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Eve of Destiny © Haruhiko Ash 1997-2004.

11. Wave Gotik Treffen

May 19, 2002

Agra Messehall 1

Agra Messepark

Leipzig, Germany

EVE OF DESTINY 13:45 - 14:15
House of Usher 14:45 - 15:15
The Lords of the New Church  15:45 - 16:30
Mortiis 17:00 - 17:45
The Fall 18:15 - 19:15
The Cruxshadows 19:45 - 20:45
Silke Bischoff 21:15 - 22:25
The Mission 22:55 - 00:05

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL:

Goethes Erben 01:15 - 02:30

- report by Case -

Wohooooo...!!!

I just got back from Leipzig from the Wave- Gotik-Treffen festival in Leipzig (which is the world's greatest annual Goth/dark-rock festival), where I went to see Eve of Destiny (and a big bunch of other non-Japanese bands) And although I saw a lot of concerts there, EoD's was easily one of the best. The whole festival was amazing. Officially there were about 17.000 visitors, but I think there was actually even more. I've seen a lot of pictures of the mind blowing costumes that some of the visitors were wearing, but I thought they were only a minority... but not. Almost EVERYONE was wearing very extreme costumes. 

There were a lot of different styles... the usual goth-type, many people in full medieval costumes, others in S/M style leather and latex, girls wearing see-through black dresses with only minimal underwear (sometimes not even that), a lot of transvestites, people who came to see the electro- industrial bands, like Frontline Assembly in military styled clothes, black metal fans dressed up as vampires (some of them came with hearses and slept in coffins) and countless others in indescribable dresses... and almost all wearing black of course. 

It was shocking and surreal at first... just imagine almost 20.000 people walking' around the city, wearing black costumes that would freak out even the most die-hard visual-kei fans. There were about 5 or 6 stages scattered around the city and the concerts began early afternoon and ended long after midnight. Eve of Destiny was the opening band on Sunday in Agra Hall (it was the biggest stage and it was in the camp where most of the visitors were staying) and since the program schedule was very thick (more than 200 bands in 4 days) they only had 30 minutes. They were scheduled to begin at 13.45 when most people were still sleeping, so I was a bit worried that the audience will be very small, but everything turned out as good as possible. When we (me and a fellow Malice-fan friend of mine) got there the first row was already filled with Malice fan-girls (one of them was cosplaying Mana's hand- maid costume) who were chatting about what should they say and how should they act when Közi appears. It was about 20 minutes before the concert. There were about 25-30 people there, but then more and more started to appear and by 13.45 (when there were still just some festival staff- members walkin' around the stage checking the microphones, etc..) there was already more than 100 people waiting and there was still more coming.

The audience was pretty mixed: There were about 20-30 who obviously came because of Közi, some other friends of mine who didn't know that there was a Japanese band playing, but got interested after I told them about it, there were a bunch of (probably American) musicians who came because they knew Haruhiko, plus dozens of random goths and some who came in because it was raining outside. 

Finally the host (a goth in zombie-like make-up) appeared and announced that the band who was scheduled to play later afternoon couldn't come so Eve will play 15 longer... the result was some hysterical, euphoric screaming which seemingly surprised the host (I guess he thought that no one knows Eve). Then he announced the band ("Eve of Destiny... electo-goth from Japan") and wandered off the stage. After a short while a guy (I guess it was Mizz, but I've never seen a pic of him so I dunno for sure) appeared in the right and stood behind a bunch of unidentifiable electronic thingies and didn't move anywhere till the end of the concert. He started some noisy intro, but a moment later everyone forget about him and started to scream because Közi appeared on the other side from behind the curtain and came in front of the stage. Then finally Haruhiko appeared (he also got some applause and screaming, but far not as much as Közi) and the concert began. They all looked amazing. Haruhiko looked scary with his long, messy reddish-brown hair, freaky white contact-lenses and long, torn, black-lace dress. 

Mizz was cool beyond belief, as he stood there, his face all white, messing around with his electronics, looking up only once in a while. He reminded me of Blam Honey's Tatsuya, probably because of the black cowboy hat he was wearing... and Közi... Közi was BEAUTIFUL. I have seen some pics from their lives in the Philippines, but I didn't like those costumes too much, but the one he was wearing here was much more like a Malice Mizer costume. His face was white, covered with his red hair, with long red and black hair-extensions, he had a weird collar with long black spikes, which looked more like the legs of some mutant insect with black net between them. Otherwise he wore all black leather (or latex maybe? I'll have to check it on the pictures) which didn't cover his shoulders so we could see those beautiful tattoos and also the ones on his back. He wore high platform boots and a skirt like thing which was totally split open in the front, so we could see his black stockings and a little black leather something covering his *cough* things. 

When Mizz started the music and Haruhiko began to sing he was just standing there for a while, motionless, staring into nowhere, the he started to play with those typical, unmissable moves that no one else can do. He looked so so so amazing... like some kind of god of visual-kei. He was walking around a lot and a few times he came in front of the stage and posed a little (which resulted in insane screaming from the fan-girls). His face didn't show any sign of emotion, but somehow I got the feeling that he isn't really happy that he met screaming fan-girls even here, so far away from Japan.. The music was also excellent. 

The only song I knew was 'Desperado' (unfortunately they weren't selling CDs :\), but all the others were quite similar in style... a very aggressive mixture of Goth and electro-industrial elements and it sounded even more intense and hard in live. They played 6 or 7 songs and they always got big applause. The whole audience liked a lot what they heard and some of them even started to dance. Haruhiko seemed a bit morose in the beginning, but after a while, he stared to smile between the songs and seemed very happy about the audiences' reaction. When they finished they got a very big applause from the whole audience (it was probably about 200 people) and before they left the stage (more ear- piercing screaming from the first row) Haruhiko said "Thank you and see you next year", so I hope they will really come back, and if the festival-staff had seen how successful and good they were maybe they will get a better and longer time next year.

Case - 2002.05.21