Swamp Room Happening - Hannover, Germany June 7-8, 2003
From Aural Innovations #24 (July 2003)
What an amazing event this is! 700 freaks a day for two days of crazy music from dusk to dawn! I did not see the first day of the festival with the bands Vibravoid, Iron Cobra Orchestra, Reverend Beatman, Painted Air, Riviera Playboys, Color Cacas, Barbara Manning, Schwefel, Van Helsings and Colour Haze. We finally arrive around 8 after getting lost. We immediately meet up with the guys in Colour Haze. They had one of their best gigs ever last night and were feeling fine and happy to see us! We bring our gear into the club, which is totally packed and people are in a good mood. We set up a merchandise stand and I meet more and more people and we get our MANA vinyl records! Everyone is totally psyched and it looks great!
The music starts around 9:45 after they have a little auction of some rare music. The bands that play this night are: Surfpatrouille, Velvetone, King Khan and his Shrines, Los Banditos, Defectors, Mandra Gora Lightshow Society plus Matmosphere, Damo Suzuki, Liquid Visions and Gas Giant in that order. I don’t hear or see Surfpatrouille or Velvetone but the people pack the music hall and seem to be into it. I see and meet King Khan. It was quite cool party music (take James Brown and mix it with Mowtown!). The crowd loved them and they were really nice guys to talk with as well. The Banditos were a crazy 60’s beat band. The Defectors, also from Denmark, were amazing. I had never heard these guys but it was a fantastic mix of sixties garage and punk. A really great organ player and lead vocalist. They played a great version of Paint it Black! Mandra Gora Lightshow was next and played a really cool 30 minute set and they were joined by Matmosphere and performed one of his songs that was quite cool and he sung lead vocals. After that, Damo Suzuki entered the stage and we got a great 45 minute set of Can like trance music with Mandra Gora Lightshow as the backing band. Amazing! Now there was a break for 30 minutes or more for Liquid Visions to set up their elaborate light show. It was 4:15 before the started playing and I was totally tired and wasted having been awake for nearly 24 hours. They played a cool set but were plagued with some technical difficulties and did not enjoy the set much. It was one of the first gigs with the new bass player.
Set list: 01. Intro, Waste of time, Moonspell, Thing in E, Morning rain, Be'lieve (incl. "Dark star" tease), Chris I
We were up next. By the time Liquid Visions had cleared all their stuff away it was 5:30 in the morning. We were damn tired. Everyone in the band except for me had crashed out for a few hours in the van so they were ok but not fresh. Anyway, there was a hardcore of about 100 or more people who were with us and ready to fly out into heavy psychedelic space. The guys from Colour Haze, Dave (Sula Bassana), Gerard and his wife, Hørst and his friends, Arend and some others we knew. We open with "Never Leave This Way". We had not played this on the tour but it seemed more appropriate to ease into the show with this song. We then play more or less the set we had been with "There’s One", "Moonshake", "All Creatures", "Dragons Cave" and "Ride The Red Horse". I was having a lot of monitor problems and did not get them solved until late in the set. The people are really into it and we are flying now. I recall that "Ride The Red Horse" was really great. Next up is "Back On The Headless Track". I can’t remember if we did a jam or not and I don’t have the recording yet! We do "Firetripper" and we end the set with "Too Stoned". The people still want more and it is like 6:30 in the morning! We play a very jammed out version of "Storm Of My Enemies". When it is over, I am ready to collapse… What a great festival!
Set List: Never Leave this Way, There’s One, Moonshake, All Creatures, Dragons Cave, Ride the Red Horse, Back on the Headless Track, Firetipper, Too Stoned, Storm of My Enemies>Jam
Reviewed by Scott Heller