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Das Boot 2008 - Bigger Louder and Electronic
A new boat and a new concept, that is what first hits me when I think about this year’s edition of Das Boot. The new boat sure was bigger and had a much larger main stage and it is a great stage for sure where you can see and hear clearly from all the corners of the large hall. The boat itself isn't really a festival venue per say but it's pretty funny to sit in a white leather chair in the piano bar drinking a fine glass of calvados and seeing all the people dressed up in all the different outfits you can find on a normal festival around me not really fitting in such an environment, including myself.
The new concept I mentioned earlier is that the people behind Das Boot decided to go 100% electronic a few months back. There are so many other cruises out there that are more into the metal scene so by not having any metal, just electronic music, there is no need to try to get the metal enthusiast to come. The lineup this year wasn't that exciting for me who never heard of all the DJ's booked for this year but VNV nation, Blutengel and Client on the synth music side and of course Israeli Infected Mushroom whom I happened to see at the local pizza place before the cruise really hoping that their sea food pizzas would be fresh and not causing them any stomach disorder so that they would have to cancel their upcoming show.
I did some research about all the different DJ's playing but I'm sad to say I couldn't find even one that sounded or seemed interesting in my hardened industrial ears. And almost all of the biographies about these DJ's had house music in them so I guess that the organizers this year are really into house and many people must have been too because the cruise was sold out for at least two weeks.
First act I caught on the main stage was Blutengel and my hopes wasn't very high as I'm not a fan but with a great sound and high volume the vampire wannabe and his girls made my head bob back and forth, but if you play me a hard beat in high volume, my head will do that. The show consisted of Cris Pohl, two backing singers, an Amazon woman and two hooded monks. He got a pretty good response from the gathered EBM-jugend.
On the same stage a few hours later it was time for some quality entertainment, in other words VNV Nation. Usually it's just Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson, but on this occasion they brought two additional keyboard players. I could only identify Vasi Vallis (behind acts such as Reaper and Frozen Plasma). VNV Nation always delivers and this time was no exception. They got the crowd going at once and it's a really good show all the way. No one ever expected anything else though. Ronan is a master of getting the crowd going wild. What energy that guy possesses.
About half past one in the night, Swedish or Finnish time I don’t know, Infected Mushroom hit the stage and I must admit that I prayed for just a second that they would skip the experimental new sound and go back to the ordinary Israeli Psy Trance, where it all began but hell no. I have really tried to like this new version of Infected but I don’t really buy it with the electric guitars and sing-a-long lyrics. Playing on the second day of the cruise is not very flattering for anyone as the crowd is all alcohol poisoned from the night before. There are a lot of zombies in front of the stage when all girl band Client enters the stage, but that doesn't stop them from doing an excellent show and getting almost all the zombies to move their asses. All in all a good cruise but I really hope that Das Boot will consider a more diverse range of electronic music, both live and DJ's for the future. Personally I would love some industrial and hardcore / speedcore / hardstyle acts and DJ's, but maybe that's just me.
/Johannes van der Meer
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Crowd
VNV Nation
Blutengel
Client
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