Is there anybody, well-familiarized with the dark independent scene, for whom a combination of two words - 'Apoptygma Berzerk' - eminently dissimilar to each other, yet simultanously perfectly matched - may appear strange and unknown? Undoubtedly not. The music of Stephan Groth, however uncomplicated, simplified and tacky it may seem to be, has found quite a group of listeners worldwide; the listeners who have been implicitly glorifying each and every release of the artist. Also in Poland, the band of Groth were given credit by the mass of their fans, who undoubtedly welcomed the announcement regarding three concerts of Apoptygma in the Republic of Poland with an immense joy. The last show of that Polish mini-tour was to take place at Loch Ness in Cracow, where Stephan, supported by his new band mates, proved that the legendary (yes, I do dare to use this word) band, named Apoptygma Berzerk, has still a long way to go before it gets past its prime.

On no account can a decent concert take place without a support. This case was no exception and the role of a musical warm-up was played by MonoLight - a Wrocław-based band, combining the sounds of guitars with subtly synthetic melodies. The state of motionlessness, akinesia and monotony, which were present onstage during their performance, occasionally interrupted by gradually perkier movements of Mr Guitarist, may have seemed to prove that in terms of the concerts themselves, MonoLights strictly relies on the core of its music, apparently putting the performing arts aside. Nontheless, to my point of view, the band has an aptitude: musically, they turned out to be more than just a decent group, showing that the Polish independent scene still hides some individuals eager to demonstrate their own lyrically-musical interpretation of the world in a highly irreproachable fashion.

After a pleasantly short technical break, first tones heralding the appearance of the headliner started to flow from the speakers. Then onstage came Stephan, accompanied by his band and the first sounds of mandatory "Starsign", which provoked an overly enthusiastic feedback from the audiance, well-prepared and ready to receive an undecently huge dose of audio-visually-made sensations. From the very beginning, the level of energy, which the vocalist was ceaselessly excuding, was continuously stimulating the gathered into extraordinarily lively reception of the music: the tracks, following one another and perfectly chosen were even more inducing that peculiar state of the excessive euphoria, so characteristic of every sort of concert and events alike. Next track, "Eclipse", provided the audiance with yet another portion of stmuli,undoubtedly thanks to its ever-pulsating beats, incidentally uniting everyone with jointly sung chorus. It is worth mentioning that the Polish audiance once again succeeded with reference to the knowledge of lyrics, singing every word along with Stephan, which certainly met with the whole band's approval. Subsequent tracks, starting from truly energetic Back on Track, through inordinately dynamic Shadow, to a bit disturbingly tacky "Apollo (live on your tv)", were gradually deepening the intensification of feelings, which totally soaked through the atmosphere at the club, simultanously liberating immense supplies of energy of every person participating in the event. What is also worth mentioning is the fact that Stephan did not resort to his vocal duties, but also introduced his fans to his more chatty side of personality, presenting several short anectodes (a brillant association between a certain name of Polish beer and former record label of the band is especially attention-worth). Then time came for a moment of the absolute musical bliss: when the first sounds of "the Kathy's Song" came out of the speakers, the time seemingly came to a halt and the people, completely mesmerized, with their gazes fixed on the master of the ceremony and his assistans, were greedily imbibing the moment. The awakening from that wonderful state of inertia was caused by the unquestionable hit single "Shine On", but the musical extremum was exceeded by my personal favorite - "Deep Red" - a track, which is rather simple itself, yet astonishingly animating and constituting the essence of the old, good sound of Apoptygma Berzerk. The disappearance of the musicians, after having played "until the End of the World", met with a general agitation and provoked a foreseeable verbal reaction of the audiance, desirous for an encore. No wonder that the band, upon hearing booming calls, once again showed up onstage, ending that extraordinary musical feast with "Non-stop Violence", "Unicorn" and a remix of a classic track - "Mourn".

Apoptygma Berzerk enigmatically lures with its music; although the band has recently lowered the quality of their sound, heading towards more conventional, approachable and safer way of playing, it still does sound exquisitely good at concerts. Being a layperson I can state that the sound system did cuase any serious trouble to the audiance; the lightning perfectly complimented particular tracks - it is truly difficult to find any drawback of this performance. I dare say that I was not the only one, whom the concert helped to discover the music of Apoptygma Berzerk once again. For the time being we cannot do anything else but to bide our time and anticipate another musical spectacle of Stephan Groth and his entourage.

Setlist:
Starsign (long intro)
Eclipse
Back on Track
You keep me From Breaking Apart
In This Together
Mercy Kill
Shadow
Love Never Dies
Burning Heretic
Apollo

Bizarre Love Triangle (skipped)

Kathy's Song
Shine On
Deep Red
Asleep or Awake (skipped)
Until the End of the World

Non-stop Violence
Unicorn
Mourn (Mesh remix)

Bitch (skipped)