<PIG> left the stage, and the techs immediately began to dismantle their gear... no encores for Watts tonight... yet. The crowd began to crawl toward the stage, eagerly awaiting KMFDM as SHIZUO poured out of the P.A. system. A metal sign on Sascha's drum pad-stand at the front of thestage had been subtly edited to read: "INDUSTRIAL ASSES AT ALL TIMES."
          A monitor at the rear of the stage displayed white- tape letters spelling out "MAO" and ART.The meaning remains unknown. The crowd was unusually hyper, half from anticipation, and half from unused energy conserved during the <PIG> set that a diappointing percentage of the crowd failed to recognize [except, of course, for "secret skin"]. The stage and house lights dimmed, and dark figures took the rather packed stage.
          The electonic opening of "megalomaniac" began, breathing room near the stage was reduced to nil, and then the chaos began.

          MEGALOMANIAC: As soon as the guitar and lights kicked in, the audience went nuts. Oddly enough, everyone decided to leap up at the same time, and so there was a sea of hopping fans, all rising and falling at once. I didn't even move, and I was still getting picked up by the crowd.
          Unfortunately, the synchronized jumping quickly subsided, and the normal ping-pong shoving matches began. Sascha wore his "kmfdm crew" shirt and black leather pants, En Esch was clad in his trademark fishnet-and-skirt combo, Skold had an orange jersey w/ fishnet shirt underneath and black pants. Gunter wore a laid- back, rather tasteful patterned pants and black jacket combo-- combined with his hair, slicked back as usual, he assumed an unintimidating look on stage. The surprisingly small DeSalvo took an equally toned-down look, as he was barely visible behind the electric drum set.
          "Megalomaniac" went off without a hitch, and En Esch compensated for Sascha's almost motionless stage presence with strange gyrations as he played his small schoolbus-yellow synth. Skold was playing what seemed tobe a bass-synth module [similar to the Roland guitar synth] that was barely audible during most of the show, a problem that persisted even when Sascha played it for a spell. The vocals were mixed too high throughoutmost of the show, and Bogart's lacked great acoustics as well.
         Gunter's guitar was often too quiet [reflecting the mixing of the new album, no?], but always managed to reinforce the low-end of the music. En Esch, when playing his yellow guitar, supplied more noise than actual guitar work, and ended up getting drowned out or muddling the mix most of the time. The bass drum triggers were mixed LOUD, and really proved that KMFDM is more "beat-oriented" than ever. Sascha divided his time between contributing his own electronic percussion and triggeringvarious loops and samples on a _nice_ looking control board.
          LEID UND ELEND came next, and En Esch mixed the German lyrics with English at times, screaming "my pain is your pain." He pulled off his new found singing voice pretty well amidst his prancing and crotch-grabbing antics. Overall, it was a version close to the one on the "new album [the name it is listed as in KMFDM's new order catalog]", with good sound quality.
          CHAOS: Sascha took over the near-silent synth bass, and the timid Skold came forward to do a KMFDM-enhanced mix of his song. The crowd seemed to really enjoy this number, seeing as it was something "new" for KMFDM, and moshed around quite a bit. Their actions were a sharp contrast to Skold's own, as he stayed rooted to one part of the stage for most of the song, barely moving back and forth. I don't know why, but Skold seemed unsure of himself, and kept falling behind the beat slightly as he sang. Their performance lacked the speed or fullness of the SKOLD version, relying mainly on the simple beat, with some guitar, blasting samples, and scattered electronics.
          MERCY: One of the more 'rock'-oriented tracks on the new disc, "mercy" came next. Most of the band did vocals for this one, and it ended up sounding really noisy and distorted. Sascha rarely moved, and his vocals were very flat and unemotional. As usual, he sang most of the songs with his eyes closed, hidden behind his sunglasses.
          FRIEDE: After "mercy", some familiar synth sounds rose up out of thesilence, and massive bass beats pounded as KMFDM leapt into a new, dancy mix of their old number "friede". The disco elements of the original were gone, replaced with new, more accessible beats. En Esch gave new life to the screamed, grinding German lyrics, proving that old KMFDM material never dies -- it will always get mixed up and thrown back out in a new form. That readily-modifiable craftsmanship impressed quite a few fans in the crowd.
          ANARCHY: Skold came to the front again, this time to sing one of the strongest tracks off of the new album: "anarchy." The performance lacked strength, especially toward the end as Sascha kept whispering to Skold, distracting him so much that his vocals lagged behind and fell out of tune. A great song, a decent rendition, but far from excellent in its execution.
          TORTURE: After "anarchy", mangled, screeching electronics issued forth, announcing the arrival of the one and only Ogre. He walked onto the stage in all black-- tight pants, knee-high boots, knee-pads [?!], and a long black lab coat. During the electronic intro, he literally bounced around the stage, repeatedly flashing a more-than- manic smile to theaudience. Twitching like a recipient of electro-shock therapy, he seemed more like a mad scientist [or the creation of one] than a musician.
          The main song kicked in, and he collapsed in a heap on the floor. The kneepads had been a planned precaution. Springing back up, his vocals soon began, but in a markedly different form than the CD. Imagine "torture" from the new album, with Ogre singing on helium. His high-pitched voice startled many, who were expecting at least a slightly lower growl from the ex-SP lead man. He continued his twitching, and comically scratching his body much like one would expect a lower primate to, and traveled all over the stage with his mop of black hair bouncing up and down. Many of the fans got bored towards the end of this long song, and there was little musical variation.
          Ogre delighted in playing with odd vocal jumps as well-- for example, the chorus where he sang "what a-A-a paid ri-I-ide..." At the end, most of the band chanted "what about the torture?" in different loud/soft screaming/speaking voices, sounding much like a Tower of Babel.
          LIEBESLIED: Some new sounds spilled out next, and all of a sudden the familar tones of that musical phoenix "Liebeslied" rose from the ashes,resplendent with all of the original twists and "O Fortuna" samples!! It was performed much faster than the original, but its original majesty remained. This was by far the most popular track of the night, with a huge portion of the crowd singing along. It was also nice to see Sascha singing the German along with En Esch whenever possible.
          STRAY BULLET: After "liebeslied", Ogre just didn't want to leave the stage. He remained onstage during most of the rest of the songs, and during the opening of "stray bullet" he had to tie his boot laces back up, rear to the crowd for a full few minutes. It was an odd visual, to be sure. The play-off between Gunter and En Esch's guitars was well done, and the heavy beat was more than loud. Gunter proved his playing mettle more than once, with blindingly fast solos. He is one undoubtedly of the faster and more talented players in the genre, but his solos on this night lacked much musical genius, they were just FAST.
          ANYTHING: KMFDM decided to play another Skold song, and I must admit I expected "p.a.m.f.", but they opted for "anything" instead. It turned out to be a very competent cover/interpretation. Skold had some trouble with the microphone, as he insisted in the choruses on singing _right_ into the mic, which produced a shrill, high- pitched feedback. The choruses were still _very_ powerful, with most of the members contributing vocally.
          A DRUG AGAINST WAR: Then the all-too-familiar samples of "a.d.a.w." began to play, and Gunter took center stage for this driven number, still one of KMFDM's most popular songs. The crowd showed just how popular it was, leaping, writhing, and shoving frantically to match the fast-paced rhythm. Ogre and En Esch stole the show, wrapping around each other, Ogre hanging from Nick's leg, and both of them singing while buried in each other's chests. Judging from the smile, Ogre was having a great time playing with KMFDM [then again, even looking at his own hand distracted him from singing, so maybe it wasn't just the concert...].
          WASTE: The end track of the new album, "waste" came next. It sounded every bit as distorted and mean as on the disc, with Sascha and Ogre doing a duet [Ogre only forgot a few words] through a lot of the song. The performance was loud and rough, but seemed to give closure to the show.   After "waste", everyone left the stage, but the crowd howled for more...
         UNFIT [1st encore]: KMFDM walked back out onstage, and began to play the "unfit" intro, sans Watts. As the song picked up speed, Raymond ran onto the stage, wearing the new <PIG> "wrecked" shirt. The live version wasn't as "funky" as the album one, but En Esch tried to make up the difference with his whammy bar. It was odd to see the crowd's reaction to Watts this time around-- it was as if they realized, "Oh, _that's_ who that is!" After the notion set in, Pig received a warm response, proving he still had the charisma and power since the "Beat by Beat" tour. He baited the crowd with different lyrics, substituting "it's time to take your medicine" with "it's time to take your heroin!" A fun track, but "spit sperm" would have probably sounded better live. After it was done, KMFDM left the stage.
          LIGHT [1st encore]: Gunter lead the crew into this classic KMFDM track, and the crowd responded appropriately. During the last few songs, Ogre got hit with an ice cube, and though it perplexed him, he kept singing. Other than that, and excepting Sascha getting pegged with a t-shirt, the crowd loved every minute of the show. They slammed each other insensitively, but usually gave KMFDM the respect they deserved. It just goes to show KMFDM is still "easy to swallow." They then left the stage again...
          GODLIKE [2nd encore]: Pausing longer than before, the band came back out once again for yet another encore. After "light", the notoriously unintelligible infant-speak sample loop droned from the speakers, and KMFDM plunged into a stripped-down, revamped, bass-heavy version of their early single "godlike." It was interesting to see that they still sang with especially heavy accents on this song, after all these years.
          Then the show ended, and the crowd left quickly. We waited in the cold to meet some of the musicians, and Skold soon came trudging by, seemingly helped by someone. He looked paler than death, as if very ill.I shook his cold hand, and he muttered a timid, weak "thanks for coming" before resuming his crawl to the bus. DeSalvo was lost among the taller fans crowding the doorway. Congratulating the passing Gunter on a good show got little more than a shy "thank you" without stopping, but he later playfully ran by and took our picture with one of Pig's guitarists. Then we talked with both <PIG> guitar players, and I had an extended "heart-to-heart" with Raymond about the show details and remixes [I'll tack it on the end of the <PIG> portion of the review] before he left, suggesting I give him a call but lacking to give me any contact information [anyone who can get me in touch with him, I'd much appreciate it].... Then, too poor and weary to follow the guitarists to a nearby club, we said our goodbyes...

[ F I N I S ]

Sam, Vespo, Abby, Kara, Griffi, TJ1, TJ2, Newman, Vanessa, and <PIG>. Rip the system!

"My computer is the thing that pisses me off the more than anything else, because I can't bloody work the fucking thing half the time. It makes me scream and shout, just the usual shit." -Raymond Watts, <PIG>