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Tinitus 2005
With Arvikafestivalen months away and northern lights rather infrequent and difficult to observe in Stockholm there is still a glimmer of light in dark and quiet capital of Sweden. It’s a strobe flashing like mad to a 140 BPM song and this shit will fuck you up.
Tinitus certainly had one of its most aggressive line-ups in years even tough the festival has never been shy to book bands prepared to make some noise. After some hefty delays at the doors they finally swung open, eager visitors clutching their tickets marched in. Though unconfirmed, the delay seems to have been caused by problems during the bands’ soundchecks and this is probably a reasonable explanation given the fact most bands at the Southern stage had trouble with the levels of some instruments.
First up was Militant Cheerleaders On the Move, Memento Materia’s “old school” newcomers who made for a rather shaky opening and with a large number of the visitors holding out for the bands to come the show didn’t really feel very solid. Luckily, Thermostatic was hiding in the curtains to get things going. And without a doubt they did an amazing job of it, kindling the audience and treating them to one of the night’s better performances. There’s always a trade-off between letting poster names play later in the evening and trying to keep the music varied. It felt a bit like Thermostatic for the sake of variation should have played on slot earlier but nevertheless they put on a great show.
In more than one way, Agonoize was the evening’s big surprise. Not only because they opened with a bang and crash (as one of their keyboards hit the floor, stroking the very first key) but also because even though I was really excited to see them, I hadn’t expected so many others to be. Overcoming the initial disaster and getting back on track Agonoize put on a good show, if not measured by any other means, the fact that Out of Line sold every single Agonoize CD they had brought says plenty. An eye sore was the bad lighting at the North stage though, something that affected not only Agonoize but every other single band at that stage.
Next up on the main (South) stage was German Rotersand making their first appearance in Sweden, and it’s been an anxious waiting. Thankfully, they more than delivered. Rotersand seemed to be the first band of the evening truly familiar to whole the audience, and not only by name but also in individual songs. And given the strength of their songs there wasn’t any problem associated with letting the tempo drop temporarily to play softer songs as they were more than able to pick the crowd right up with single hits such Merging Oceans and Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy. Most enjoyable during their performance however, was the laid back, self-distanced attitude of the band that really shone through right from the start and let the audience know, that they were having just as good a time there.
Combichrist, also making their first appearance in Sweden, wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped. Despite the high energy of the material off “Everybody Hates You” I felt there was a lack of energy at the stage, in part because of the poor lighting but the show also seemed to be on the empty side of shows. Nevertheless, none of this hindered Andy LaPlegua from getting the crowd going. But there could have been more mayhem, and I think people were expecting Combichrist to bring it to a further extent than they did.
While Howard Jones was dragging his synthesizer across the stage and turning his back on the audience to fidget with some piece of machinery every once in a while, Thomas P. Heckmann was turning music to life at the Bunker, attracting an ever growing raving audience that really got their money’s worth. But more the any other act, Die Krupps packed the floor in front of North stage and ended the ten years long wait since their last visit to Sweden and had me wondering whether perhaps they had not been more worthy of headlining the festival. No other concert during the evening drained the other parts of Münchenbryggeriet as much. With 25 years of music making and a rich song list to choose from, far from every classic could be performed. Nevertheless, few seemed displeased with the set list and many left hoping it would not take another ten years for them to return.
As Die Krupps headed towards the end of their gig, Apoptygma Berzerk fans were already gathering in front of the South stage. There were some concerns that the bands recent creative turns (a.k.a. their latest album “You and me against the world”) would spoil the evening but clearly these were poorly founded fears. The band walked on stage kicking off with a classic and from there the hits came one after another with very few intermissions. Clearly, they know what their fans want and don’t mind giving it to them. Overhearing numerous comments afterwards most seem to agree that the gig at Tinitus was one of the best in years.
With that, Tinitus 2005 came to a close. What an evening it was. Time passed quickly. Both because the slots were really tight but mostly because there was barely a band not worth checking out and staying for. With that in mind it was somewhat surprising that more people didn’t turn up. A big thanks to the organizers for putting together a great evening.
/Fredric Düring
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