Music Monday | Moderat was NOT what I had expected

As the smokescreen from Amsterdam Dance Event is starting to disappear and the cities are getting back to normal ( I didn't go this year, because I wasn't feeling it at all) it was also time to look back at something electronic earlier in the week.

I went to see Moderat in the venue called 013 in Tilburg Netherlands. Moderat is a collaboration between the producers 'Mode Selektor' and 'Apparat' and they come and go with breaks in their existence every time. This was the second time during this 'More Data' tour that I went to see them and as you can see in my previous blog about the tour, I was super siked last time that I saw them.

But that was then....and this time it was different

Initially I thought it was me. It was a weekday, I was tired, it was raining cats and dogs. Let's say my mood wasn't the best to head towards the venue, but on the other hand...This was the perfect moment to just let it all go and enjoy music and some good vibes as the show about a year ago was just everything fantastic.

What I really like previous time was the combination of the visuals which really enhanced the music and the mood of the song and also the energy coming from stage.

And that energy...I wasn't feeling it...But initially I thought it was me. I saw some other people around me moving to songs like A new Error and Rusty Nails but I didn't feel it at all. And what I also noticed was that the sound was not really as I had hoped. But the previous show was in the 'Afas live' venue, formerly known as the Heineken Music Hall, which is known for how good the sound always is. And from what I could always remember after visiting the 013 venue was how much the sound sucked. As it was as well this time.

The looped tunes sounded normal, but the additional synths were way to loud, as the underlying hi-hats were just absent and the bass sounded more like a washing machine so loud that even my pants were moving from the vibration.

To top it all off

To complete the whole distaster the frontman spoke the legendary words 'we have been on the road for a while now and as you can hear we have started experimenting with some different variations.

Translation of this: 'we are fed up with touring so we want to do something to make it fun for ourselves' and that is something you could just feel the whole time. I get it, songs changes over time and often playing a new version of them brings a lot more. But don't change them for the sake of changing them. Or better said...Experimenting so much that even the timing went wrong for instance in the song Reminder

Walk or not?

By this point I was already so annoyed and disappointed that the thought of walking off crossed my mind more than once. If this had been on a festival with more people playing, I surely would have done so. But now this solo show which you dedicated visit and then walk off...That feels like a waste of money.

But it was a waste of money actually. The sound was so loud that without earplugs that would have been the end of your hearing and so out of balance. I don't know what was wrong, but it was really wrong.

And that while a year ago this surely was my show of the year. What a contrast!

The decor during Fastland

Everyone was waiting for the encore of Bad Kingdom but what I did like is that they played Intruder as final song which has a suuuuper intense middle part in there, but the sound dude was again capable of just putting a washing machine sound in there again. By the time the set finished I looked around and half of my friends had walked out already.

I guess the conclusion of all of this was...It was not what I had hoped for. And that was just a disappointment. Will I go a next time? I'm not sure honestly.....