Between losing the directions to the show and, after arriving, being plagued with camera-related technical difficulties (hence the lack of photos for this particular article), the night was hardly off to an auspicious start. But where there's a will, there's a way, and we not only made it to the Glass House in Pomona (a semi-rural college down east of Los Angeles), we made it in time for pre-concert drinks at the adjoining Acerogami Lounge. Stocked with a variety of unusual South American beers and designed in a mixture of brickwork and metal created by the bar's owner, it made for the perfect prelude for a night of industrial rock.

First up at the venue itself was Seattle's Legion Within, and despite a fairly severe tumble that left lead singer William Wilson limping for most of the set, the band delivered a blend of industrial attitude and gothic moodiness that had the early arrivals moving. Though the venue was less than half-full, the crowd was pressed against the front of the stage, with few able to resist the magnetic pull of Wilson's Peter Murphy-inspired gyrations, Aaron Nicholes' tribal punk drumming, and Erica Branch-Butler's undulating bass lines. Starting off with moodier offerings like "The Empire is Burning" and "So Happy" from the recently released album Mouth of Madness, the band worked its way up to a powerful finish with a blistering performance of the politically-edged "Fascisti," from the 2007 EP, The Empty Men.

Seemingly just minutes after Legion Within had cleared its gear from the stage, Angelspit had already taken things over. The Australian duo of ZooG and DestroyX has risen quickly in the scene, thanks in part to a distinctive and carefully considered approach to image and fashion - DestroyX even has her own cosmetic line - and stylistically, they didn't disappoint. DestroyX's gyrations behind the microphone were mechanical yet sensual, half geisha and half robot, and ZooG sported his trademark mohawk, a spiked coif that's less like a hairstyle than a stylized, deconstructed dorsal fin. Enhancing the band members' own appearances were a background lighting set-up seemingly inspired by the original 8-bit Nintendo video game system; even ZooG's strap-on MIDI controller looked like a giant-sized game-pad. If the pair's elaborate visual presentation tempted some fans to write it off as all image and no substance, the live show was quick to dispel any such notions. Once the breakbeats and sequences kicked in, ZooG and DestroyX became almost afterthoughts. Drawing heavily on the recently released Hideous and Perfect, Angelspit's set was heavy on head-nodding industrial/hip-hop beats and sharp, vintage-sounding synthesizer sequences. Though the band's distinctive vocal style, a sardonic patter that draws on spoken word influences, was perhaps less thought-provoking - or at least harder to make out - in a live setting, extra vocoder effects and a rhythm section that settled deep in your gut gave tracks like "Fuck the Revolution" and "Channel Hell" an entirely different feel than on the album, less politicized industrial poetry than post-apocalyptic electro party. Needless to say, seeing ZooG and DestroyX do their thing in the flesh was enough to convert fans who may have enjoyed the pair's promotional photographs without ever getting around to hearing their music.

As for the headliners, what can be said about KMFDM that hasn't already been said? In the past few decades, the band's live presence has evolved immensely from the barely contained riot of the Nihil tour with its rotating array of guest singers to the well-oiled machine of the current, comparatively stable lineup. In comparison to the tightly-wound precision assault of the Hau Ruck Zuck tour a few years back, tonight's performance seemed looser, more relaxed. The music itself was as tight and technical as ever, Sascha Konietzko and Lucia Cifarelli growling and crooning respectively over jagged guitars and the Ultra Heavy Beat, but whether it was the heady atmosphere of a 25-year celebration tour or the more intimate feel of the venue itself, the band seemed to be having more fun than ever before, whether it was Jules Hodgson and Steve White ripping through guitar solos, Cifarelli flaunting her vocal range on fan favorite "Light," or Konietzko finding inordinate pleasure in pronouncing the name of the city. "Thank you, Pomona... Pomona... Po-MOAN-ahhhh."

The audience seemed similarly upbeat, and skewed toward long-time KMFDM fans. There were more than a few decade-old tour shirts in evidence, and though fans responded well to newer material like "Free Your Hate," the sensual Cifarelli-fronted "Looking for Strange" and absolutely thunderous renditions of "Saft und Kraft" and "WWIII," they absolutely exploded when classics like "A Drug Against War" made their appearance. Also evidencing a crowd well-versed in the intimacies of KMFDM's oeuvre, the fans' plea for an encore was comprised of a rousing chant of "KMFDM sucks!" Luckily, Konietzko and company took that as the Angst reference that it was and were happy to oblige with, among other offerings, a gritty but energized performance of "Godlike." KMFDM's music occupies a strange middle ground that lurches back and forth between self-deprecating humor and politically-fueled aggression, and tonight's performance definitely tended more toward the former than the latter. The band's performances are always solid, but tonight's was a real celebration.

Comments