history :: dark Summer Days (Saxony, 1998)

Once upon a time, a teenager left the island of Tasmania to see the world. After some months of working in Switzerland to make further travel possible, he ends up in Saxony, eastern Germany, and heads to a celebration of music called Sommertage '98 (Summer days)...

The sight that greets me is a topless woman with pierced nipples being whipped on stage, hanging from chains like a puppet by her feet and hands. Whispered greetings of "dunkle schwester" and "dark brother" float through me, in this blood red sea of fishnets, black hair, velvet cloaks and armlength gloves, chokers and frilled sleeves. The torso of the man with the whip who calls himself Mozart, is crossed with studded belts that meet a metal circle on his chest. In his other hand Mozart - the vocalist of Umbra Et Imago - holds a mic to garble into. His head is shaved on top, and a black mane on the back of his head reaches Mozart's waist. Three muscular men dressed in black leather on either side of the stage, light up the scene with flame-throwers, belching several metres into the air.

The words of Goethe's Erben (The Heirs of Goethe) hold our exposed souls, rising and falling with his eyes flicking around the room like darts. Candles are passed around for everyone to hold, as the singer whispered "er vergass zu atmen" ("he forgot to breathe"). I just found a review of that gig online (Deutsch), and their website also shows them visiting Mexico and filiming a video clip in Iceland. The photos above (by Martin Schmidt) are from a 2002 gig at the Casino, Berlin.

Also in those beautiful Summer Days in Leipzig and Dresden, I saw a man from Moonspell dressed in priest's robes enter the stage. Stretching his arms in a controlled gesture towards a grey Saxon sky, he suddenly convulsed, let his robe fall to the ground as blood dribbled, then began to flow from his mouth and kept flowing, covering his chest...Turns out they are from Portugal, do plenty of touring in Eastern Europe, and even maintain a blog.

On my most recent trip to Germany (2000) I stumbled on a book at a Leipzig railway station newsagent called Gothic! Die Szene in Deutschland aus der Sicht ihrer Macher (The scene in Germany from the viewpoint of its makers). On one of the photographs there is a young, innocent reveller dancing away in the background...