[kj] Killing Joke Last Night in LA

[MARKEC]

Wow....... great review !
Sounds like yet another great night with KILLING JOKE !!!

Markec

np  Dr Kloot "History of the World / Part One"


Op 10-okt-08, om 18:34 heeft TB het volgende geschreven:


> Holy shit, what a great show.  Hands down, the best KJ show I've  

> ever seen (even if that comes down to one '85 show and one '03 show  

> and a lot of bootlegs).

>

> Got in the House of Blues just after 8pm and immediately noticed  

> security was tighter than just a month ago.  Staff used metal  

> detector wands to search people going in and I noticed several LA  

> police cars parked on the street.  It took a long time for the  

> venue to fill up, but from what I could tell, there was a lot of  

> walk up ticket buyers and by the time KJ came on at 10:40, the  

> place seemed pretty full. The audience was a pretty wild mix of old  

> school mid 80's punkers and younger people right outta High  

> School.  I even saw one guy with an elaborate Lords of the New  

> Church/Alien Sex Fiends jacket and another punker easily in his mid  

> 50's with a balding, grey mohawk.

>

> Pigmy Love Circus, which was the opening band, played a 45 minute  

> set. Music was kind of a mix of Revolting Cocks and The  

> Supersuckers with a  bit of Rob Zombie thrown in. One of the  

> guitarists looked to be about 300lbs and the rest of the band were  

> pretty butt-ugly. Not bad, and they got a decent reception from the  

> crowd, but not what I'd call a good opening band for KJ.

>

> After a long wait, Killing Joke came on and opened with "Requiem."   

> For the first few songs, I was kind of on the fence about Paul  

> Ferguson but when they broke into "Follow The Leaders" about 5  

> songs in, I was blown away with his playing and power.  For the  

> most part, the crowd was really into the show and the floor got  

> progressively more rowdy to the point there was big time moshing by  

> about the halfway mark.  A big highlight about 45 minutes into the  

> show was the double shot of "Love Like Blood" (dedicated to Raven  

> with Jaz emotionally tearing up at the end of the song) and a very  

> fast paced "Eighties" (prefaced with Cobain comment) back to back.   

> I was kind of surprised to hear Communion buried near the end of  

> the set in a nice, compact version although the keyboard string  

> backing was a bit too prominent for my tastes.  "Pandemonium" which  

> closed out the main set also had a sparser arrangement that had at  

> times just bass and drums which worked very well.

>

> Other songs in the 24 - 25 song set played included Change,  

> Primitive, The Wait, Exorcism, Madness,  Money Is Not Our God and  

> Asteroid.  Speaking of Asteroid, I can kind of understand why they  

> continue to play that one as they clearly have fun playing it and  

> the audience really loved shouting "AAAAASTEROOOOOIIIDDD!!!" at the  

> key moments.  The only song I really noticed kind of fell flat was  

> "Turn To Red" which Youth clearly enjoyed playing but left the  

> audience cold.  For the encore, one of the new songs was played,  

> "Fresh Fever From The Skies" which was pretty decent.  The 1 hour  

> 45 minute show ended around 12:15 with a slamming version of  

> "Wardance" and it almost looked like we'd get a second encore but  

> that didn't happen.

>

> The band was really tight.  Jaz was at his theatrical best, focused  

> and in fine voice and as the show went on, he clearly grew more and  

> more happy with the very enthusiastic response.  Whoever said  

> Geordie's tone is much improved is absolutely right on.  Much more  

> "crunchy," and compact and not drenched in out of control feedback  

> like it was on the '03 tour.  Geordie managed to chug down a bottle  

> of wine through the set and started on a 2nd one during the encores  

> but didn't smoke even though at one point he motioned frantically  

> for a smoke from one of the roadies.  Youth who reminds me  

> physically of Paul McCartney fit in very nicely and clearly enjoyed  

> being onstage with the band and several times thanked the band for  

> getting him his start in music. I do have to say, I preferred  

> Raven's playing over Youths'. Big Paul killed on drums really  

> giving energy and new life especially to a lot of the Night Time  

> and Pandemonium album tunes.  Although it's clear there's a  

> noticeable divide between Jaz/Geordie and Paul/Youth,

>

> The sound was actually one of the best sounding shows I've caught  

> at the Hollywood HoB.  Not overdriven although for the first couple  

> songs, I thought Geordie wasn't high enough in the mix and Pauls  

> drumming sounded a bit thin but that improved to perfection by the  

> 3rd song or so.  The asshole factor on the floor got a little out  

> of hand by about an hour into the show which some of the more  

> aggressive slamming nearly causing a few fights.  One obnoxious fat  

> blond chick with huge tits wearing a tiara was drunkenly slamming  

> into anyone she could but if someone, especially this older balding  

> punk (who almost passed out loaded near the end of the show) would  

> bounce into her, she'd get all pissed and angrily shove back at  

> them.  However, I hung out on Geordies side about 15 feet back from  

> the stage and rarely had anyone bounce into me.

>

> The very limited merchandise only consisted of two black t-shirts  

> respectively  featuring the first two album's artwork for $25 (no  

> XXlarge for you big boys) and a small black pamphlet of Youth's poems.

>

> I *really* hope they put out a new album and continue touring.   

> Based on last night's show, they still have plenty of fire for a  

> lot more music, on stage and off.  Those catching the Chicago and  

> NYC shows are in for a huge treat.

>

> T.B.

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