How far do you go to see a band you love play a set of 30 minutes? In that case: a 6 hour train ride all the way to Munich. I know, there are people who travel with the band, but I’m sure none of those are full-time teachers. So for me and my circumstances, this is quite a distance to travel for only a concert – and I think so far this has been one of the furthest trips I’ve made for a concert exclusively.
Anyway, this was the second show of this tour that I attended. I was also at their show in Cologne, but since I had only recovered from a cold and spent the entire rest of the show after Self Deception’s set sitting in a corner with a massive headache and almost unable to breathe, I didn’t write a concert review for it. This time, there’s a review – and there are photos, because the adorable Hagge got me a photo pass and with that I had the very first opportunity to get some experience in the photo pit. I’m eternally grateful for that.
The Venue
The Technikum in Munich is located in walking distance to the train station Munich East. Since this time we travelled by public transport, I have no information on where to park your car – but it’s easily accessible with public transport from the main station. It’s in an area called Werksviertel where you can also find a theatre and lots of clubs and bars. When we arrived, there wasn’t much going on, but after the show there was a lot of nightlife, so basically the area around the venue was quite cool and very vivid.
The venue itself seems more or less new and modern. The coat room is right at the entrance (2€ per person if I recall correctly) and the merch of Normandie and I think As December Falls was sold in some kind of “booth” in the lobby area. Self Deception had a table next to the stairs that lead to the balcony. The only thing the venue was lacking were proper toilets. You had to leave the building and then go to some container toilets around the corner. They were basically as clean as container toilets can be, but the way to get there was a little weird.
Drinks were once again reasonably priced, cups had a Pfand system with tokens (means you can only return a cup together with a token).
Also, as a first timer in the photo pit: Shoutout to the security guy who was super nice, not only gave me instructions on what the situation would be like at this show, but also what other situations I could encounter and what to take care of or keep in mind and all that. That was some super handy information because one week later at the Blind Channel show I got a photo pass for there was absolutely no information at all 🙃
So all in all, Technikum was a cool venue with very good sound and a great overall experience.
Self Deception
Let’s start with my personal main act and the reason why I went all the way to Munich. To people who know me, the fact that I love this band from the deepest bottom of my heart is nothing new. I love their performance, I love their energy, I love Hagge’s crazy outfits – I love everything about them. It’s crazy, they have more than 900 000 monthly listeners on Spotify, yet they still seem like this small unknown band who either plays as the opener, or headlines a show in a club with a capacity of about 300 people at most. And at the same time, they’re one of the best damn live bands that I know. I feel like wherever they play, they pick up a big bunch of new fans because their performance is just so good, it’s unbelievable and hard to put into words.
Also, it was great to see Ante back. I liked Simon as a replacement at their last tour, but it’s still an entirely different experience to see and hear Ante during their shows. After all, his voice is what makes those songs complete. Simon brought as much energy on stage as Ante does, but it’s only the full Self Deception experience with Ante singing.
Since they dropped a new single in the one month break between the two parts of the tour with Normandie, the setlist had changed slightly between the shows in Cologne and Munich because they needed to squeeze in Hysteria. I am still not sure which song was kicked out for that – I somehow feel like it was Smoke You Out, but I think we didn’t get a setlist in Cologne and we definitely didn’t get one in Munich because someone snatched it away although Ronny clearly aimed it at us 😛
So basically they played their latest singles Matthew McConaughey, Scandinavian Dream and, as already mentioned, Hysteria, alongside some all-time favourites like TicToc and Hell and Back, and obviously Fight Fire With Gasoline and P.S.Y.C.H.O.. Not sure if I missed any songs – as I said, no setlist. And while I love the selection of songs they play in such a short 30 minutes set, I am a sucker for Feeding Demons and I would so damn love to hear them play this song live (which is fun, because when the song came out I first didn’t like it at all 😂).
Once again, this band on stage is energetic as fuck, they have so much fun sharing their music with the people and in addition to that, they’re the most fun bunch of people to be around after the show. They always take tons of time for their fans at the merch and they are adorable to be around.
All in all, Self Deception’s performance once again was a 10/10, would do it again. And again. And again.
Bonus points for Hagge’s butterfly wing cape.
As December Falls
When I first heard As December Falls live in Cologne, I didn’t see anything of their performance. I was sitting on the ground in a physical and mental low because I was super exhausted and still felt very sick after partying through Self Deception for 30 minutes. So my first impression of them was “not very impressive”.
That changed a little when I saw them in Munich and actually got to see their entire performance. Because they are great performers. They’re an energetic bunch of people who know how to hype up a crowd, plus they’re absolutely sympathetic. Their singer Beth is grinning and dancing and making the funniest faces all the time and it’s pure joy to watch her (just as much as the others, but come on, she stands out!)
heir music is some solid pop punk-ish music you can party to and just have a good time with. Generally I liked it, my only very personal problem was that I wasn’t a big fan of Beth’s voice. She seems super cool, but the sound of her voice isn’t quite my taste – although she certainly is a great singer!
I can’t say anything about their setlist though because I don’t know any of their songs, but the 40 minutes performance was solid and definitely a good warm-up. They interacted with the crowd and I liked it a lot better than in my almost delirious state in Cologne. Not sure if I would listen to their music, but I’d probably go see them again.
Normandie
In Cologne, I kinda liked Normandie. They have a good sound, the songs go straight into your ear, it’s easy to vibe along. In Munich, I still left the crowd after the songs I got to photograph in the pit – basically for three reasons: 1) I really needed a toilet, 2) I felt very drawn to Self Deception’s merch table and 3) while there are some songs of Normandie that I genuinely enjoy, their music quickly tends to bore me.
After seeing them for the first time I gave them a listen on Spotify and the impression I got while listening to their latest album is the same impression I got live: It was a little repetitive and there wasn’t much variety in their music, at least not for me personally. As I said, there are a few songs that I like and that I would possibly put into a playlist, but they’re not the type of band I would listen to an entire album of, neither would I buy a ticket for one of their shows if there wasn’t at least one support act that really slaps. They just didn’t give me enough. They definitely were not bad, but just … not overly exciting either.
But here’s one plus: I liked their stage light 😂
I can’t tell you anything about the setlist either as, once again, I’m not very firm with their music. But their set was, if I remember correctly, incredibly long. I feel like it was 80-90 minutes maybe? So for fans definitely enjoyable I guess.
So all in all, the entire trip to Munich was the time, money and nerves invested. I was able to gain some experience in concert photography, which I am eternally grateful for. And I just got to love Self Deception even more. They’re such genuinely nice guys off-stage as well and super close to their fans – I just love them dearly. (My social anxiety says this is very one-sided, but I don’t care. They deserve all my love – and every bar of chocolate we have brought them so far.)