

 

Prior to LAM coming on stage, video images were displayed on a big screen behind the stage, promoting LAM's most recent studio album "Violent Acts of Beauty", their by far most political work to date. After this intro the band came on-stage, with Sean and guitarist Randy Mathias throwing roses in the crowd (unfortunately I was not lucky enough to get one). The live line-up today was somewhat different from the previous live line-up, with drummer Joe S. temporarily unavailable and replaced by Pete, and guest guitarist "Trouble" Valli from the band Crazy Town.

 

The setlist mainly contained work from the latest album. With songs such as "Feeling fascist?", "America's a F**king Disease", the very catchy rocking "Nothing's Sacred" and "Republic" (the latter being one big protest against the politics of lies from the Republican party) the setlist had the same political undertone as the album itself. The giant screen behind the stage was used for displaying images and texts tackling some problems in modern-day American politics. The songs were very well received by an enthousiast crowd, and despite some technical problems halfway the set (problems that were none of the band's error) the concert was great.

 

A personal highlight I need to mention was the song "Heaven Now". With only a piano guiding Sean's voice, the chorus sounded almost a-cappella, emphasising Sean's warm vocals that sounded so pure it was almost overwhelming. A fantastic moment that highlighted the vocal class of the LAM frontman.

 

The band finished the evening with two of the most iconic songs from the first 2 albums: "Kiss" and "Sacrifice", two songs we could describe as LAM anthems. Both also are perfect examples of the dark metaphors used to describe emotional situations or social issues. "Kiss" for example tackles emotional or physical abuse by clergy:

 

"You'll never understand,
the meaning in the end
We're standing at the gate,
you'll meet the darker fate
Your purity and rage,
your passion and your hate
You promised more than bliss,
with your God and with your kiss
I'm on my knees
I beg your mercy
My soul is my loss
I'm well hung from your cross
Take me,
take me in your arms my love and rape me
Don't hide behind your rage I know you love me,
and always will"

 

The two songs proved a perfect climax to what was a great concert. The only downside I could think of was the organisation forcing to cut the setlist somewhat short as in the last weeks before the festival they decided to program another act later on the evening (contrary to their first promise of LAM being the final act). This meant we had no encores. I was hoping to hear songs such as "Love You to Death" and my personal favourite "Where Good Girls Go To Die" (the song through which I truly fell in love with LAM) but unfortunately there was no room for an encore as another band had to take the stage. I believe it was Fields of the Nephilim but I am not entirely sure ; I came for LAM and my evening ended with LAM. Rather than attending the last band I chose to go to a second autograph session with LAM which was organised at the last moment. This allowed me to get an autograph of Sean and Randy after all, and to get the picture of me and Sean like I was hoping for all the time! Although it was a brief meeting, I managed to say hello to Sean, which really became another highlight to an already great evening.

 

In October LAM are touring Europe again, including a concert in Berlin in the K17 club where I first discovered the band. Other locations will include Copenhagen, Zaandam, Moscow, Athens and more. Be there, you won't regret it!

 

 

 

 

Before concluding this blog entry I would like to thank the band for a fantastic concert and especially Sean for taking the time to say hi and posing for a picture with me. Also thanks to Anne-Sophie from Paris who joined me during the day out, I hope you had an equally great experience as I did.