Letting my inner goth out to play

[liv]

I had a marvellous time at the big German goth festival, WGT, 4 years ago. And it seemed like a good idea to return this year and converge with ghoti_mhic_uait on her travels. Actually it wasn't a very good idea; the travellers are trying to do things cheaply and didn't want to get festival tickets, and going to Leipzig while the goth festival is on but not participating was not actually very sensible.

However, I don't entirely regret going It turned out my parents and brother were heading out on a complicated European trip at the same time, so I managed to arrange to take the train with them as far as Munich (via Eurostar to Paris). Which was a really good opportunity to catch up. We got in quite late, about 9:30, which was a bit too late to undertake a 3-hour train trip to Leipzig. So we got dinner in a very tourist trap sort of place by the station, which went over the top in being traditionally Bavarian, but had quite nice food all the same (I had Spätzle with a creamy sauce like a much richer version of mac'n'cheese).

Then the rest of the family went to catch their sleeper train eastwards, and I went to find my hotel. Which was almost a disaster; I'd booked a place out in the suburbs, Google thought I could get there in half an hour by public transport, but it actually took half an hour to find the right place to catch the metro train, and most of an hour to walk from the end of the line to the hotel, through mostly residential suburbs in the dark. So I got to the hotel at midnight and found it shut up completely. There was a note on the door saying, [my wallet name], call this mobile number. So I did so and initially the night duty person was grumpy saying, the reception closes at 11. But eventually they relented and gave me a door code so I could let myself in. I admit that I misplanned travel across Munich, but I also think they could have mentioned on the hotel site that there was a time limit.

Then a very pleasant (though expensive; I should have booked this leg in advance really) ICE train to Leipzig. Where I checked in to the Meininger hostel, sorted out my festival ticket (having messed up the pre-payment), and goth-watched for a while before meeting ghoti_mhic_uait at the station. Understandably the children didn't really feel like going out after a long day travelling, and I could have gone out on my own to meet ceb but decided to join the others in just chilling for the evening.

Saturday we met up with ceb, damerell and another friend I'm not connected to on DW, to eat a magnificent lunch of giant icecream sundaes. Then I played in the park with Ghoti and the kids for a bit, and returned to the hostel to get dressed and go out for the evening. I wore the pretty layered black and grey goth dress I acquired at WGT four years ago, and Ghoti put my hair up in an interesting style, and I wasn't full on major goth but I felt suitably dressed for the situation.

My first gig was Inkubus Sukkubus. Which was an amazing nostalgia trip, really; Candia Ridley was central to my bi awakening when I was a teenager. So it was quite something to see her stride onto stage in big boots and an ivy crown and sing several of the band's classics, joking with the audience that we were all older than her band (formed in 1989). It wasn't the greatest gig ever, McKormack on guitar seemed a bit off form, and the sound balance wasn't quite right, and they didn't sing my absolute favourite of their songs. But I'm really glad I got the experience of hearing them live, and they did several others of my top five faves as well as some of their more recent stuff that I haven't really kept up with.

I then headed down to the Agra, the ginormous warehouse venue, to catch the second half of Nitzer Ebb. I only sort of like Nitzer Ebb, and indeed it turned out I enjoyed about half their set and the other half did nothing for me. But the audience included some really amazing dancers; I wouldn't have guessed that Nitzer Ebb would attract really talented and enthusiastic dancers.

The real reason I went to Agra was to see the "midnight special", New Model Army. Actually it turned out that their gig was scheduled from 1 am to 2:30 am, and I nearly chickened out of waiting around after Nitzer Ebb, but I fortified myself with a 'Handbrot' (like a more substantial version of a toastie), and I was so glad I did stay for NMA. It was an absolutely transcendant gig, really huge energy from the band, with thousands of rapt goths filling the entire giant space. I could hardly drag myself away, but I decided to leave before the end so as to catch the tram back into town before the rush when thousands of people were trying to make the same trip.

Sunday I was obviously fairly tired, but I managed to get up for breakfast before the others headed out to church (I went back to bed), and was reasonably with it for the afternoon. We went to hang out with ceb & co at Moritzbastei and drink amazing iced drinks, and had a bit more park time and a bit more chilling in the hostel before I went out again in the evening. There was nobody I was massively keen to see at convenient times Sunday evening, so we did a bit of listening to random bands with names that caught our eye, and at the children's recommendation I tried Parade Ground. I didn't instantly fall in love with the band, but they're pretty much the kind of thing I like and I was glad to try at least one new-to-me band.

Monday we were able to travel together as far as Frankfurt, which was really nice. And then I caught a tight connection to Lille and the Eurostar back to London, and headed straight down to Brighton for a work conference on Tuesday. Which gave me extra bonus time with my other two sibs.

Anyway, it was extremely lovely to spend some time with ghoti_mhic_uait and the children, and seeing New Model Army was well worth the travel.

Comments

[ceb]

NMA are playing Cambridge in November if you'd like to see them again with less muddy sound :-)

[ephemera]

that sounds like a lot of travel, but yay gigs! and yay your people!

[(Anonymous)]

Good to hear The Inkies are still doing gigs!

[doseybat]

Sorry that was me accidentally not logged in