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Reviewed by
iSvadrah
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Last Edit/Update
05 February, 1998
An
Evening With
The nights of Swine & Musik
Live at Bogarts
Cincinnati, Ohio
November 15th, 1997
After tracking down some Foetus
vinyl and some Greek food, we waited in line outside Bogart's in Cincinnati. The air was
freezing, the club opened late, and we were surrounded at all times by seas of KMFDM
shirts. Inside, the atmosphere was nicer than any club I've ever been to. There was a
large open floor, then towards the back was a floor of tables, and a similar sit-down
setup up in the balcony. We picked up the Beat by Beat video. The video, as we found out
at home, has lots of Angstfest and Beat by Beat footage, pieced together over one
recording of each live song. As for the videos, "Naive" has some repetitive porn
loops edited by En Esch [no wonder it was never released], "Juke Joint..." has
segments from the anime Patlabor 1, an emaciated Sascha eats chicken in "More 'n'
Faster" and the tour bus footage has some bizarre scenes with Gunter hunting for
"CHOCOLATE!" and Raymond Watts in shorts and a baseball hat, and that's for
starters. Well worth the buy. The original "Naive" was on sale for $10, too. The
lights dimmed, and Pig took the stage. Watts wore a purple denim cowboy hat complete with
Pig logo patch, black eyeliner, leather pants, futuristic-looking ski boots, his long
coat, and a white "PIG!" cut-off tee [the coat, hat, and shirt soon left his
body, however]. He was drinking from a large bottle of red wine, smirking as he
defiantly eyed the crowd. Soon heavy orchestral samples boomed from the speakers, and we
knew we were in for one hard ride.
SERIAL KILLER THRILLER
Just like the CD, this song was
pulsing with dark energy. My friend and I, strong Pig devotees, knew the words to every
song, and leapt up at all the right times, anticipating the music. It seemed that few
others were even familiar with's last two releases, so we were usually two enthusiastic
buoys rising up from a crowd of puzzled listeners. Raymond kept pointing to me in
particular, as I knew what was going on, calling me up to the stage, laughing, and so
forth. I was glad that it made him more comfortable with the show. The audience caught on,
so by the end we had a huge group screaming "SIN-SAAAA-TION!!!" during the
choruses I couldn't see the drummer, but both guitarists seemed to have faces set in stone
through most of the show. Pig's sound was really powerful going into the set, despite a
wah guitar that just didn't compensate for the usual grinding bassline.
THE ONLY GOOD ONE'S A DEAD ONE
Raymond repeatedly doused the crowd
in wine and beer, and jumped off the stage multiple times into an ocean of groping hands.
I twice touched the Swine, feeling sweat-drenched hair and thick, metal-tipped boots. One
of our travelling companions was able to grasp his "package", but that's another
story... Searing electronics introduced this popular track off of Wrecked, and the crowd
moshed especially hard as the stoic guitarists belted out the distorted, metal-edged
riffs. Unfortunately, there was no live keyboard/ sample player, it was all sequenced
and/or triggered on DAT tape... It was probably the second-most popular song of the set,
and Watts was all over the stage, hanging on the mic, and all very emotional.
EVERYTHING
Pounding drums signaled the
beginning of "everything". Despite the lack of a bass, the two guitars made up
for the low-end with a crunching wall of noise. The slow parts w/ piano created eerie
pauses in the song, and the atmosphere was great. Watts ended most songs with drawn-out
screams of the final verses or phrases. For the end of "everything", he kept
growling "I fail!!" in and out of time with the music. This show was definately
raw, if not yet red and sore.
NO ONE GETS OUT OF HER ALIVE
Raymond Watts muttered "no one
gets out of her alive", cueing the start of this popular single off of Wrecked. The
drummer sounded great live, and the weird filter on Raymond's vocals on the disc was no
where to be found. Also missing were any female vocals, but the track didn't suffer for it
one bit, still containing the harsh orchestral pieces. As Raymond chanted the hypnotizing
lyrics, the Pig himself undid his belt and pants, and allowed them to start sliding off
his hips as he sang. We were exposed to a good deal of his lower torso before he pulled
them back up, and suddenly he turned to the back of the stage and dropped his pants to
moon the crowd. If his slogan on KMFDM's Don't Blow Your Top was "no meat, no
man", then Raymond was _all_ man at this show ;).
FIND IT FUCK IT FORGET IT
Decided to go with the original version
of this track, and it sounded simpler than the sump mix included on Wrecked. The song
still sounded great, with the tongue-in-cheek choruses. Throughout the show, Watts made
frequent use of his middle fingers for all sorts of symbolism and gestures. Plus he
incorporated a praying stance for one song... Again, at the end, the frenzied Pig kept
shouting "find it, fuck it!!" He never once seemed out of control, but rather
was always delivering a great show, which is what helped make him so popular on the Nihil
tour.
HOT HOLE
Another rousing track off of
Sinsation, "hot hole" was another great chorus-screamer. The beat was
unmistakeable, unforgiving and driving, as Raymond hissed out the angered lyrics. Over and
over again, "I never dreamed it would come to this....HOT HOLE!!!" whipped the
audience into a frenzy. One of only two Sinsation tracks, the live version made me
appreciate the album one even more. I can still see the twisted face, spitting out
"HOT HOLE!!" to the eagerly awaiting crowd. The guitar solo was also really well
done, proving that the guitarists were indeed alive.
WRECKED
As the intro to "wrecked"
played out, Raymond began on a long monologue, criticising various social institutions. He
spoke quietly, menacingly, and I heard him mention Peoria [old song title]. Mysterious,
but moving nonetheless. Then the title track kicked in, every ounce as fast and slick as
the album version The live drums made it sound great, and the electronics and guitars
meshed nicely to make this another crowd-pleaser. The image is still burned in memory of
Watts screaming "WRECKED!!" as he thrust his fist into the air.
SECRET SKIN
Very familiar tones filled the air,
and though "F ME" would have been perfect, a live rendition of "secret
skin" was a huge and unexpected surprise. Almost the entire crowd got into
"secret skin", due mainly to its KMFDM affiliation, but the guys still served a
grinding version of this song that I doubt KMFDM could hope to compare to. A widely-heard
disappointment was that Gunter didn't come out for a guest appearance any time during the
set.
Another thing that surprised me was
that Raymond Watts didn't pick up an instrument at all during the show...Then left the
stage rather quickly, but the crowd refused to move. If anything, they packed in tighter,
getting ready to see KMFDM in the flesh... [see Pt.2 KMFDM]
AFTER-SHOW NOTES
After the show, we stood outside,
hoping to meet anyone-- be it the diminutive DeSalvo or the towering En Esch. After
meeting the incapacitated Skold, the first guitarist came out the back, and I was the only
one to call out "good show!" to the rather unrecognizeable musician as he passed
by. He was friendly enough, later telling us about a club they were to go to after the
concert. The second guitarist [bald head, goatee, fuzzy hat] then came right up to our
group with bottle in hand, as if we were newly acquired friends, and began to chat away,
sloshing his drink all over. He loved touring in the US, he said, and that Americans took
their music so seriously. Girlfriends, he admitted, were a problem, and he acted the
typical dialogue out for us: "Ah, you're going on tour? Fuck you!" He said being
on stage was funny, because he felt it didn't matter if the gear worked or the crowd
didn't know you-- it was great to get out of the studio and just play music. "It's
not that we don't care," he said, but just that they do it every night. He complained
about the small stage, and how he wanted to get up front and be aggressive [jumping into
me at this point and screaming "arrrhhhh!"]. He said that the stage posturing
was all quite silly, that it was "complete Spinal Tap." Then a friend of mine
[official KMFDM rep, too] asked about life in a tour bus. The guitarist laughed, and
explained just how cramped it is, saying "You can smell everyone, and you can hear
everyone [begins moaning]... and we pull into these truck stops and there are all these
truckers that [spit and tugs at pants in macho motions] they see us and say [spit] 'Ah ya
faggots, look at ya!'" Then he asked if anyone wanted any autographs, shaking the pen
at everybody and jokes about writing on women's cleavage arose. He then gets behind the
aforementioned rep and signs "...buttfucker" as his victim pleaded, "What?
What are you writing???" He then gave us a warm "take care!" and left for
the tour bus.
Raymond walked by, carrying a large
metal tub. He came right up to me, shook my hand, and thanked me multiple times for coming
to see them play. A friend asked "Are there any parties tonight?", to which he
replied, "What do you think this [indicating the tub] is for? We're going to fill it
with Vodka!" His speaking voice was softer than I thought it would be, with a great
accent, and he had grown his hair out much longer than on the Beat by Beat tour. By the
time we saw him outside, he had already taken off the eyeliner. Watts soon returned,
signing a few autographs near the tour bus, but it seemed that most people didn't even
know he was there. Most were still huddled around the back door, waiting to pounce on
KMFDM. After the boys in front of us got every disc that has "Raymond Watts" in
the liner notes signed [poor Pig], it was our turn to meet the man behind the ham. Another
round of handshakes and compliments on the performance ensued, and then I mentioned an
interview with him linked from Chris Foldi's
page. In it he mentions his desire to "push back the boundaries of music",
and I reassured him he had succeeded in this task. He nodded his thanks, then suddenly
grabbed my shoulder and pulled me close. Speaking quietly and with the utmost sincerity,
he asked me, "What did you think of the show? I mean, was it good, really good?"
His eyes were searching, he actually valued my opinion. He recognized me from the show
instantly, as before, and I could say nothing less than that it was quite good, the
musicians were really tight, it had a great live sound and a good set list. The _only_
problem I had was the opening guitar, partially because of the effect error and partially
due to a lack of bass. The rest of the show was technically and musically wonderful. He
acknowledged the problem, and said, "Well, there're always problems with the first
song, you know..." We talked longer about live shows, the setup, the tour and such,
and then he had to leave. I dropped a hint about loving to do a remix, and he grinned and
said "next time!", and then signed the "call me" gesture as he left.
Cory from MACE gave him my info two days later at the Pittsburgh show [who knows what
exaggerations he spread about my music prowess ;)], and so I sit here, waiting for the end
of the tour, and a call and/or an email from the PIG...
[ F I N I S ]
Playlist: ---------------- serial killer thriller the only good one's a dead one everything no one gets out of her alive find it fuck it forget it hot hole wrecked [extended intro] secret skin
Special thanks to 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
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