torsdag 20 Mar 2014, 18:31
Wed 12 Mar – Laibach (Now at Village Underground)
As an admirer to the entity of Laibach I have to write something for this rare, yet not the first opportunity to see their show! As a basis for this review I will reminisce the impressions of their Re-Visited Tour which I also had the pleasure to attend!
Back in March 2011 I had no idea what I was about to experience at the show of the corresponding tour… It turned out to be a recreation of the deliciously distorted industrial reality that was Laibach in the first years. At the core of the show was the concept of industrial music in one of it's initial forms. And if you take a look back at even earlier works/tours they always had a certain authenticity that fit their authoritarian image: alternative national anthems (Volk), America (WAT), religion (Jesus Christ Superstars), NATO (…well, NATO).
So what's in 2014? Same 3-synth + live drummer line-up (changed one synth/key player, though), background video reel, Milan Fras and the recent highlight Mina Špiler… Spectre, first full-length album in eight years that the tour is dedicated to… it still has the old pseudo-political style, but a more specific concept is not really clear.
That seems as a sort of omission about the current tour.
There was no specific introduction, only a bit of background track before all members came on stage and started playing Eurovision (and again, looking back on Re-Visited Tour chilling Slovenian voice on the background + heavily reverbed industrial samples + Milan Fras appearing rather suddenly just before the start of the first song… seemed a quite impressive introduction)… First half of the show was solely dedicated to the new album…
Some general things to point out about it… The use of harmony, melodies and certain hooks within the songs' textures is quite well seen on this release. It almost seems like, despite stating that Laibach "don't seduce with melodies" on WAT, now they do! Although, it's not really a negative aspect to point out! If you don't strive for heavy authenticity, the album is quite appealing… just musically!
Despite being a member for 8 years already, (the Lady Laibach) Mina Špiler is definitely in the spotlight on this tour - with more singing parts and some wicked performing style (Eat Liver!, Bossanova). The rest was the old electronic Laibach with Mr. Fras' (not so) vocal statements and dedicated videoreel projected on double screen. The synth work seemed professional enough, although it's hard to point out any details due to extensive use of background tracks.
Another feature was the use of the background vocoded voice (with seeming Eastern European accent) that performed the function of an MC… Phrases like "You are fantastic audience!" and "Everybody say ho!" accompanied by stone-cold faces of the actual band members seemed quite a mockery!
After an intermezzo with a bit of Laibachian "propaganda" followed performances of Re-Visited works (the blowjob video scene on Ti, Ki Izzivaš seemed just as weird as always, but that's art!), the recent cover versions of Bob Dylan, Serge Gainsbourg, The Normal and Blind Lemon Jefferson (an electro-industrial cover of a 1920s' blues song? - brilliant!), songs from Iron Sky and WAT… No Volk songs this time, although Anglia was obviously anticipated!
In general… A Laibach gig just cannot disappoint! At some point you realize that you cannot really argue with that. Even if they fail to come up with something drastically new, they are still a goddamn zeitgeist and a source of some distinct music! …seems quite enough!