Reviewed by
Mike Ramirez

May 6, 1999 Irving Plaza
New York City, New York, USA
Tix Prices -$22.50

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Last Edit/Update
19 August, 2000

Frontline Assembly

Switchblade Symphony

Spahn Ranch

    This was my first out-of-state concert, as I usually only catch shows that are here in South Florida. I must say that the crowd up north is way different than what we have down here. The "scenesters" seem much easier to conversate with, and fans of all genres of music (punk, rap, industrial, goth, metal) were in attendance at the near-sellout gig. It's too bad down here you get the grill if you don't have your *insert your dime-a-dozen industrial band* shirt on.

    The venue, Irving Plaza, was an excellent size for the show. Lots of room on the floor, and an upper balcony level for those who wish to stay away from the pit. Openers Spahn Ranch were nearly ending their set when we walked in. I did catch their last 2 songs, "Vortex" and "Heretic's Fork," off of their 1996 effort, "The Coiled One." When lead singer Athan is not trying to imitate Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, the band actually has a nice live appeal to them. The vocals are somewhat tolerable on cd, but when they are sang live, it just didn't do the trick. The band barely had any room to move around on stage, due to FLA's massive equipment setup, and they also didn't seem really into it, except for the barbaric standing drummer (who was pounding the pads). My guess is that Spahn Ranch are sick and tired of their status, and want to gain a larger audience. Judging by their live performance, I don't see anything of the sort growing soon, except for the annoyance of the live vocals.

    Switchblade Symphony came on next, and that was when we hit the downstairs lobby for some air. I was never able to get into their music, but I did stick around to hear one song performed. Switchblade just seemed innapropriate to be in the line-up, mainly for their "mellow" sounds and less-than- 85-bpm tempo. When you go to see an aggressive headliner, you expect the openers to be somewhat of the same nature. Half of the crowd was into it, and that's fine by me.

    Frontline Assembly came on not that much later after Switchblade exited the stage. The two keyboardists Chris Peterson and and Jason Filip Jeck graced the stage first, opening up with the FLA 10-minute trademark intro. A drummer followed them after a while, and then, Mr. Leeb himself.

    They went straight into "Retribution" from their new album, "Implode." It took a while for the crowd to get into it, but when the chorus hit, that's when everyone else did as well. Their new single, "Prophecy" followed, working the crowd into a mosh frenzy, but it wasn't until the next track, "Vigilante," when the crowd really got off of their feet. Here entered Jed Simon, who also played guitar on FLA's 1996 Hard Wired tour, and contributed to the new album. His stage presence was totally laughable (long hair, all black, and a long-sleeved Deicide shirt), but he was really into the performance and worked up the crowd with the crowd with the mean-looking "metal" face.

    FLA also played cuts such as "Resist," "Surface Patterns," "Millenium," "Plasticity," and "Liquid Seperation," as well as a few others. The highlight of the set was "Comatose," in which live guitar was added respectively and gave the track some extra bite for the live setting. In my opinion, it was done fantastically and the crowd enjoyed it just as much as I did. My only gripe about the night was about how short the set was. I'm sure that I only heard about 9 or 10 songs throughout the set, and FLA played longer on previous tours, which puzzled me a bit.

    Without regarding the time factor and the opening acts, it was a flawless show that was well worth the money (an outrageous $22.50). Hopefully, FLA will stretch out their setlist on future tours instead of shrinking them.