Live in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 07.06.2003
Text written by André Wilms
Photos taken by Stephanie Cabral from http://launch.yahoo.com and André Wilms
Gelsenkirchen was the last stop for the Tribe family. The RockHard magazine celebrated their 20th anniversary with a two day open air festival at the beautiful amphitheater in Gelsenkirchen. Tribe After Tribe were the second act at the first day of the festival.
I arrived at the venue at 11.45 a.m. and parked my car on the pretty big parking place near the theater. When I went to the theater with my djembe drum in my hands many metal fans looked at me as if I were an alien or something. But they all were pretty cool.
I got an invitation from the RockHard magazine so I just spelled my name at the ticket counter and reveived a wrist band (for normal folks) which allowed me to enter the theater. So far so good. But when I tried to get to the backstage area of the theater (I wanted to meet the band and leave my djembe at a safe place) the security stopped me as I had the wrong wrist band. So I talked to one of these friendly (really!) guys and told him that I was part of the band Tribe After Tribe. He wanted to know my name in order to ask Robbi whether he knows me. After a few minutes, this guy returned with another wrist band which allowed me to go to the backstage area.
So I went into this building where the dressing rooms of the bands were. Anthrax, Blind Guardian, Circle 2 Circle, Tribe After Tribe .. perfect. The entire Tribe family was in this little dressing room. After a couple of minutes Holger Stratmann from the RockHard magazine saw me and my djembe and asked whether I'd like to play that instrument up on stage. Of course I wanted, so he said that I'd need a wrist band for the stage, left and got me another wrist band. The third one! Now I was officially part of the crew. Jesus!
(Although I looked pretty colorful with all these wrist bands, I must say that the organisation of the festival was perfect! The security was damn friendly, the RockHard guys pretty cool. Everyting just flowed. I was really happy for the RockHard team that everyting worked out so well. Congratulations, RockHard! You did a wonderful job!)
Anyways, at exactly 1 p.m. God Dethroned entered the stage. While the band members stayed in the dressing room I went outside with the friends of the band and watched their performance. I tried to get their lyrics but I failed. Even John and Phil from the United States who were with the Tribe the entire tour couldn't get the vocalists words .. funny! Well, all in all they sucked. So I went back to the guys. Robbi told me that he got nervous. He hadn't played a gig for so many people in quite a time.
At 1.45 p.m. God Dethroned finished their set just in time. Good timing, dudes! 15 minutes were left to get things up on stage and start the set, so everybody was in a hurry. At exactly 2 p.m. Kelly entered the stage and did his performance. A few moments later, Richard started drumming and the other dudes entered the stage. 'Bury Me' was the first track to be played in front of about 2.000 people.
'Bury Me' got followed by 'Ice Below', 'Out Of Control', 'Build A Subway' and 'Boy'. Kelly and I played djembe. The stage was so big that you could actually direct 100 djembe players up on stage. But it was just the two of us.
During the gig, a lot of people in the first row took photographs of us. Two camera teams even filmed the entire set. (I read that the RockHard magazine wants to publish a DVD with the live performances of the bands.) When one of the cameras filmed Kelly and me playing djembe to 'Build A Subway' I was so irritated that I almost forgot my drum pattern .. :)
When the short set ended, Robbi and the guys left the stage. When Robbi saw me, he smiled and told me that he was happy that the folks in front of the stage didn't boo him off the stage. So all was fine. Tribe After Tribe didn't get too much applause but hey .. what can you expect from metal fans who go to the festival in order to see Kreator, Bolt Thrower, etc.?
We stayed in the backstage area for a good amount of time. Some watched Circle 2 Circle (with Zak Stevens and Jon Oliva who are both famous for their work in Savatage) and Trouble. Robbi and Joey did an interview (maybe for the DVD). And from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. the band members signed autographs.
It was about 5.20 p.m. when I finally had to say good-bye to the entire Tribe family. Without knowing whether I'll see them again in the near future, it wasn't too much fun actually. However, I had a great time with the dudes. Every one of them rocks!
More pictures of the Gelsenkirchen show can be found here.
