Dark 7 Festival @ The Underworld

It was a brave move deciding to create a night of live bands performing EBM style music. Bits of it worked well and other bits less so. There wasn't a massive crowd there by any means but they were certainly one of the loudest I have ever heard.



There is always time to pose!




Tonight will be brought to by the D&Vs! NO, not diarhoea and vomiting! Tonight will be brought to you by Danceability and Visuals in a one off rating system.


GHOST IN THE STATIC
A band with a great guitar industrial sound. They did a good Prodigy cover (Omen) with support from Cease2Xist. They were a good warm up band and got those EBM arms flailing.
D: 7
V: 7





FUTUREFRENETIC
Boring band to watch but VERY danceable. They had some fantastic tunes. If you closed your eyes you could well have been dancing to a DJ set at Slimes or Antichrist. Good songs but need to work on the presentation a little.
D: 8
V: 2





DIGITAL DEFORMATION
Almost didn't start as the keyboard rig collapsed during set up! 10/10 for the saves from both guys!
Music seemed disjointed and didn't really flow but this might have been due to them experiencing technical difficulties throughout their set which was a shame. Singer was very angsty!
D: 3 (sadly most of the crowd were in the bar for their set)
V: 6





CEASE2XIST
Normal service has been resumed! Slight delay to the start of their set as the singer went to the bar and dragged everyone back through to the dance floor. Genius!
Great fun to watch, punk rock EBM! Did a fantastic cover of I Wanna Be Your Dog by Iggy & The Stooges!
D: 9
V: 9





GLOBAL CITIZEN
Global Citizen were the reason I came and they didn't disappoint me. A tad slow for the EBM crowd perhaps but there were still plenty of people dancing. It should be noted that Global Citizen are more like a slow fuck than a rave gang bang!
D: 9
V: 10





MACHINE ROX
Although these guys didn't really do much for me they had a heaving dancefloor and a great crowd reaction, so they were doing something right. Agnes sometimes looked a little awkward on stage but she played her supporting role well and Richard showed that you don't have to be limited on stage when stuck behind a keyboard.
D: 9
V: 8





SYSTEM:FX
I first saw these guys at Evolution in Westcliff on a Vendetta night. Tonight they had a fantastic entrance. System:FX fortunately are a very visual band but it was a real shame that Deb was stuck right at the back, so her moves were lost a bit. A great set of songs plus some new stuff and a stage invasion at the end from Cease2Xist and the singer of Ghost In The Static. The crowd loved it and they rounded off the night very well.
D: 9
V:`10






Whilst it might have been a little over ambitious staging an event like this, I think overall it was a success. A lot of EBM bands are hard to watch but on the whole there was plenty of visual flair on offer and the tunes spoke for themselves. Here's hoping that it was successful enough to warrant a return in 2012.