Czech Nights La Motoare - Part 1: The Nihilists

The Nihilists. And that should say it all.



Audio anarchy. Loud. Live. La Motoare. Brought to us by the Czech Cultural Center of Bucharest.




Last night's concert was shocking - I could see the shock on people's faces, I could feel the shock myself: the sound of The Nihilists was unlike anything the Romanian scene has ever witnessed before; I felt, for a moment, like I felt the first time I left Romania and traveled around Europe - a mixture of shock, and awe, and excitement.




The sound of the Nihilists is nothing new in places like Germany, Sweden or Finland; actually, I remember witnessing a similar performance in a Kulturhuset (I hope I got the spelling right) in Stockholm in early 2000; but to see those four people on the stage in Romania, feeling and loving their music, or hating that they love their music, or loving that they hate their music, or whatever, was.. unexpected.




There wasn't anything special in their music - no subtleties, no niceties, no manners. But there was a clear message (or even a lack of) that they passed through, and whatever that message was or was not, it got through alright.

The show they put on was rather simplistic - some smoke, a few coloured lights in the background, and a couple of very powerful flashes. But halfway through the concert I started to lose my balance.




Most people in the audience had never heard a song of the Nihilists before, and while at the beginning of the show, the front of the stage was rather empty and at the end of the songs you barely heard a few claps, by the end of the show people were dancing and shaking in front of the stage and there were applauses and screams and stuff from all over. Now - this is what I call a powerful band.

More photos from the concert - in this photoset.

Other, more informative, posts on the concert you'll find on the Oricum blog and on Pink Dots.

You can get a glimpse of what this band sounds like from down bellow: