It started calm, on Friday October 16th, the day VNV-Nation played at the Effenaar again after 2 years. Ayria from Canada opened the night with a light-hearted electro-industrial sound. Singer Jennifer Parken is nice to look at, but she can’t motivate the audience enough. With nothing more than an electric drum kit it looks all somehow poorly. Only after they play the last song, Ayria manages to get the audience moving.

Straftanz from Germany throws in harsh industrial that sounds a lot richer. The audience is waiting for this, it seems. The singer runs up and down the stage and it looks he is enjoying himself. The show is completed with waving flags across the audience. Straftanz has warmed up the audience nicely and they all seem to be ready for VNV-Nation.

The rules for photographing this evening were very strict. Not more than three songs and that’s it, the rules said. And I live up to these rules of course, but it was frustrating the light became really better when those three songs were played. But every disadvantage has its benefit; I could really enjoy the show without worrying about taking pictures.

A battery of lamps on the background displayed the characters V-N-V. Behind keyboards and drums the members of the band are hidden. Only drummer Mark Jackson attracts some attention by his impressive drumming. Only after singer Ronan Harris appears on stage an ear-defeating applause emerges from the audience.

Between anecdotes songs like ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’, ‘Darkangel’, ‘Chrome’ and ‘Illusion’ pass the revue. To the amusement of Ronan a few visitors are really going crazy. He receives a pair of clogs to his own disbelieve and is completely happy when he realizes he can keep them.

There seems to be no end to the party of VNV-Nation. After the encore with the songs ‘Standing’ and ‘Epicentre’ Ronan and his fellow members return to the stage two more times. The third encore ends with an impressive ‘Perpetual’ with the whole venue singing from the chest until the bitter end: “ Let there be, let there always be never ending light.”