IAMX Munich Backstage 10.12.08
Back to the roots was the motto! Our first IAMX gig was a bit more than a year ago right there in the Backstage and this way we were kind of celebrating an anniversary. No question we had to go front row!
During the first supporting band, Glam, the audience was rather sparsely populated, but still they had some very supportive fans out there! Those seven or eight girls made noise like an entire catholic girls school during sports class. Glam itself did a pretty good job, although the mood of an half empty venue always settles itself on the music and keeps it down a bit. There is potential, let’s see what they are going to make of it.
The next supporting band was Nemo, IAMX’ very special friends and guests who we’ve kind of already seen in Berlin last New Year’s, but honestly I didn’t get too much of this last gig back there at the bar drinking too much beer, so I was really glad to finally see them from heads to toes. Nemo do an impressive, forcing, electro-injected rock with which they seemed to get the crowd finally moving. Lead Singer James Cook was the impersonated Duracell-Bunny, moving fast around the stage boxing in the air. He seemed to fall over into the crowd several times because of his exhausting whirling.
After a long break the stage was finally prepared with the typical IAMXish video-installations and little gum horse “Galopp” and the now completely filled Backstage was pushing us forward to the stage. The room was very dark, the videos in the background and on the roof were set in scene perfectly, which makes me guess it was Chris Corners work alone to catch the right atmosphere. They started off with a couple of old songs to make the crowd warm. Chris was again very quiet and only talked to introduce some songs from the upcoming album. The new songs are very ingoing and energetic, as used from “The Alternative”, but they are constantly moving away from the electronic based debut “Kiss+Swallow” and are trying to find a new path. The audience seemed to take the new stuff very well, so there’s a good chance the new record could eclipse the old ones soon. The performance in generell was IAMX as usual: powerful, dramatic, ecstatic and intense. And even if Chris Corner is not much of a talker, he has some flirting moments with the crowd which certainly adores him. He holds the micro into the audience and sits down at the front of the stage so people can touch him (and as cheesy as it sounds – they do!). This was one of those gigs, however long they are, it can not be enough.
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