[kj] [KJ[ 20/04/2012 – Trezzo Sull’Adda “Live” Club - Italy (Gig Report)

[Luca Signorelli]

On 22/04/2012 9:05, Signorellil wrote:

> Hi Rob,

>

> yeah, but I'm very, very, very, very partial to KJ. It's been such a 

> big part of my life that I can't find a bad memory related to them 

> playing live.



> LS

>

>

> On 22/04/2012 8:43, Rob Moss wrote:

>> Brilliant report Luca

>>

>> Thanks!

>>

>>

>> Seems like you quite liked it then? ;-)

>>

>> On 22 Apr 2012, at 07:02, Luca Signorelli<lucasignorelli at alice.it>  

>> wrote:

>>

>>>> 20/04/2012 – Trezzo Sull’Adda “Live” Club (Gig Report)

>>>>

>>>> The only KJ northern Italian live date for 2012 was not only held 

>>>> (again) in the Milan area – not exactly “typical” northern Italy – 

>>>> but also at the “Live Club” of Trezzo sull’Adda, who gets my vote 

>>>> for Italy’s most lugubrious and depressing live venue. Everything 

>>>> inside look put together almost in random fashion, and the 

>>>> minimalist décor just add to the feeling the band will play in the 

>>>> middle of nowhere. But despite being (literally) in the middle of 

>>>> nowhere, the club tonight gets filled very rapidly, as word of 

>>>> mouth about Killing Joke return to sunny Italy has been quite 

>>>> strong in the last few weeks. Thanks also to the great impression 

>>>> “MMXII”  (best KJ album in the last 20 years, my humble opinion) 

>>>> has made here. Tonight the crowd is a very nice mix of mature and 

>>>> very young, and the floor vibe is definitely better than 3 years 

>>>> ago at Milan’s “Rolling Stone” (when the “mature” side of the mix 

>>>> had been prevalent).

>>>>

>>>> And the boys are back, and it was very nice to see them again. They 

>>>> don’t have aged aged in the last 3 years, and while Jaz is looking 

>>>> a bit tired, he’s fiery and articulate as usual. I sense the tour 

>>>> has been quite some work so far, with a lot of interesting human 

>>>> interaction inside the band (which means yelling, fighting, 

>>>> arguing, laughing and arguing again – the usual). Check Youth’s 

>>>> blog for more inside stories about this, and I bet the next few 

>>>> entries will make for some fun reading. There’s a lot of pressure 

>>>> put on the crew by the band, but they’re all nice people, and the 

>>>> soundman (John?) did a great job tonight. So, it looks like there’s 

>>>> all the right kind of tension here, and very little of the boring, 

>>>> deadbeat shit (except, of course, the bus transfers, which the band 

>>>> hates).  I anticipate a very entertaining night, but I’m  bit 

>>>> worried about the setlist (which I understand is being changed a 

>>>> bit every night). It is “MMXXII” heavy, and most of the old stuff 

>>>> comes from the first album – and no “What’s This For”! How will the 

>>>> crowd react.

>>>>

>>>> I shouldn’t have worried, because something akin to a miracle 

>>>> happens – namely, the crowd reacts a lot more to the NEW stuff that 

>>>> they do with the classics. It helps the news stuff is the strongest 

>>>> new material the band has written in a long time. But if anyone had 

>>>> told me I would have lived too see people getting apeshit crazy for 

>>>> the material of the latest and 15th album of a band currently in 

>>>> its 32nd year of career… but, ok, this is not “any band”, this is 

>>>> Killing Joke, and my unshakable faith in their music has some very 

>>>> good reason. The club PA is muddy as hell and be cursed laws 

>>>> regulating volumes on live gigs, but – as I’ve mentioned before – 

>>>> the mix is very nice, and they boys are putting a lot of energy 

>>>> into this show. They start slow (“Requiem” is solemn, but hardly a 

>>>> scorcher) but oh boy, they really warm up fast, and by the middle 

>>>> of the show – with “Chop Chop”, an  underrated classic, getting a 

>>>> blistering rendition – they’ve REALLY shifted into full gear. The 

>>>> “Killing Joke effect” then kicks in – everything start magically to 

>>>> connect and make sense, blood is pulsing in your temples, head 

>>>> shaking, legs moving has they had a life by themselves. And – 

>>>> again: it feels so RELEVANT, so much like a soundtrack for our day 

>>>> and age. Some people think they were far ahead of their times 30 

>>>> years ago, and now their time has come, but my own sentiment is far 

>>>> simpler – they’ve ALWAYS been in tune with their own time. 

>>>> Particularly live, they’ve this marvelous ability to underscore the 

>>>> mood of a age: scary and violent between 1979 and 1983, bombastic 

>>>> and glittering during the 80’s, elusive and moody in the 90’s, 

>>>> convulsive and confused during the “noughties”, and now, 

>>>> appropriately apocalyptic and sombre, but at the same time 

>>>> channeling a heightened mix anticipation and fear. Even “Asteroid”, 

>>>> a song I normally don’t care much for,  felt different tonight, and 

>>>> I sang it with the crowd.

>>>>

>>>> However, while the new song made the definite core of tonight gig, 

>>>> it must be said that the final handful of classics (Wait, Psyche, 

>>>> Wardance and a brutal Pandemonium) put the evening close to a real 

>>>> orgasmic frenzy. I was in Geneva in 1983 for the legendary “bomb 

>>>> shelter concert” (the one from whom the final “torchbearers” bit of 

>>>> the “Eighties” original video taken), and nothing will ever compare 

>>>> to that night (maybe, who knows). But I must say that, with the 

>>>> possible exception of Meshuggah in a good night, nothing still 

>>>> compares to Killing Joke live (and even Meshuggah on a good night 

>>>> just approach KJ level, they don't really get there).

>>>>

>>>> And from the satisfied faces of some very young crowd members at 

>>>> the end of the gig, I must say it wasn’t just the self satisfied 

>>>> musing of a old Killing Joke fan. Even if, while driving into the 

>>>> night back to Turin, I had to admit to myself that to be a old 

>>>> Killing Joke fan these days feels really good.

>>>>

>>>> LS

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