Report from Tinitus festival 2004

Tinitus has long been one of Sweden’s premier gatherings for devotees of electronic music, and once again Münchenbryggeriet in Stockholm was packed with black-clad pilgrims ready to sacrifice the weekend to EBM and industrial beats.

German synthpop legends Alphaville are certainly not forever young. Marian Gold appeared on stage sporting an unfortunate beard and an even more unfortunate shirt, while the rest of the band looked looked like Keith Richards on a bad hair day. While the setlist leaned heavily on their magnificent debut album, someone had decided that what the world really needed was reggae-inspired versions of perfect synthpop anthems. It was a bold artistic choice. Unfortunately, it was also a terrible one. Naturally, they finished with “Forever Young”, accompanied by a forest of raised cigarette lighters. Some traditions refuse to die.

A few hours after midnight, VNV Nation took over the main stage and immediately restored order. Ronan Harris introduced two songs from the forthcoming album Matter+Form, giving the audience a first taste of what was to come. The new material blended seamlessly with the classics, and the band delivered exactly the kind of powerful uplifting performance they’ve built their reputation on. The only thing working against them was the force of several hundred enthusiastic fans. The crowd surged forward while security pushed back, compressing the first rows into something resembling human origami. Ronan repeatedly asked everyone to take a step back, but momentum is difficult to negotiate with. One of my friends took the brunt of it and later ended up having her ribs X-rayed. At least she got to debut her brand-new VNV Nation shirt while being crushed. If you’re going to get injured at a concert, you might as well look appropriately dressed.

The dark crowd at Tinitus.

The German EBM act Xotox, on the other hand, never really got off the ground. Andreas Davids had plenty of energy, waving glowing red light sticks around the stage, but the live sound reduced songs like “Mekanische Unruhe” to an indistinct wall of noise. Material that feels hypnotic on record became little more than brute force at painfully high volume.

The evening was ultimately rescued by Fixmer/McCarthy. Gone were the unnecessary nude distractions that had accompanied their Arvikafestivalen performance. This time it was all about the music, with Douglas McCarthy treating the audience to several old Nitzer Ebb classics. The reaction was immediate. Sometimes all you really need is a relentless bassline and a room full of people who know every word. Muscle and hate, indeed.

Eventually even Tinitus had to wind down. I left the venue at the same time as Johan Kinde, which felt like the universe quietly confirming that I had chosen exactly the right moment to call it a night.