[kj] KILLING JOKE & TURBOWOLF UEA (Outline Online)

[Paul]

http://www.outlineonline.co.uk/content/killing-joke-turbowolf/live-reviews-/120827/2486

*KILLING JOKE & TURBOWOLF UEA*
By Pavlis 28/11/18

[image: KJ Poster.jpg]


*I have been waiting for this gig for over thirty years. Despite being a
fan since first hearing Killing Joke in the mid-eighties, through a
combination of bad planning and lack of money on my part and illness
leading to a postponed gig on their part, I have never managed to see the
Joke live. This is my first Gathering and expectations are high.*

First up are Bristolian rockers TURBOWOLF. Normally, a four piece, they are
without bassist Lianna Lee Davies for this tour. Despite that – and my
increasing antipathy towards bass free bands - Chris Georgiadis (vox and
synths), Andy Ghosh (guitar) and Blake Davies (drums) still manage to make
a cracking noise and rock like muthas. This is essentially an old school
rawk band playing an old school rawk show.

Playing stage right and side on to the audience, Davies hits his drums hard
and fast, with a style that brings to mind Motorhead’s late Philthy Animal
Taylor. Ghosh’s playing blends sleazy 80s LA metal, scuzzy 60s Detroit
garage with some tasty artrock/no wave touches. Resplendent in spangly
jacket and sporting a moustache Zappa would have been proud of Georgiadis
is the star of the show. Between songs, there are moments when I am not
sure if he is taking the piss or taking the piss out of himself – I suspect
the latter - and the vocals have a touch too much Phil (LA Guns) Lewis or
Klaus (Scorpions) Meine for my tastes but this is far better - and far more
fun - than it has any right to be.

And so to KILLING JOKE. I am more excited by the prospect of this show than
I have been about a gig for a long, long time but there is some trepidation
too. Can Killing Joke live up to my expectations? Well, I need not have
worried. Celebrating their fortieth anniversary (albeit that there have
been line-up changes and extended breaks in that time), the band takes the
sounds of punk, metal, dub, psyche, the Middle East and more to create
something that is an all-encompassing, otherworldly carnival of sound.

The set includes songs from most but not all of their history. If I am
disappointed by anything in the set, it is the lack of anything at all from
the Democracy LP but, hey, including the encore, we get eighteen songs.
Picking highlights is near impossible but opener Unspeakable, instrumental
Bloodsport and raging takes on Loose Cannon and Asteroid warrant special
mention. And then there is closing song Pandemonium – my favourite KJ song
if I had to pick one – which is as strange, moving, uplifting and cathartic
as I could wish for and makes a perfect end to what must rank as one of the
gigs of the year.
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