Interview: Beborn Beton comes to Ybor City’s Absolution Fest

Stefan Netschio somewhat laments the travel time down the United States’ east coast the first week of October. That travel time will cause him to miss most of the other bands playing Absolution Fest in Ybor City this month.

Netschio, with bandmates Stefan “Till” Tillmann and Michael Wagner, make up Beborn Beton. Founded in 1989, the outfit is an electronic body music-synthpop-futurepop trio from Essen, Germany and headlines Absolution Fest which features 19 bands and DJs performing over three nights.

Since the first alternative music Absolution Fest in 2019 (no festival was held in 2020 due to covid), 67 alternative bands of various genres—synthpop, futurepop, industrial, goth rock and others—have brought their original sounds to Crowbar.
Other 2024 AbFest headliners acts include Australian darkwave musician Zanias; Kite, synthpop from Sweden; Ultra Sunn, an electro-duo from Belgium; and the heavy darkwave stylings of Deep Red of Miami.

Netschio told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that Tampa’s own DJ Tom Gold—a Castle mainstay who often spins in Germany—together withAbsolution Fest founder Mark Paradise asked Beborn Beton to join the lineup. After that, he said the band added 10 more shows, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Montreal, Canada to make the trek from Europe to play Tampa feasible. It will be Beborn Beton’s first Tampa show in two years.

“I hope that (the Absolution Fest audience) will experience another version of Beborn Beton than what they’re used to listening to the albums,” he said.

Netschio said the Absolution Fest set will contain hits from Beborn Beton’s 16 albums dating back to 1993’s Tybalt through 2023’s Darkness Falls Again. Among those are “Color of Love,” “Spawn,” “Another World” and “Last Day on Earth.”
Additionally, Netschio said songs will be added from the 1999’s Fake LP, such as “Peach” and “The Truth” from 1997’s Truth.

“We’d like to play a few songs that people do not expect. In general, we have a ‘best of,’ or a ‘best party of’ setlist because we want to show people a good time,” he explained.
In addition, Netschio said Beborn Beton is putting out a new digital EP with 10 tracks and a vinyl EP with seven tracks—three new songs and new remixes.

“And we will be playing from that EP, a very brand-new song,” he said. “Playing live, I hope people feel that they just didn’t listen to an album on stage but see a very energetic, live band.”

Paradise, who spends 10 to 12 months each year preparing for Absolution Fest, said he hoped audiences will once again be amazed and enthralled by what they see and hear.

“I hope the people that come out have a really good time watching the bands. There’s a large variety of bands so I think it will keep people entertained,” he said. “There won’t be just one style of band and they’re coming from all over the world.”
Other acts scheduled for Absolution Fest are: Male Tears, The Bellwether Syndicate, House of Harm, Haunt Me, Secret Shame, Ruined Conflict, Dead Cool, Lovataraxx, Amulet, AL1CE, VOSH, The Mystic Underground, Dark Chasm and Chaos in the Veil.

Tickets for Absolution Fest happening Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 10-12 at Crowbar in Ybor City are still available and start at $45. No-cover pre-parties happen each night from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. at the nearby SpookEasy Catacombs.

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