aaamusic | On 10, Dec 2011

London, 3rd December

Cold in Berlin are a new band that mixes the vocals of Sioux with the magic of Joy Division. They come on stage wearing black hoods like little red riding hood and wolf t-shirts. This band is the best undiscovered secret and the record industry is going to have a bidding war over  them, they cover so many genres and would appeal to the new generation and old, the goths  and the Indie kids, their melodic and post industry line riffs make you wonder why no one  has noticed them yet, my advise see them while you can.

Specimen
the venue has filled up a bit for Specimen. They come out with their rocky horror look and glow in the dark lighting like a mixture of their past selves and the rave scene of the 90’s; run through hit singles ‘Hex, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Syria + new song Bondage!’ and it is an enjoyable punk adrenaline rush but theirs is something missing and they fail to get the moody crowd of mostly Goths going and everyone knows who it is fun loving Mischeif maker Johnny Slut. The band really misses his jokes and stage presence with the new keyboard player being a far moodier character, not even talking to the crowd. The set is enjoyable but just seems to have had some of the fun pumped out, which I hope to see back soon because this band never really have had the fame they deserve outside the goth scene.

Diary of Dreams do a 1hr 40 mins set of moody melodies and electronic grandeur and really deliver the goods with every song being a masterpiece. They have a frontman that towers over everyone and a guitarist who looks like he won the prize in a Tim Skold lookalike comp… They really get the crowd going, who are just glad they are here tonight after the drummer wasn’t let through costumes but the Cold in Berlin stickman fills in tonight to make sure the show goes on and I am one person that was very glad about that. After they finish they fantastic set you see everyone running to the merch booth to buy their vast back catalogue: I have never seen some many CD’s by one band on a merch booth and I’m sure there isn’t one bad one – a glorious end to the Gotham Festival which is now done and dusted.

Daniel Spider