VNV Nation played in Stockholm at the university (allhuset) yesterday (11th February 2006), and I was fortunate enough to get a guest list ticket. Hey, free is not bad, and VNV is one of my favorite bands :-) .

<img src="http://www.update.uu.se/~jonas/diversebilder/vnv_nation.jpg" align="right">
<p>
They are much better live than in the studio. One example of that is "saviour". It kind of falls flat to me when listening to the studio version. But live, you perceive the text, get more of the intended meaning, and a nice visual experience as well. Ronan Harris (the singer) got the crowd to sing "sm&aring; grodorna", a swedish child song sung at midsummer. Also we sang another swedish child song that I forgot the name of. That was cool. The atmosphere got very intimate, and generated quite a few laughs.
<p>
The concert started with Sturm Caf&eacute; playing as warmup band. They treated the audience with some heavy EBM with german lyrics. I have not heard them before, and enjoyed the texts. Quite funny at times. At some rare occasions it pays to have studied german. One thing I thought was a bit funny was that all the texts lyrics was in german, but when the singer spoke between the texts, it was in perfect swedish. It was such a contrast. Pretentious and generic EBM, that's what I call it. But they were good thou. The stage acting was good, especially by the singer.
Grosse Schwein was one of the better songs I think.
<p>
Then at 12 o'clock VNV Nation entered the scene. It was full speed from the start.
Ronan joked with the audience at times, and generally was well received by the audience. Mark Jackson, the drummer did a good performance as well.
One of the funnier episodes was when Ronan were taunting the public for liking such depressing songs as some of those that VNV perform. I partially agree that it is kind of sad, but to me, the lyrics are sometimes awesome, and they hint at a hope sometimes.
<p>
Like U2, the texts often mention heaven, afterlife, and so on. And in passing, Ronan mentioned something about a hope afterwards. Like he was talking about an afterlife.
To me, it is a big turn on to hear lyrics like that. Lyrics that you cant for sure say what the intended meaning was, or why he wrote it. And it is a nice contrast towards all depression in their lyrics. Like a hope somewhere behind all suffering.
<p>
To my joy, they played many oldies. Like saviour. They also played darkangel. One of my favorite songs. It was awesome!
Legion was another one that really got the crowd going. There were also some songs from their new album "matter and form" that I have not had opportunity to listen to yet. But it seemed to be a good enough album. One of the songs from "matter and form" was "Chrome". Awesome. Got the crowd going. Rock heavy dance-friendly EBM. That will be played a lot at synthclubs, like Tech Noir.
<p>
The concert as a whole really got me thinking about the church Livets Ord at times. It was the same kind of devotion in peoples faces. The same kind of thing in some way. People were not speaking in tongues. They were singing along. They did not lift their hands towards heaven, but more in the direction of the band. They didn't dance in the spirit, but they did dance. Maybe because of all the alcohol ;-). It was not Ulf Ekman who held the audience attention, but Ronan. And I have to say, the difference was not all that big.
<p>
Anyhow. The concert got to an end, too soon for me. I listened to "solitary", which was awesome, then rushed off to get on the sub. But I was too late, and had to spend the night sleeping at Stockholm central. That was not very nice at all. Cold and uncomfortable, but I got some 2 hours sleep somehow. Pretty incredible I think.
<p>
But, a very well spent saturday I have to say. And now, more than ever, VNV Nation is one of my favorite bands.