w3nk

From The Depths
19.08.06 - WENK, Aarau (AG)
Pÿlon / Hellvetica / Pentaslave

What’s the story?

Shortly after releasing our first album in February 2004 as a four-piece (with Baldi on 2nd guitar), Matt got us a gig at the Jugendkafi Steinmaur (ZH) on 19Mar2004, where we played Natural Songbirth in its entirety plus Sweet Leaf. On Fate and the Hard Road Freak medley, we were joined by Hatsch, our interim singer.

  To the day two years and five months later, on 19Aug2006, our first real public gig at the w3nk Aarau (AG) came along as we could no longer resist the kind invitations from our friends in Hellvetica. We weren’t sure whether Th’ Eternal Wedding Band, the new album, would be ready in time … but that question pretty much answered itself.

  (Flashback to Jun2006): “Tinu, Matt: Hellvetica are offering us the opening slot for their concert in Aarau. Do we want to go?” – “Aarau? That’s not too far. And they’re nice guys. – Yeah, why not!”
No way! Pÿlon agreed to hit a stage!

  But what now, the mixing of the album wasn’t finished and we only manage to meet up for two hours per week. This could get tricky as the mix had to go first and Matt wanted to finish HEAVY METAL NATION III beforehand as well. Furthermore, both Matt and Tinu would not be able to make it to one rehearsal …. But somehow, things worked fine and we had two weeks left to decide on a 30- to 45-minute set and play the songs together for the first time in about four months! One drum and bass run-through to recall the structures of the songs, one full rehearsal with guitar, vocals and forgotten riffs, the second full rehearsal with forgotten solos and one short guitar and bass meeting which went very well: four hours to make up for two years! – “Augen zu und durch, ” as they say in German – “here goes nothing.”

The evening

It was agreed that Hellvetica would bring in the drum set, the guitar amps and the microphones whilst I was asked to chip in with the bass amp. Arriving at the w3nk at four o’clock in the afternoon, I was greeted by Michael and Federic, the manager and the tech for the night – great guys and as friendly, swift and helpful as on the phone and in our e-mail correspondence. “Small stage tonight, hm?” I teased Federic, looking at the 3x3 m area at knee-height. – “Oh no, that’s just for the drums. I’m putting up the rest now.” The stage ended up being some 4x6 m, the drums taking up the space of the back deck and being nearly cut off by the amps, which resulted in something like a little living-room for the guitarists and vocalists up front. And, boy, what a sound: like the stereo set in your living-room! Only Tinu wasn’t quite as fortunate, because as the headset microphone he uses to sing whilst playing is so darn good, it picked up the entire drum-set which resulted in Federic not being able to turn up Tinu’s lead vocals as much as they both would’ve wanted to since it would have ruined the front of house mix.
  Since I could afford to go home and take a shower before Matt and Tinu arrived, we had only slightly more than an hour left before stage time. – Perfect for chats with the other bands, the w3nkians (such as whilst trying to install my little MiniDisc recorder to tape the show) and discuss which hair metal bands were phantastic in their days and which ought never have touched their instruments. Not that the slightest bit of common ground were to be found, of course, but rarely having the time to chat away without “having something more important to do, ” this was excellent quality time in a place slowly filling up with friends and friends’ friends.
Hey, what is that? Isn’t that Dementia, our album closer, playing over the PA? – Guys, we’re on – have fun!
 

  Opening with the grooving instrumental 2046, we could get accustomed to the stage without having to worry about messing up vocals and scaring people away yet. Messing up the bass solo and dropping drumsticks was quite sufficient to start with, thank you.

  The sound being very good, the mood had to be brought down with a fine specimen of doom: Falling Into The Sun, our pride and moonshine off the forthcoming album, worked very well and I claim that I saw some people moving during the grooving guitar solo.

  Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejection, another instrumental, and still nobody walked past my corner of the stage near the exit, meaning that if any body left the place, they would have left through the back door only to be trapped in the garden area.

  Well ok, during Anaconda, Zolti of Inishmore had to fetch himself a jug of beer, so that was ok. The real reason for their sticking around, as I learned afterwards, was that people were waiting for my wig or my scalp being ripped off as, apparently, my hair must have got caught repeatedly in some protruding elements of the ceiling. Here’s the pictures.

  The long drum intro to the next song allowed for some banter before we soared into the chorus of In From The Futile Fields which had bestowed the event its title "From the Depths". In From The Futile Fields is quite an intense song to play for despite its being quite hypnotic and calm – even easy to play for long stretches of its eight minutes, it has nasty breaks of different length and two heavy metal sections which need to be played somewhat in time so as not to end up sounding muddy.

  Checkmate 64 – with a slight hiccup – loosened the setting again and off we went into our HEAVY METAL NATION song, To My Brethren with its smooth, slow flow. The long final guitar solo allowed us to really shake out at the end of what we feared to turn out as the reason for Pÿlon not ever to gig again.

  For some weird reason and despite two cool metal bands yet to come up, a few of their friends even invited us to play an extra song. Thank you very much, but when we say we’re done, we mean we’re done, we have no more songs ready. – “Just one more!” Well, let’s see: Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejection one more time as the fingers start to go.
 

  We were truly honoured and grateful that this many people, mainly friends and fans of Hellvetica and Pentaslave , including members of FireSnake , Inishmore , Gonoreas and Majesty of silence gave us this chance. Some, knowing us only for our work in Quam Libet Records , even surprisedly walked up and said “I didn’t know you played an instrument!” – Wellll, let the truth be known. Interestingly enough, many aren’t very familiar with doom, so it’s particularly nice to see they also gave that type of music a chance.

  Ok, but no time to feel all rock-starry: the stage has to be cleared swiftly to the sounds of The Number Of The Beast in order for Hellvetica to go on in time. And they did great! A good part of the 120 heads banging solidly in the front to their sound almost ended up on stage! Since it ended up being midnight until Pentaslave hit the stage to fairy-tale sounds, faces painted and giving the amps and the audience a good, black thrashing, a few people may have retired, but now people were actually getting on stage and shouting their ungodly hails into the night, er, unused microphone. After this thunderstorm, the stage was cleared, Matt and I shared the last of the sausage and potato dinner we’d missed before the show, Zolti, Pentaslave and the sturdy few remainders roared Maiden classics at the top of their voices and by two o’clock in the morning, a wonderful night’s children dispersed back into the depths whence they had come ….

We are grateful to 
- Marc, Jasmine & Lukas of QLR for accompanying us in our little adventure and for getting the proof on digital celluloid.
- Federic, Michi, Cornelius & the rest of the w3nk team for their friendly hospitality, support & kind words.
- Hellvetica for inviting us and allowing us to play with their toys.
- Pentaslave for the friendly chats.
- Those who were there in corpore aut in spiritu!

…And a little bit also to ourselves for making each others’ evening a really nice and encouraging one.

Viele herzliche Dank Eu allne!

Links:
www.w3nk.ch
www.hellvetica.ch
www.pentaslave.ch
www.quamlibetrecords.ch