More Than A Party, Uppsala - 11 April, 2004

Review from Moving Hands

Det svarta staketet arranged the mini-festival "More than a party" on Easter Sunday at Fredmans in Uppsala, Sweden. The line-up consisted of four interesting industrial/EBM acts, Aslan Faction (UK), The Pain Machinery (Swe), Severe Illusion (Swe) and Sturm Cafe(Swe). The arrangement also included two dance floors. I'd seen the three Swedish bands on other occasions and knew that each could deliver a great performance and I was eager to learn about Aslan Faction. First out was Anders Karlsson's one-man band The Pain Machinery, but with the live set of today were he turn knobs and are companioned by drumpads and vocals. A maybe strange choice of the organisers to pick as a starting-band, but the crowd was there so it was a right move to do in retrospect. The Pain Machinery delivered hard as steel industrial noise EBM with a razorblade sharp sound. The soundscape was energic and pumping with industrial elements and lots of delay and distortion on the vocals. With all that smoke, Jonas Hedberg's great stage presence (and off-stage for that matter too, he was down in the crowd a couple of times singing/screaming) and the sounds, it was the best live performance I've seen with The Pain Machinery, and then, I haven't seen any bad yet.

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