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Eve of Destiny © Haruhiko Ash 1997-2004.

 

The Sanctuary Halloween Party

 

 

November 1, 2002

 

Club ISC

Neubrückstrasse 10

Bern, Switzerland

doors 22:00 concert 23:00 end 05:00

 
Djs SpiderB and Antz
 

 

Setlist

SE. I・NO・RI
m2. Nervous and Innocence
m3. Iconoclast
m4. Garden for a Zearlot
m5. Dead Alive
m6. Metaphour
m7. Desperado
m8. Eve of Destruction

 

 

 

- report by Case -

Wow...


I just got back from Bern and the Eve of Destiny gig (and the whole trip) was excellent. They played there on Friday as the one-and-only band of a Halloween party. The concert was just as excellent as their gig in Leipzig, but at the same time it was as different as possible, because of the completely different venue. While in Leipzig they played in a festival with about 200 other bands, here they were the main band, so it was much more personal. Also, in Leipzig they had a lot of lighting and smoke and whatever, while here there was almost nothing like that... it was just them playing, but it was more than enough for us of course)

They played in a not too big club called ISC, which belongs to some school normally, but now it was filled with Halloween goodness... little plastic skeletons and candles were lying around, and skulls were hanging from the ceiling, so it had a quite fitting atmosphere. The party was organised by a local goth-community called The Sanctuary, so most of the audience was local people who came because of the goth Halloween party and knew nothing about EoD. However there were quite a lot of people from all over Europe who went there just to see Eve of Destiny. Most of the people were from Germany and France and there were some people from Japan. I think just the three of us who stayed there for the whole weekend (Amasanin, Miyu and me) were from other countries. Almost all of the people who were there for EoD were girls, I think beside me the only guy was a Klaha cosplayer from France. There were a few cosplayers, while the others (just as the rest of the audience) were dressed in goth-style.

When the doors opened at last, we all rushed at the front of the stage and took the best places... the local people were seemingly a bit surprised and didn't really understand why we were standing there while nothing was going on and there was still a lot of time till the show, which was advertised to begin at 23.00. They were a bit late and began almost exactly at midnight, but it was a good thing, because by that time the club was completely full... There were about 20 of us EoD/Malice fans and... ummm... and I think about 250-300 local people. Before the live two DJs played an excellent selection of goth/dark goodness. Of course, no matter how good the music was we couldn't concentrate on it too much, because we all waited for the concert. :)

And at midnight the curtains finally opened and after a short horror-film music type intro Haruhiko and Közi walked in, at front of the screaming audience and started to play. The sound was more clear than in Leipzig, so the people who speak Japanese could probably understand what Haruhiko was singing about and also we could hear the details of the music much better. Also the whole thing sounded a bit less aggressive and not as much electro-industrial influenced as in the WGT, but maybe it sounded more melodic not only because of the better sound quality, but also because of the absence of Mizz, who were helping them out with some electric effects back in Leipzig.

EoD's sound has a lot in common with the older, classic goth/dark bands and it's very tight and heavy and fortunately it is almost completely free of those danceable EBM influences that are so popular in the goth-scene nowadays.. (also it is absolutely nothing like Malice or visual-kei just in case anyone was wondering... ^^) I think they are amongst the best goth bands world-wide and the extremely warm reaction they got from the non-visual audience in Leipzig and reportedly in New Zealand too is a pretty good proof of this.

As far as I can tell the costumes were more or less the same as in New Zealand and Leipzig... Haruhiko wore black pants covered with a spider-web like thingy, a black, cape like thing with a high vampire-like collar, plus his usual necklaces. Közi also wore all black... platform boots, stockings, shorts, corset and that weird neck-thing. He only wore some net stuff on his arms/upper back so I could get pretty good pics of his tattoos ^_^v. The other advantage of the small club over the Leipzig venue was that the stage was right in front of us and not meters away as in the festival, so we were very close to them (actually Közi almost accidentally hit my head with his guitar when he came at the front once :)) and we had an excellent opportunity to take great pictures. Since almost everyone had a camera amongst the people who went there for EoD, there will be literally hundreds of photos of the show.

Közi had his new guitar again and also a lot of guitar- effect pedals in front of him.. and he used them a lot, so after the live we were talking about what could be the reason of the guitar change and we came to the conclusion that he probably wanted to try new things and experiment more and the new one gave him a better chance to do so. Haruhiko yet again seemed very happy with the audience's good reactions and obviously enjoyed the gig a lot, while most of the time Közi was walking around with his typical poker-face, trying to hide a fact, that he also had a pretty good time. :)

The local goths also enjoyed a set a lot and when it was over the shouting and applause didn't let down for a very, very long while.

The only problem with the show was that it was terribly short... only about 35-37 minutes, but later when Amasanin asked Haruhiko, why they played for such a short time he said because that's all the songs they have so far. However the set was totally amazing and the fun didn't end yet... After they finished and the DJs started to play again we were walking around the club, still feeling a bit dizzy from the wonderful concert, but I was also looking for Yuko, their manager, because I emailed her about a possible interview and she replied they will probably have time after the gig, so when she showed up I asked her and she said ok. So I went backstage and asked a bunch of stuff from them for about 20 minutes... the only problem was that there wasn't a professional interpreter, so Yuko and a girl from Japan who spoke some English tried to help out with translation. So at sometimes it became a bit of a mess, but I'll show the tape to some of my friends who are good in Japanese to try to make it more clear and post it as soon as possible. They said a lot of very interesting things. They are still working on the CD and planning to release it sometime next year, and they have some more lives in Europe planned, so they will be very active. Anyways both of them seemed very happy with what they are doing right now and I think that's the only thing that matters.

They were both very kind and friendly and when I finished and the others asked them if they can come in for autographs and such they agreed, so everyone who wanted had a chance to chat with them and take some photos. They also recognised some of the people who were also in Leipzig, so now they know they have a bunch of loyal fans in Europe :)) After everyone finished backstage, we saw Közi a lot more time, walkin' around the club, getting a drink at the bar, etc... things that would be absolutely impossible for him after a Malice live.

We also ran into them the next evening when we were returning to our hotel, so we realised that their hotel is at the opposite corner and we can even see it from our windows. :)

After all it was an excellent live and I'm pretty sure they enjoyed it as much as we did and we all hope they will be back next year.

Case~ November 4, 2002

 

- report by amasanin -

 

Konbanwa minna-sama

I'm also back now and let me tell you first of all: everyone was frantic with those cameras ^^ Anyway since Case did me the favour and posted his review first I will write an independent one pointing out things he didn't mention or my opinion on things he did. So here's my report to complement that of Case:

We all got there around 9 o'clock and waited outside ISC club. The doors actually opened a bit later than 10 by which time there were a lot of people there waiting in the cold.  After waiting for 2 hellish hours, listening to great music nevertheless but not really interested at that point, the curtain finally opened. The stage was small and cosy and so low that I started feeling over exposed in a way standing on the first row. Közi walked in first, did his usual (for EoD) posing for pictures and even let the fans touch him who were standing on his side of the stage (the right) and then Haruhiko showed up who got a great deal of clapping and shouting from the back rows. And the show started :)

Like others said the sound was far clearer that in Leipzig. It did sound less industrial than I remembered but I also got a very punkish feel from it, especially Haruhiko's vocals. In its core it was gothic. They played all songs from Leipzig including two new ones. One of the new ones had a 'lalala...' chorus and a very nightmarish and desperately melancholic melody which stayed in my head for a while.

Közi had pedals in front of him and lots of cables under him which gave him some trouble at some point (poor Közi ^^). He stayed on the right of the stage for most of the live but at some point took pity on me almost falling over trying to get a good picture and came to the left for a few moments, posed for a few pictures and went right again to his pedals.

Haruhiko was in the middle for the entire live but jumped up to a step like thing at the back a few times and did some vampirish moves on us looming down from up there. He was wearing the Alice Auaa trousers and a vampire like pointy collar I've seen him wear before.

When Közi threw his pick to the audience (he did the same in Leipzig) I for one was in shock because I couldn't believe they had played for such a short time again (not even 40 minutes) but, yes, they went away. What followed was amazing: the shouts of 'encore', the clapping, banging, and screaming from the entire club lasted a good 10 minutes. But they didn't come back  for reasons Haruhiko explained later... although he did also say that they were very tempted to come out for another song (how they would play it I have no idea and probably neither did they and so never did).

And there you have it... that was all I can say about the live. I will just add that it was truly special seeing them in such a small place and I hope we get the chance to do so again. Leipzig was also amazing but for different reasons: it was my first EOD live and the first time I was seeing Közi-sama of course but the huge stage, the lighting, the atmosphere... all was very majestic. And with Közi roaming around the stage posing and teasing us it was like a dream. Bern was like a fanclub event, very private, very personal, and they were really nice and generous with all of us. And seeing Közi walking around like he was on a regular night out made it even more precious for everyone I think.
 
Amasanin~ November 4, 2002