September, 13th – Karlsruhe, Jubez – God Is An Astronaut, Daturah

Today I picked up some friends to ride to Karlsruhe, again. It was time for GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT – a show I was looking for since weeks. Some friends told me that they would prefer DATURAH but I guess they did not know the main act well enough to judge about them or maybe they were not expecting this kind of eruptive music.

Anyway as we came to the venue it was almost sold out with 300something people so they moved it to the bigger hall of the venue. The stage had a quite low ceiling but was very wide. The bands made the decision easy to buy some merchandise and records – very nice prices (CD = 10 EUR, Shirts = 10 / 12 EUR) – too bad I managed to forget my wallet at home because Droste (from AHAB) called me to ask something about their gig in Stuttgart (they are touring with DORNENREICH) just in the moment I was leaving. Well – shit happens – and it can get even worse – a friend of mine bought the last copy of the “Far From Refuge” vinyl version from GIAA…

So let us turn over to better things: the shows of two great bands. DATURAH started with three guitars, bass and drums, screening pictures in vintage look. One guitarist played the keyboards at some parts. The result was an overwhelming intense sound with very explosive moments emerging from synthetic intros. They played a very tight set and most of the crowd was nodding with the rythm. Convincing me with a really representative cross-section of their releases DATURAH put a lot of emotions in their songs and a decent level of honesty so you could simply not resist their music.

Speaking of honesty – I did not know what to expect from GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT as some songs are really soft in the recorded version. But fortunately the guys had the courage to put up a really heavy set which was hightlighted by deeply unsettling videos of atmoic bomb detonations, spacecraft take-offs, caged animals, screaming people or praying priests. It was amazing to see and hear that a three piece constisting of drums, bass and guitar can bring up a dense wall of sound like this. Calm parts followed by eruptive heavy guitar parts getting to a climax. The precise drums were one part of it but the diversified guitar work was what made all the people dive into an own world of sound. And believe me – noone on this concert would disagree with this point. Sometimes I believed that I could even feel myself flying through the space. Just one word left: adorable music! Not to forget a very down-to-earth band with likeable announcements.

After the show everyone was trying to get some merch or some records … well … except me of course.

GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT: MySpace – Homepage – Last.fm
DATURAH: MySpace – Homepage – Last.fm

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