Live Report | IAMX + Ductape @ Kulttempel - Oberhausen (DE) - 3 mai 2025

A few months only after their last stop in Europe, Iamx is back promoting their new opus Fault Lines². Before they land in Paris at the end of the month, we had the opportunity to glimpse their unique powerful show in Germany. In their luggage, they carry Ductape. No, not the adhesive. Not a duck wrapped in tape either. Ductape, the band.

DUCTAPE

Wait, another postpunk/darkwave band? In 2025? Well, if they actually sound good, yes please! And Ductape is ont of those. It's the second time this month that we have the pleasure to see them live and they don't cease to amaze. As well as She Past Away, Çağla and Furkan Güleray are Turkey-based. And as well as She Past Away, they have a brillant future ahead of them. Founded in 2019, the band plays regularly throughout Europe since the end of the pandemic, and 2025 appears as a turning point for them. The audience of the Kulttempel can't be fooled, Ductape has actually the potential of a headliner tonight. The charismatic presence of Çağla Güleray is partly responsible for that. The singer establishes her very own style, naturally imprinted by some of the ultimate references like Siouxie and the Banshees, but adds a recognizable deep tone and some very welcomed freshness in the depressive shades of the usual darkwave. Neither too shrill nor too dull, Ductape had found a perfect balance within this musical genre that struggles to reinvent itself.

No wonder that they are currently opening for several major acts of the scene. They will support IamX through their whole european leg and will also be back in France and Belgium in june and july (find all the dates here). They are also part of the line-up of the Amphi Festival this year. Clearly, you have no excuse to miss them.

Pictures courtesy of Daniela Vorndran
https://www.black-cat-net.de/galerie/musiklive/konzerte/5209-live-ductape-oberhausen-02-05-2025
https://www.reflectionsofdarkness.com/

IamX

Rarely a support act gets us as much in the mood as Ductape does. We are warmed up to welcome IamX in its current line-up: Janine Gezang (bass, backing vocals), the freshly added Sarah Pray (synths, percussion, backing vocals) and Jon Siren (drums) while Chris Corner is in charge of the main vocals and plays with a small selection of his favorite modulr synths. This lineup works magic. They fill the stage like they're home. Janine often visits her mates, leaning on them, pulling faces to them, sitting down on the tom bass. Chris chats with Jon from time to time, hands him the mic for if he feels like shouting his rage out, and we also get to hear him laugh. IamX forms on stage an inextricable whole that is more than the sum of its members, more than just a live version of a band.

they are well-known for sounding live completely different from the studio albums. If you came to sing the choruses along, you could be disappointed. The intruments, the rhythm, sometimes the melody : everything is reworked to make their live a unique experience. the songs are mostly extended, Chris takes the time to catch his breathe after almost every verse. While we get ready to scream the next chorus out, the bands adds a few instrumental beats to let us time to sneak into the mood of the piece and dive into a trance we can hardly get out of. From a distance, one can find the play somewhat overacted, loutish, exhausted. Two hours of tongues out, jumps and kicks in the air, strewn with regular "I love you", "my beautiful people", "my folks", sound like a play. but this interpretation is off-topic. Actually, there is no one more sincere than IamX on stage. They're born entertainers, performing is the role of their life, a part of who they truly are. One may wonder how they keep up the rhythm during the whole tour, but the real question is : how do they survive when they're not touring? The catharsis of the stage is definitely life-saving, and we, poor mortals, have the priviledge to witness this moment.

IamX dares opening their set with The Ocean, one of the new titles from Fault Lines², a piece which takes long to settle and remains very dark throughout, far from a danceable start. And it works magic. We're slowly entering this procession of deep rough basses, melodic loops, slapping drums, offset with the ehtereal voice of Chris Corner. Our feet are sinking into the ground while our heart embarks on a collective trance. The most recent pieces of IamX are also the least accessible to a large audience, darker, more contemplative, less swinging, less prompt to make a hit. The band chooses deliberately to play a bunch of demanding songs for the major part of the set, establishing their tempo. Come on, let's admit that when you're home cleaning your windows, you're not humming Disciple, Aphrodisiac, or Grass before the Scythe. Even from the first albums, you're not playing Sailor ou Mercy the most. Let's admit your guilty pleasures still remain S.H.E, President, Think of England, and you often yell "Bernadette!" alone in your living room. In its twenty-year career, IamX has racked up an indecent number of hits, all of which deserve a place on the setlist. But tonight, you're the one invited in THEIR livingroom and they tell the tale that suits them most. This is no lack of respect. It's authenticity. His extravagant mask firmly planted on his head, Chris Corner actually lays bare in front of us, trusting his audience to follow him into the depths of the setlist. And what a warm feedback he receives. Twenty years later, the first rows are still crowded with young hardcore fans yelling his name, as if they were the same audience as in 2005 and had forgotten to get old. But IamX's magic is to gather all generations. No matter how old we are, we all bounced together with fever. Hurricane IamX retires in a blast, leaving the hall devastated, the public drained, a post-orgy dazed gaze on their face. What a fucking slap it has been. Thank you.

Setlist :
01. The Ocean
02. Disciple
03. The X ID
04. Sailor
05. Aphrodisiac
06. After Every Party I Die
07. Grass before the Scythe
08. Break the Chain
09. I Come with Knives
10. Neurosymphony
11. Exit
12. Spit it out
13. The Great Shipwreck of Life

Rappel :
14. The Alternative
15. No Maker Made Me
16. Bernadette
17. Mercy