ARCHIVE ::

ARCHIVE / AVRIL
wuk / vienna, austria
12th nov. 2004

crikey! ;)
i've been waiting years for this band to finally show up hereabouts and they finally did! and even better: i get to be their project manager, how fuckin' terrific is that?! ARCHIVE are amazing!
day started off pretty easy. did all of the preparations the day before so there would be no unnecessary hurry and hectic. got to the venue shortly before 13:00, met their tourmanager becks, checked schedule with here, picked up darius and danny and took a cab to FM4 (national alternative radio station). the guys did their thing there, we drove back to the venue. i had a couple of hours off here, because the band had to do their soundcheck and after that went for late lunch. so, after having picked up the latest batch of comic books, i went back to the venue, sorted out the remaining 2 interviews for the band, had becks sign some paperwork and waited patiently for the band to start playing.

but first up was AVRIL. had heard their name before but never really took any big interest in them. shame on me! french band, sort of a crossbreed between MASSIVE ATTACK, PHOENIX, AIR and maybe THE HAPPY MONDAYS (a bit... or maybe also a bit of the PSYCHEDELIC FURS). and they're french. they had to get early on stage, because due to some unexpected shifts in ARCHIVE tour-schedule, their vienna date had moved to a day where it coincided with a clubbing night at the same venue. that meant curtains for the band at 22:00!!! anyways, AVRIL swept me off my feet. it was so good that i went to straight to the merch booth and bought both albums.

but that, however good it was, paled next to ARCHIVE. it was undescribable. one and a half hours of the most organic mxi of analog and digital instrumentaion i had heard in ages. one and half hours of going from noisy electronic rock to atmospheric, almost SIGUR ROS like ethereal 15-minute ballads. one and a half hours of switching emotions on and off. truly brilliant! don't have words for it, it was absolutely aweinspiring. go check out the ARCHIVE homepage and find out for yourself.

and what did i miss to see this band? well, NASUM played at the arena. their new record, "shift", is great! hell yeah! oh well, there will be a next time.
and what else did i miss this weekend? yeah... DISMEMBER. they were at the monastery on sunday... and i missed them. why? because i'm such a dumbfuck, that i... forgot... fuck it all... well, at least i get to see DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN and POISON THE WELL today... hopefully... if i don't forget again...