For quite a while now I’ve been
getting increasingly into industrial metal and industrial music in general,
mainly listening to bands like Grendel, KMFDM, Fear Factory, VNV Nation, bands
all of that ilk. But my interest in industrial music started about 10 years ago
when, whilst listening to a mix tape my brother had made, I first encountered To the Hilt by Die Krupps. Later I
started listening to more of their stuff, including such glorious gems as Fatherland, Metal Machine Music (One of my personal favourites) and Wahre Arbeit Wahrer Lohn. Of course, way
back in 2004 they had yet to begin their reunion tours/anniversary tours, and I
was to say the least saddened by the thought that I would never have the chance
to see these musical artistes live.
Last night, Friday 1st
August, I got the chance to see all of these and more performed at the Talking
Heads pub and live music venue in Southampton .
Now when I saw the tickets go on
sale a few months ago I thought I was about to have a heart attack. I didn’t
even question buying tickets, I just went for them. And boy am I glad I did.
The venue was perfect. The
Talking Heads hosts a regular evening called Industrial Fallout, so having
these kings of Industrial Metal perform was perfect. The atmosphere was very
flowing. Everyone was getting into the groove of things very easily. You could
tell that a lot of the people there had been waiting a while to see Die Krupps,
or were excited to see them again. The support I have mixed feelings about.
The first support band was
Beinaheleidenschaftsgegenstand (or BeinE, apparently meaning “The thing that is
almost the thing you want…but not quite”), a duo of Tiffanie Wells on vocals
and synths and Simon John Bowers on keyboards, synths and all other weird
techno-wizardry used to make strange sounds. I’ll admit, at first I found them
to be musically skilful but lyrically somewhat overdramatic and pretentious,
almost having the feel of 16 year-old angst-ridden poetry. Then I tried closing
my eyes and listening and found it much easier to get into…but there’s the
problem – this is a very cerebral band, one that you listen to when you’re
trying to write a piece of work at 3 am and you need something to calm and
focus your mind. For me, it doesn’t work as well for a live gig. With that
said, plenty of people were getting into it, almost 60’s student commune style,
so what do I know? I will say that if I wanted a band to create ambient music
for a game or film, I’d definitely ask these guys.
The second band, Dreams Divide,
definitely worked better for me. A duo of David Crout on vocals, synths and programming
and Gem Davison on vocals and synths. Now these guys have a lot of power and
energy that can only come from one place – unadulterated love for their
audience and their music, and both having equal importance. David Crout’s voice
evokes a feeling of Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode with aspects of Ronan Harris
from VNV Nation, but still maintaining a gruff and assertive identity of its
own. Gem Davison immediately put me in mind of Anneke Van Giersbergen, but with
her own exquisitely discordant feel. Now this could easily be as a consequence
of being a live show instead of a recording, but if that is the case, I urge
them to maintain this direction with their music because it is so wonderfully
enticing and will help greatly set them apart from everyone else.
Their set was very emotionally
charged and I have every respect for them for managing to perform because they
had been to their friend’s funeral just earlier that day. Because of this they
asked us, if we’re with someone we’re close to, to “take them by the hand and
tell them you love them, because once they’re gone that’s the end and it’s so
very sad”. I can not imagine the sheer strength of will it must have taken to
carry on and perform. They are true performers, willing to give it their all,
even when they’re feeling absolutely lousy. Dave, Gem, my hat is permanently
off to you. You are an inspiration.
Finally, after whetting our
appetite so gloriously, they come. Die Krupps come to the stage in a
blue-tinted glow of strip-line L.E.D lights and bursting into They opened with
the song Ein Blick Zurück im Zorn (a
look back in anger). I made a point of being certain I could see
everything up-close and personal, and the darkness of the blue glow combined
with my skinniness made this particularly easy. They started the show in a way
that I love for bands to do – by playing songs I’d never heard before. As barmy
as that may sound, I love to hear either new material or stuff I simply haven’t
found the albums for first. It wasn’t until that day I’d even heard one of
their most recent songs, Risikofaktor
(Risk Factor), from the album The Machinists of Joy, and that heart-pounding
explosion of a song was the immediate second to be played.
Now for those of you who don’t
know, Die Krupps has been around for quite a while. 30 years to be exact. You’d
think once he’s in his 50’s Jürgen Engler, their frontman, would’ve slowed down
a bit…has he fuck? The guy was bouncing about and running around like a five
year-old on a year’s supply of skittles. His energy really made the music and
the crowd come to life. You could see that he was absolutely loving it up
there, building up constant interplay with the crowd, hovering the mic stand
over us at various points so we could interject on various songs. And my
friends, you have not lived until you have heard a glockenspiel solo. Several
songs featured this, in particular Der
Amboss (The Anvil). I will warn though, brace your ears if you’re at the
front. Never has the term “Ear-splitting” been more appropriate. This isn’t
your everyday glockenspiel. This is a massive fuck-off hit with steel pipes
glockenspiel. I’m likely using the wrong name for it, but I have no idea how to
research “instrument made from industrial metal pipes and hit with smaller
pipes”. I wish I did ‘cause I want one myself. Whilst I didn’t get to hear all of my favourites (Black Beauty, White Heat would have been
a particularly welcome delight), I did get to hear a lot of them, including To the Hilt. Now there were technical
difficulties during this song, the microphone’s wire deciding to cut out at odd
moments, but Jürgen took it in his stride and encouraged the crowd to fill in
the blanks whilst the techies fixed the problem. Again, the definition of a
professional. Lesser frontmen would have easily gotten fed up and stormed off.
Jürgen simply smiled when he could see that we all knew that we were aliens in
our own land. After a very effectively teased encore that got us all pumped up
for more, I got two of my absolute favourites (In fact four of my top five got
played that night) in the forms of Crossfire, which is such a thundering piece
that so perfectly evokes the feeling of absolute chaos and mania that was
glorious to see live. And finally it closed with the exquisitely menacing and carefully
crafted Bloodsuckers, a song that I
swear gets better and better every time I hear it. Just the most perfect of
their songs to close on. Still leaves us wanting more, but gives us just enough
to keep us fed until next time.
And just when you didn’t think
the night could get better, after the show we got to talk to the band in the
beer garden. I myself got to speak to Jürgen and Bradley Bills, the drummer,
also of tribal-infused apocalyptic drum project Chant fame. Jürgen was greatly
pleased when I told him how long I’d been waiting to see them. Brad reaffirmed
the feeling I got of how Jürgen has a love for the music and just lives for it.
You had no feelings of divas or egos of any kind, you just got to talk to some
really cool people who love the fans and live for the music.
If I ever get the chance again I
would happily go to see them again. If you ever get the chance, immediately grab
a ticket. Hell, grab a dozen, find as many people who are industrial fans as
you can and take them along. You will not regret it.
