Kinetik Fest Day 1 Round Up

Months of anticipation had built up to a 6AM trip to the Milwaukee airport.  At least the car ride was uneventful - unless you count almost getting run off the road.  Then the usual air travel issues: poor signage at the airport, grumpy ticket window employees, and of course the power tripping TSA workers.

The love of my life and travel companion, Jamie, seemed to think the combination of my mo-hawk and accidentally leaving my belt on for the metal detector attracted enough attention for TSA to demand that I use the full body scanner.  After declining that, and getting a stern talking too for doing so, I got my TSA-approved free groping from a fine member of their team... while Jamie watched.  Kinky in some circles, but I just wanted to get to Montreal!  More humor on the flight: we were in the very back row, 13, which was unlabeled.  I do have to give thanks to the Airline itself, Air Canada.  These were the best sets of flights I've ever had.  Upon hearing that Jamie wasn't the best of fliers, the staff became very attentive.  The stewardess checked on us several times, and even the pilot himself came to the back of the plane for a chat and to make sure she was comfortable.

We had a 2 hour layover in Toronto, went through customs, which was a breeze, then boarded our next flight.  Thankfully, this was a larger plane, with TV/entertainment sets in the headrests in front of you, because of course the plane had a broken fire detector "somewhere" that needed to be fixed.   It took over two and a half hours to find and fix.  The only thought on our mind, we better not miss Funker Vogt.

Ah yes, Funker Vogt!  One of the main attractions of Day 1 of Kinetik Fest 4.0.  Kinetik Festival in Montreal, Canada is the largest gathering of Industrial/Electro/Noise acts in North America.  Industrial music fans make the pilgrimage from all over the world to attend.  Funker Vogt themselves came from Germany to play.  The other highlights that night were Die Krupps (also from Germany) and Canada's own Front Line Assembly.

After the crew fixed the smoke detector (which it turns out was in the damn cargo hold), the rest of the flight was uneventful.  Landing at Montreal's Trudeau Airport, we felt at ease almost immediately.  Being our third trip to Montreal, and second by plane, the airport itself was the gateway to a week of being in our own special world.  A world where if we mentioned our favorite bands name, we didn't get blank stares in return.  No need to tell anyone to google "Covenant" or "VNV Nation".

The cab ride was harrowing as usual, but got us to our hotel in good shape.  The La Tour Centre-Ville looked pretty bland from the outside, but our room was a small apartment!  Full kitchen, living room, bedroom and decent size bathroom.  It worked out well in the long run: I developed a case of excitement-induced insomnia and while Jamie slept in the bedroom I was able to dally around in the living room and ended up watching Lost in French.  While checking in, we met what we guessed would be a Kinetik pilgrim from the furthest away we would meet.  Russell was a great guy, and came all the way from New Zealand!  

After we settled in the room and made a quick clothes change we headed over to the venue.  A short 10 minute walk away, the Metropolis was a beautiful building that opened in 1884 and has been everything from a skating rink, to adult theater to concert venue.  The line for our passes from the box office sucked, but it was a chance to settle in to the eye candy.  The shiny outfits, super old vintage Front Line Assembly shirts, the over the top hairfalls..  So nice to see en masse again.  I always thought seeing just one or two cyber goths at the local club looked out of place, but seeing hundreds of them... works much better.  Its actually starting to give me more appreciation of the one or two we do see at the club.

We got inside to catch the very end of Ivardensphere (from Canada).  Three guys on stage, wearing black (rubber?) aprons.  The kind a serial killer would wear while dismembering some corpses and listening to great beats.  Nice way to start!  Paying half our attention to the band, we were mostly getting settled in to our home for the next 5 days.  The building was beautiful inside, as were the people.  Within minutes, we saw a number of familiar faces.  It’s a wonderful feeling to fly to another city, in another country, and have a family waiting for you.

After Ivardensphere, we made our way to get as close to the stage as we could.; with some amazing luck, we made it right up front and just left of center.  Funker Vogt was up next!  A club favorite, and in my regular music rotation for over 10 years, I was beyond excited to see them.  Just seeing their laptop with the gunner logo got me jumping up and down.  I’m always terrible at remembering set lists, but the song that sticks out was Tragic Hero.  We were enthralled for the entire set.  I had seen then back in 2002 in NYC.  The lineup had changed, but they still blew my mind live.

We headed back to the hotel to regroup; basically jumping into the Fest with one of the biggest bands we were waiting for right away was a bit overwhelming.  I do regret missing the next band in hindsight.  I didn't know much of Die Krupps, but I've heard wonderful things about their set after the fact.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a pizza place 1 block over from the venue.  Jamie had pizza, but I was reveling in my first Poutine of the trip.

Poutine is a Quebec staple.  French fries, fresh cheese curds, brown gravy and a splash of vinegar.  Simply amazing comfort food.  Under any circumstances, it really hits the spot.  They make it more complicated, with other ingredients, but I enjoyed the basic version.

After a quick rest, we made it back to the venue for Front Line Assembly.  Not being a huge fan, Jamie went up to the balcony to watch, while I tried to make my way to the front.  The place was packed, so there was no making it to the front.  I had found a nice place in the middle of the room, could see the stage well, and had some room to dance.

Front Line Assembly has a special place in my heart.  Back in high school, a good friend of mine by the name of Sean handed me a CD.  The title was Live Wired, and the band was Front Line Assembly.  The CD didn't leave my player for weeks.  The song Plasticity sold me.  Sean eventually gave me the single for Plasticity when it came out.  Live Wired and FLA got me into this wonderful genre.  I saw FLA live in concert with Sean once, I believe it was 2001, again in NYC.  Sean passed away a few years later, and to this day, FLA brings his spirit back to me.

FLA has power live.  The room became electric.  Again, I can’t remember the entire set list, but Circuitry, Resist and Plasticity were mind blowing to hear for me.  Pounding live drums for Resist gave the song a soul!  Plasticity of course was the song I was there to hear.  Sounds phenomenal live, and it was a musical memorial to my friend Sean.  After Plasticity I felt exhausted, went to find Jamie and sat with her to watch the set from the balcony.

It had been a long day, and while still riding the euphoria, we made our way out slowly.  Jamie was exhausted, and I was just overwhelmed.  I grabbed one of the last 2 special editions of "Diaspora" by Tyske Ludder on the way out.  We wandered back to the hotel, sore and tired, but ready for more.

Day 2 in my next post.