Zur deutschen Version geht es hier.
The first concert of the year is already done! Totally crazy, if you think about it… And with that I welcome you into the year 2025! This year is going to be as batshit insane as 2024 and music-wise, we welcomed the year accordingly: Last Thursday (yes, Thursday!!) VENUES and STESY celebrated their gig of their tour at Neues Schauspiel in Leipzig. As fans of swinging music with Blegh factor we naturally couldn’t stay away!
Huge thanks to lightinmirror.de for the wonderful pictures! You are the best!
STESY
With STESY in the line-up, you can be sure that “bad vibes” won’t be a problem. The guys from the Vienna area have perfected Partycore and so it was clear from the very first notes that this journey was going to be a blast.
With catchy techno tunes and a whole load of guitars, STESY fired up the audience and those who found the opener Yes Weekend! too tame got on the party bus at the latest during the EIFFEL 65 cover. At this point, it should also be revealed that We Like To Party also found its way onto the setlist.
Whoever came up with the idea of offering the front row a funnel at some point is not quite right in the head, but STESY topped it all off by bringing a person dressed as a “judge” on stage and calling him “ Trichter Alexander Hold”. Genius and madness are so damn close together! From my point of view, however, a 12/10 on the pun scale! (At least in German…)
All in all, STESY have improved enormously in the time we haven’t seen them live. This is not only evident in the vocal department (thanks to the Voice of Germany for that), but also in the songwriting! The new song they played that evening, which I don’t want to spoil too much, was a lot of fun. So if you don’t want to do without Techno, excessive alcoholism and bad jokes in Metal, STESY are highly recommended. (But I still missed the whale!)
VENUES
Anyone who knows the music of VENUES a little will know that it is not primarily about partying, as is the case with STESY, for example. The strength of VENUES lies in the exploration of deep emotions that are so incredibly human. This was also clearly noticeable in the mood. While STESY were much more light-hearted in this respect, the VENUES set repeatedly invited the audience to reflect together.
Their catchy tunes Oblivion and Haunted House were a successful start to the evening and the tour. Unfortunately, singer Robin was unable to take part due to a serious illness of a close family member, but the group had found a worthy replacement in bassist Dennis! We would like to take this opportunity to wish Robin and his family all the best!
The setlist was dominated by the current album Transcience and the band’s unbridled joy of playing. Everyone could scream out their inner critic during Reflections, go wild during Praying Mantis and Bad Karma or watch Lela perform Coming Home in a very special way. Having a ballad in the set is always a risk because it lowers the mood enormously and it’s hard as a band to get that mood back on a positive path that leaves everyone satisfied. I might have put Coming Home a little earlier in the set, but VENUES managed the mood shift really well!
I can well imagine that this tour didn’t start as VENUES had imagined, but I really have to praise Dennis‚ performance and the band’s will to carry on as such. This is absolutely not a matter to be taken for granted and others might have canceled the tour under these circumstances. I therefore expressly pay tribute to VENUES! It was a pleasure to see! There was also a completely improvised encore, which was in no way inferior to the regular set in terms of atmosphere and power.
All in all, it was a wonderful start to our concert year 2025, which I could hardly have wished for differently: A club full of people who live, love and feel music and who come together precisely because of these emotions to celebrate two bands who will hopefully be able to take to the big stages in the near future. It could go on like this forever!
We’ll be continuing here with two interviews in the next few days! Because let’s be honest: who can get enough of VENUES or STESY? We certainly can’t!
Shieldmaiden's Voice 