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Julien-K / The Crying Spell / Nox Interna in Hamburg

Originally, the Germany-tour of the U.S. electronic rockers Julien-K was planned with the support acts Mnemonic and Domenica. Instead of these, Nox Interna came from Madrid and The Crying Spell from Seattle and pushed the style of heavy rock into the direction of Gothic and dark ambience.

The bandwidth of the Headliners Julien-K allows this perfectly and is originally created electronically and with indeed rather gloomy spices. The dark scene had not noticed this stylistic redeployment of the tour, however, none of these appeared even though Nox Interna is a representative of this genre.

The since 2007 existing Spanish band celebrates classic gothic rock and delivered an impressive, visually imaginative show with theater-like elements. At the center the singing performance artist Richy Nox, who runs Nox Interna since two years as a solo project and realizes this only at concerts as a band. Musically, there is some similarity to The 69 Eyes, Deathstars or Sisters Of Mercy, driving, danceable, catchy and quite massive dark rock.

Because Germany has a comparatively strong marketing structure to the dark scene, Richy Nox tried with his new album, stronger than ever to break into this market; especially by English lyrics, although there were still several songs in distinctive Spanish from his first album at the concert. The numerous efforts of Mediterranean musicians, to see the English language as a key to international success, rather than focusing on unique compositions is a peculiar phenomenon to bend verbally oneself.

NOX INTERNA Website

The Crying Spell is an established four years ago band from Seattle, the traditional capital of grunge. But The Crying Spell sound in songs such as “Android Lust” or “The Dead War” rather similar to The Cure and are amazing close to British Batcave.

Most of the songs were from the 2012 released album “Disgraceland”. The tall, blonde singer Len Hotrum had no problems to reach the upper headlight guard above the small stage of the Marx with his hands. A bass player wasn´t there, the songs therefore were clearly marked of electronics, although guitarist Eric Snyder reluctant at the beginning, then increasingly boiling, contributed excellent string work.

In the song “Never Before” was a clear reference to U2 and built a bridge to the 80s Wave Pop music, the area where Julien-K dive for their inspirations, too.

THE CRYING SPELL Website

Julien-K also have a new CD “We´re Here With You” on the market, which is in comparison to their debut of 2009 more straightforward and less dark. It is known, Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh are no newcomers in the business, but the former guitarists of the highly successful U.S. band Orgy.

On keyboards worked the underground electronic Anthony Valcic and created the synthetic sound ground in which the guitar milled their wave-curves. The focus was almost exclusively on the song material of the new album. Modern transfer of 80s pop structures in the zeitgeist-friendly sound of the actual computer generation even works well in concert and not just as an polished mix at the album.

Yet live the handiwork is in the foreground. So perfect the songs are sophisticated, there was not a spoonful of sterility. Especially frontman Ryan Shuck sang, performed, sweated and worked diligently and seemed to enjoy the close contact to the audience in such a small club.

JULIEN-K Website

Andreas Torneberg

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