Hell Nights – Hamburg (24-10-2015)
Belated Halloween concert.
On October 25th, this year’s scene event called Hell Nights stopped in the Hamburg’s Logo. NIM VIND opened the evening with a 50 minute set. The Canadians gamble their songs down very experienced, knowing that the sound the mixer was brewing that night probably will not be the best of the whole tour. The club is only half full at this time. Under moderate applause, the band leaves the stage without addition.
After changeover a well-known musician came on stage: ARGYLE GHOOLSBY. Many of the mostly young people in the audience know him from his former band BLITZKID (1997-2012) – this should be a household name. Right from the very first note, Mr. GHOOLSBY and his companions rocked. The musicians originally play in NIM VIND and THE CRIMSON GHOSTS and it seems like they joined GHOOLSBY spontaneously for this tour. Although the audience is not familiar with most of the new material, people love it and the club sees its first of two highlights. After only 30 minutes, the band leaves the stage. In my view, the set was a bit too short, surely due to the fact that the Logo has to shut down at 12:00 p.m.
Moments later, THE OTHER enter the stage – the band who rules Horror Punk since BLITZKID quit. As you would’nt expect otherwise, the band around mastermind Rod Usher show a mixture of brilliant older songs like “Der Tod Steht Dir Gut” from their Fiend Force Records days to more recent songs of their three SPV records. Rod Uhser is in a good mood, often and intensively communicating with the audience. The sound has improved during the show. Although the band has to cope with even one or two line up changes in the recent past, it presents itself as a cohesive unit. With vigorous applause, THE OTHER leave the stage to 10:45 p.m.. Second highlight of the evening.
Around 11:00 p.m. it was time for this year’s tour headliners CHRISTIAN DEATH, the band, which once had a cult status and could inspire gothics around the world with former frontman ROSS WILLIAMS. This evening the rather young audience could not quite enjoy, fans of THE OTHER and NIM VIND or ARGYLE GHOOLSBY were primarily there. Around 12:00 p.m. the concert ended and most fans went home happily.
To sum it up: a successful evening with two absolute highlights of the underground scene kept ready with ARGYLE GHOOLSBY and THE OTHER. Specifically, ARGYLE GHOOLSBY appeared extremely motivated at his first European tour as a solo artist. Only NIM VIND could not really convince.