KMFDM will never stop…
Words by Jason Guest
It’s dark in the Slade Rooms tonight. And I don’t mean the lighting. Black t-shirts, black leather, black hair, black make-up, black boots, black stockings – slightly torn of course – black everything! Yep, KMFDM are in town to deliver up their booty-moving brilliant blend of dance, techno, goth, and-infused industrial beats and tunes. With a set list including seven songs from their recently released 20th album, Hell Yeah! (reviewed here), the crowd are in for a treat. At it since 1984, like ACDC, KMFDM have nailed their sound and nailed their stagecraft and every move, every word, every beat and every riff is designed for one thing and one thing only: Friday night debauchery!
‘D.I.Y’ kicks the evening off, it’s dramatic opening bringing many a tongue to cheek and it’s irresistible beats bringing many a move to many a booty. And already, like KMFDM, it looks like this audience will never stop. ‘Freak Flag’ and the title track of the new album are up next and fists are pumping as the mass of black-adorned bodies slowly starts to sway as one. Cifarelli comes to the front for a seductive performance of ‘Amnesia’ before Konietzko reminds us that our lives are not the property of any farcical body of authority with ‘Rip the System v. 2.0’, after all we are ‘Rebels in Kontrol’. The hard and heavy ‘Total State Machine’ hammers home the message with its sarcastic refrain – ‘the government hates you’ – and mechanized beats.
From ‘Animal Out’ through ‘Burning Brain’, ‘Bumaye’ and ‘Glam Glitz Guts and Gore’, the sway of the crowd swells into a tsunami of sweaty bodies moving with the groove and dancing in the dark that flows and rocks through ‘Shock’, ‘Virus’ and into the irresistible ‘Murder My Heart’ before ‘A Drug Against War’ closes the set on a high. With ‘WWIII’, ‘Hau Ruck’ and ‘Godlike’ – with that Slayer riff – for encores, there’s not one body left in the room that hasn’t moved. KMFDM are consummate performers. Not a song nor a move out of place, this is a lesson in stagecraft as well as a lesson in song-craft and longevity. With such an armoury, KMFDM will never stop. Who can possibly stop them? Certainly not Depeche Mode…
Set List:
- I.Y.
- Freak Flag
- Hell Yeah
- Amnesia
- Rip the System v. 2.0
- Rebels in Kontrol
- Total State Machine
- Animal Out
- Burning Brain
- Bumaye
- Glam Glitz Guts & Gore
- Shock
- Virus
- Murder My Heart
- A Drug Against War
Encore:
- WWIII
- Hau Ruck
- Godlike
