Killing Joke Live in Hollywood 10/9/08
The Mighty T.B.
Caught one of my favorite bands, Killing Joke at the Hollywood House of
Blues this past Thursday night. They're currently reunited with their
original bass player "Youth," and drummer Paul Ferguson doing a short 4 city
tour across the US playing songs off their early 80's albums and the early
90's album "Pandemonium." Previously, I've only seen KJ twice, once in '03
and once way back in '85 (I think) during their "Night Time" album tour.
Got in the Hollywood House of Blues just after 8pm and immediately noticed
security was tighter than a show I caught 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. No doubt this is due to increased focus
on violence at many Hollywood shows lately which is threatening to shut down
a lot of live local venues. It took a long time for the HoB 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 with faded Damned and Cramps
shirts 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. The first band I've even seen that
the singer used a black-face Charlie McCarthy-esque puppet to song one of
the songs. Musically, not bad and occasionally funny 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 drummer 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 and slamming 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 which is one of the weakest songs on their excellent 2003 self
titled album, 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
unreleased 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, slimmed down in
warpaint and boiler suit focused and in fine voice and as the show went on,
he clearly grew more and more happy with the very enthusiastic response.
Guitarist Geordie walker managed to chug down a bottle of wine through the
set and started on a 2nd one during the encores. Youth who reminds me
physically of current old man Paul McCartney fit in very nicely from a
musician's standpoint if not physically, clearly enjoyed being onstage with
the band and several times thanked the band for getting him his start in
music. Big Paul killed on drums really giving energy and new life
especially to a lot of the Night Time and Pandemonium album tunes.
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
punker dude (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. I
hung out on Geordies side about 15 feet back from the stage and rarely had
anyone bounce into me.
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. Anyone catching the Chicago or NYC shows this week are in
for a major treat.
T.B.
Saint
wrote:
of course "Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell" from '06 was
surprisingly good IMO, actually awesome stuff. Plus, KJ are true
'dagger' music-
I could actually see Jaz Coleman with a Yemenite dagger chewing Khat
with the rest of the East Majick Assassins..
C.
Saint
> > T.B.
>
> of course "Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell" from '06 was
> surprisingly good IMO, actually awesome stuff. Plus, KJ are true
> 'dagger' music-
> I could actually see Jaz Coleman with a Yemenite dagger chewing Khat
> with the rest of the East Majick Assassins..
> C.
"Kilroy Was Here"
-Bozo
Edvamp
Sounds it. KJ are one of the bands I regret not seeing live.
Hopefully this will give me a chance to see them if they do NYC and I
am healthy enough.
The audience was a
> pretty wild mix of old school mid 80's punkers with faded Damned and Cramps
> shirts and younger people right outta High School.
I think Damned and Cramps shirts are sold faded off the rack. I
noticed the same age range when I saw Stiff Little Fingers several
years ago here in NYC. Nice seeing 18 year olds into an older band.
> 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 drummer 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 and slamming 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.
Love Like Blood to Eighties would have been the high point for me as
well. Sucks I am too sick to see them when they come here. Hopefully
they will choose to do this again. Thanks for the review.
Ever and Always
Edvamp
www.suffocation.us