Track 1. Intro. Pre-History

I learned about this event the day before it. And learned a lot more. Actually, for those who do not know, I was born in eastern Ukraine in the city of Luhansk, which is the administrative center of the Luhansk region. There have always been a lot of punks and metalheads here (it’s hard to say about industrial fans, because they may not show up in public and you can’t distinguish them from the crowd), but the amount of this part of community is very narrow. I left Luhansk at the age of 18 and after that I didn’t really follow the musical life of the town (not that I somehow followed before, but every day during my secondary school years I talked in real life with those who were mingled in that kind of musical life). So, I mean that the bands from the dark scene in Luhansk started performing in 2008 only, as far as I know. After the information about the show of a band from the dark scene I thought that it would be logical to visit such a concert in my hometown...

Track 2. The way to...

Naturally, there are no specialty venues for holding Gothic events in Luhansk (well, or I don’t know something) and Hot Jam, as I understood, is a kind of meeting place for non-format subcultures. I could not even imagine where such an institution could be geographically located in the town. Well, it was on the outskirts, as, probably, it should be. Good thing that I was taken there by, because I wouldn't have found it by my own. Not much light, a lot of darkness. So, probably, you can describe the surrounding areas near the club.

Track 3. The Club & the Audience

As I know, there are parties of any alternative and such one-time gothic concerts in the Hot Jam club. The club is a private house converted into a dancefloor with outbuildings. Moreover, it was the house yard that was converted into a club dancefloor with walls, roof and stage. The club is small, but considering the number of visitors on those kinds of events, more is not needed. The wardrobe was self-service, so it was not recommended to leave valuables in your coats. Because of this my pockets were filled with all sorts of “garbage”. The audience was generally a thing! A pair of each creature like at Noah’s Ark. Representatives of all musical subcultures gathered: a couple of goths, a couple of punks, a couple of metalheads, a couple of alternatives, a couple of emokids, bands’ crew and organizers. Approximately20 people in total. Fun. Before the performance itself, one of the organizers went on stage and made an opening speech. Like "we are few, but we are strong", etc. It turned out that usually smoking inside the club is not allowed, but because of the low number of visitors this rule was canceled. It also turned out that photo-pass is for payment. Well, if you want to have 200 people at your events and not 20, hire a photographer and correspondent, who will cover the events with photoreports and articles, but this commercial crap at completely non-commercial event is a bit foolish. After the opening speech all 20 people rushed to the stage, which, by the way, was quite well decorated and furnished. So, the band from Kyiv Crazy Juliet began the performance...

Track 4. Crazy Juliet (Ukraine)

Crazy Juliet was founded in 2003 in Odesa by two people: Mytho5 and Evadam (the first one is now known for the electronic-industrial project Ginger Snap5). I don’t know if they had performances in the original lineup and whether released something at all. It would be interesting to know. But the project started its actual way in music after an almost 100% change in lineup and moving to Kyiv only in the second half of 00s. So now this is a Kyiv-based project consisting of 4 people. In 2007 the only release was out as self-release. Musically, the CD was a mixture of darkwave, electrogoth and guitar sounds. The lyrics were mostly in English, although Ukrainian-language songs also appeared here and there. During the performance the guitar and bass were brought to the fore, sometimes blocking the vocals and giving the impression at some points, that the metal band just couldn't find a drummer. Although some of the songs were performed very well. Those in which, nevertheless, the electronic part and vocals remained in the foreground. Vocals, by the way, are very surprising. And even though the vocalist is not an opera singer who graduated from the conservatory, not everyone can modulate his voice in such a good way. In one moment, it's a sweet little shy goth girl singing (antics and acting were also present), in another it's typical hard rock vocals, in another it's killing metal growling. The band played all their known songs (or actually all their songs in general). I gave a guess during the concert, that due to the lack of super-famous hits Crazy Juliet would have to finish the performance with a cover version. So, it happened. The cover version turned out to be a not-so-famous song by the Eurodance band E-Type. I was expecting a more popular song, that everyone would know. Well, after playing once again their main hit "Army of the Bones" the show ended. Just as suddenly as it started. After the show the handing out with musicians started, so we decided to skip.

Track 5. Outro. The Beginning of the End?..

So, finally I’ve visited a gothic event in Luhansk. Skipping all the funny nuances aside, we can say for sure two things: there was a lack of at least format background music (I'm not talking about DJs at the moment), because the silence before the and after the show was killing, the positive aspect is a kind of home concert atmosphere, which I personally always liked. The show and the band was good for the local scene in Ukraine and may be said, that it’s the only one of its kind, but for Europe and is rather weak because of lack of hits. The audience... Well, the dark scene in Luhansk is essentially absent. Although there is at least one really cool industrial project.