1998/01/14, Stadthalle, Erlangen, Germany

Written by Wim Vandeputte (wvdputte@reptile.rug.ac.be) for Dominion mailing list

Tom Meert and a bunch of other usuals went there, here is his impression. I'm sure I f*cked some of the facts, but here it is:

"Very Good"

First of all, a lot of people were clueless about the venue change, it took a few hours until the big mass arrived. There were not enough tickets, but the 'out door' prices were fairly acceptable, DM 70 to DM 80. (the prices of the Dusseldorf gig are tenfold though)

Nice venue, great Tsom equipment. The lightshow was once again great, there was a bit too much smoke, but one gets used to that by now.

The band consists of the same three members, I don't know if Simon is again the creative brain behind The Doktor. Guess so.

Andrew is still going platinum, but the hair is shorter. (eh? even shorter?)

Site security was fairly strict, especially against people who took pictures and those building pyramids, but of course they couldn't be stopped at the end. As for the morons on row 24, using a flash that far won't help. Actually, using a flash at all will never help: the distance is to far (even on the first row) and the smoke will screw your pictures.

The setlist was the same as the Dour, but had two new numbers added: Suzanne (slow rhythm, and it got a nice length. "OK") and Romeo Down.

The band had to get of stage at the end, as it was running fairly late now, but the crowd couldn't get enough. 19 numbers, not bad.

There was a Reptile House stand, sporting amongst other goodies a tour T shirt, the front is the tour logo (take the new logo, take out the head and the wheel that is left over is I believe painted in fluo?). The back has the new logo + "Sisters" "Event Horizon" + tour dates.

There was also the new CD from Scoda Blush, released on Rough Trade Records.

As for food for the brain, a brand new creative magazine was available at minimal printing cost, "Glasperlenspiel" or GPS, number 01. I'm sure we'll hear more from this as it has a bright future ahead. Although I'm really biased here, check it out.

My conclusion: business as usual with a few bonuses. Alive and kicking. back in action. Highly recommended. (well, keep in mind, that if you don't have tickets, getting in might prove to be expensive or impossible).

Written by Gianfranco Sciacca (g.sciacca@ic.ac.uk) for Dominion mailing list

The gig on the 14th, wherever the hell it was (which took a long, long time to figure out as it seems like nobody in Nurnberg knew anything about it) was plain boring. Granted it was the first gig of the tour so the band (band? ah, ah) needs warming up blah blah, then again we've heard the same songs for six years now and some of them just get worse and worse. The new stuff is definitely below the standards. And those guitar heroes on stage leave much to be desired.

Now scraping off the rest of the German gigs, it doesn't seem to be worth the while; although I hope that you folks attending will enjoy them.