Gig review: Downfall of Gaia Eastern European Tour 2011, day four

20 October, day four - Sofia, Bulgaria

Here we are at the final day of my tagging along to the tour of "Downfall of Gaia" and it revolved in not a really glorious fashion, for me personally at least. I had high expectation for the gig itself, which was scheduled in the capital city of Bulgaria and luckily everything happened as I thought it would, though there were some problems along the way, both personal and technical, resulting in me attending the gig in an overall bad mood.

The caterpillar mode managed to fail me during the night, since my cocoon was constantly penetrated by the freezing air floating around the room, thus my sleeping hours were cut short. As a result I was at least looking forward to a revitalizing warm shower in the home of our host, though the splash of the cold water from the seemingly full water boiler managed to make me regret ever entering the bathroom. Spending one millisecond in the wretched tub, packing my stuff and the rest of the guys getting ready as well, we went to "Bingo" once again to pack the equipment in the van, during which the band received a massive amount of cash from last night's show, a glorious sum formed out of one digit...glorious in contrast to the three digit of euros needed to enter the country in the first place. Complete fail. In the process of filling the van, we found out that "Rosa Parks" have also confirmed that they will play and I was so excited about that, since I missed their shows a couple of times when they played in Serbia. Packing up everything and running away from the venue as fast as we could, Lucas, Bjorn and I went to the supermarket in search for some food, though we quickly decided that we should in fact nom the pizza once again. After I managed to randomly impress and cause laughter from a bunch of passerby girls with my English skills, we hunted down the pizza and met up with the rest of the group and hit the road. Soon enough we set our roots onto a gas station yet again and devoured the food and once more being approached by several insects, though no screaming and panic this time.

The road through Macedonia toward the Bulgarian border was fast and smooth, accompanied by listening to some tunes in the van and looking at the outside scenery. At the border there was no big trouble, but still I needed to act with my Serbian speaking skills. For some reason I feared that they might not let me enter the country, but to my surprise the border patrol was actually....happy and surprised in a positive fashion that a dude from Serbia is travelling with a bunch of Germans. Thanks to the fun factor the time on the border crossing was minimal and painless, so we were on the open road again very soon, once again enjoying the lovely landscape found in Bulgaria. Due to the outside entertainment provided by nature, the ride seemed short and we arrived to the venue quite quickly. But once we arrived, the curse of Kumanovo struck once again, this time attacking the van itself in the form of the back door being stuck closed and unable to be opened. The fact making the whole situation worse was that the show would start a bit earlier, due to three bands playing and a sound check was scheduled prior to the gig as well. Time was short and the door was stubborn. The van's insurance company was called and it took first one dude, then two dudes and two hours to fix the stupid lock. In the meantime, the seats inside the vehicle were butchered so that the massive equipment would be dragged out. Add to that a "minor" incident where a box of records was almost run down by one idiot driving by in a car and you have the whole scenario for a frustrating pre-show catastrophe. During all these trials, I hanged out with my travelling companions from this Summer's trips, the dudes from "Tigersuit" zine, as well as meeting some more people who happen to accidentally know about my blog and enjoy it!

The gig took place in club "The Box", quite a modern and neat little place. Going through narrow and low ceiling staircase, you enter a sort of balcony which hangs above a big gig room where a small stage is set, in front of which there is a dance floor of sorts and to the right a raised up platform with tables and chairs. There is not a lot of light present and the overall ambient is quite nice and comfortable. Despite the problems which occurred, the gig started on time and all was well. "Rosa Parks" played first and they absolutely blew me away in a completely unexpected fashion. Back in the day when I was still involved with the previous music blog, I posted their EP which was filled with mellow, dreamy post rock melodies sculpted into long tracks. The storm of sound that was unleashed from their instruments in "The Box" caught me by surprise since it proved to be like nothing I expected to hear. Extremely fast songs bursting with unexpected spasm like riffs, exploding track sections and occasional screaming without the use of microphones, all enveloped with in epic proportions associated with post rock, managed to leave me completely speechless. There was just a nonstop pounding on their instruments and an amazing display of dancing and body movement on stage, going so well with the speeding music that was flooding the room. The impact hit of the sound was really inspiring, making your body feel the desire to just jump around and go with the flow of the music. Sadly, the band played only half of their usual set because of the lack of time, but they succeeded in leaving the biggest of positive marks on me and putting an impressed look on my face. I don't know which songs were performed, since I only listened to the above mentioned EP and it was actually hazy in my memory even on that night. After their set I just had to approach one of the members and just congratulate on a wonderful show. We talked a bit and I even had the guts to ask them whether they would be interested in doing an interview, the bravery spewing from the fact that they also know about my blog! What is wrong with you people?!?! (serious ego boosts for me) In any case, they seemed overtly surprised with the offer and I guess we should definitely talk more over email, so maybe one day you get to read about them here. All in all, a flawless performance and I really hope that I will grab a chance and see them once again in the future.

After "Rosa Parks", a local Bulgarian band named "Expectations" got up on stage. I have heard a lot about them previously, though I never got a chance to take a listen. In any case, what I saw that night in Sofia was really impressive and entertaining. A melodic, emotionally charged hardcore swinging between mid and fast tempo, at times having some slightly metallic riffs, the band had quite a turbulent performance. I'll be honest and say that their music isn't one hundred percent my cup of tea, since I don't enjoy those slower hardcore sections a lot, but their overall performance was extremely high quality and their tunes carry strong potential. Those violent outbursts really throw a nasty punch and the crowd seemed to constantly respond in a similar fashion. The funny thing was that, despite me being generally impressed by the band, the locals and the band itself stated that this was definitely not their top show and that they weren't quite happy with the performance, which definitely sparked a wish in me to see them again. Worth the note was that Hannes was extremely impressed with "Expectations", which he told me during the show in a very infatuated way.

"Downfall of Gaia" was the last to conquer the stage that night of course and finally they got a chance to shine after the gig last night. The Sofia show was on par with the one from Novi Sad, though the latter one I personally enjoyed more. They had an ultimately clean sound provided by the venue, so the entire tale they told through the performed melded songs flowed in a magnificent fashion. Gentle, soothing and highly melancholic in the slower sections, yet world shattering and emotionally powerful during the aggressive moments, the crowd got to see and hear the band in all its beauty. The audience was weird a bit to me, since I somehow find moshing to "Downfall of Gaia"...unnecessary to say the least. From my standing point as a listener, their music manages to hit and play an extremely deep personal chord in the bottom of one's being, which results in just experiencing the tunes in your own mind and emotion, rather than expressing it outright through body movement. Still, those are just my demented thoughts and as I said the crowd had a different way to show their amazement and enjoyment. An absolutely stunning and perfect performance, plus I was really glad that the band itself was happy with the audience and everything happening that night.

After the show it was sadly time to say farewell to my four day family, since I was about to depart on my own path, so after a group hug and goodbyes I left the club. I have to admit that I felt completely mellow in those last moments, since I really felt bonded with all of them, simply because they are all unbelievably nice people and I am proud to call each of them a friend. I'd like to thank them all for accepting an outsider into their van and home, in the process making me feel like we already know each other for years and not experiencing a single moment of awkwardness. Thanks for all the shared food, toothpaste, all the scheisse and fun times, cool talks and retarded yet amazing humor, just everything. Hope to see you all once again some day, junge, but until then.....macheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!