dEUS
Arena, 2008
dEUS like to have their off-times when they are on tour. It is hard to keep the five guys from Antwerp, Belgium together in the afternoon before a show. One aims for a place to take a nap, one focuses the computer screen, and you haven’t even seen the other three. Thus, the video shoot has to be quickly done. We set everything up and tell them we’re ready; they get a few steps out of their backstage room; we record an a-cappella-plus-instrumental-playback version of their song “The Architect” from the 2008-album “Vantage Point”; Tom Barman, singer and band leader, asks: “You got it?”; “Yes, thanks!”; they disappear in their backstage room. No hope for a second song, sadly. But their dancing, pulling faces and playing with the camera still gave us the impression that they somewhat enjoyed the shoot. By all means it didn’t draw off too much time from their rest period.
- Photography
- Simon Brugner
- Artist
- dEUS
Arena
Arena is a cultural center and music venue in the industrialized district of Erdberg. Its beginnings hark back to 1976, when some thousand demonstrators gathered around the former St. Marx Auslandsschlachthof to save it from demolition and subsequent commercial use. While they were not able to save the huge building complex, the vast social movement did succeed in reaching the foundation of an autonomous cultural center on the smaller area of the former slaughterhouses, which represents today’s Arena. Presently Arena has integrated a wide musical spectrum to its programme for various crowds and commercial use. Yet Arena’s dictum “Love Music, Hate Fascism!” is more than a relict of old days as it is still the venue with the most punk concerts in town.