KMFDM VS Slick Idiot - Show Reviews
Chicago/Cleveland
New! Photos from Slick Idiot's Cleveland Show ( 8/2)! click here!
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Slick Idiot
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I missed KMFDM's tour for the symbols album, which was the last time KMFDM was in tact with all its members. I'd been kicking myself ever since, and even more so when I discovered that Guenter and En Esch had left the band. I couldn't imagine KMFDM without Guenter's guitars especially, him being my fav. So, you can imagine my glee when I heard that the KMFDM defecting members had formed their own group. Recently, I attended both KMFDM's and 2 of Slick Idiot's live shows, and have formed a very definite opinion on the future of these 2 acts. The one thing that you can't entirely compare about the shows was the difference in size of venue. A show at a larger place like Metro will always have a different feel from a smaller club or bar. KMFDM played at Metro, with opening bands Kidney Thieves and 16 Volt. Slick Idiot was headlining the Double Door, a far more intimate venue, with 99mm and Micronaut opening. |
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Photos by Eile - from Cleveland Show at the Phantasy
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First of all, the KMFDM show opening bands: Kidney Thieves. I hadn't heard much of them, but I was impressed with their act. The female vocalist has great power and presence, and the music was nicely hard edged and aggressive. 16 Volt left me wanting. I was only familiar with a couple songs of theirs, and their performance just seemed to be lacking. They were ok, but if I had been running the show I would have put them before Kidney Thieves. The first opening band for Slick Idiot was a local band called 99mm. By nature, I'm not much of a metal head, but I found their set to be very catchy. They weren't the typical rumbly metal. The frontman proved to us that he could sing as well as scream, and the songs had kick. For a metal band, I found them to be fairly danceable as well. Micronaut, a side project of SMG's Chris Randall, was up next. While the stage show was not much beyond Chris tweaking knobs and smoking like a chimney and Miguel doing his guitar thing, the music was very energetic and trancey. Sadly, my fiancee and I were the only ones dancing. It was a very enjoyable set, even though the minidisc was hiccuping due to some excess bass. Leave it to Crandall to make levity of the situation and play on with a kick ass show anyhow.
Now, for the headliners. KMFDM had a cool stage set-up, with long red banners that featured the "symbols" from three albums back, and a large screen. During the show, cameras were aimed at the stage and projected the band's actions onto the screen using some special effects. It was a neat trick indeed, but not necessarily enough to make it a memorable night for me. They started out with a blast, the first song being DIY. The uber dramatic brass intro to the song really was a wonderful start to the show. There was Sascha with his dark glasses and mohawk; Lucia with her "I Dream of Jeannie" style hair; and Pig in a cowboy hat, a red jacket and sunglasses looking like he just fell off the pimp wagon. Sascha's pal Timmy Skold, however, was not in the line up. Being that he's going to be doing bass for Manson now, it makes me wonder if his involvement is done with as well. Hmmmm.
KMFDM got a good reception from the crowd. Most of what they played however, were songs from the new album. Of course they are going to do that when they are touring to sell the album, but it rather disappointed me. I had heard the disc a few times through and just wasn't too impressed. There was obviously something missing. In fact the only song that really sticks in my head much at all is Urban Monkey Warfare which I have yet to decide that I like, or am completely annoyed with, or both. Chris Connelly was brought out as a guest and did a number or two from Xtort, which is a good album although I am not as familiar with it. I was truly disappointed at the lack of older songs getting played. The only other ones I recognized were Godlike (never been too fond of it really), Flesh and Ultra. Having started up with DIY, I wish they had played Adios at the end of the last encore...it would have seemed fitting.
Sascha wasn't much of a frontman, he left it all up to Pig, who fortunately lost the glasses, hat and coat after the show got into full swing. Raymond has a great deal of charisma and presence, not to mention a large codpiece. He's got a voice that could grate cheese, but it's strangely sultry somehow. Like Ogre, he has a captivating stage persona, and is attractive in a very disturbing way. He was the saving grace of the show. Even so, there was a severe lack of something. The energy just wasn't quite all there, and some of the new songs just dragged. At least half the songs on the Attak album are mediocre, and for KMFDM that is not good.
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After being crammed in a large smoky room for KMFDM, I was glad that Slick Idiot was playing at a smaller venue where I wouldn't have to fight for a view( or air). The band had a four person line up, En Esch on Vocals, Guenter on guitar, the black clad Mike on drums, and a silver bra wearing Melanie doing backing vocals. Together with their MAC OS 8.6 computer, they were ready to give us a memorable night. We spotted En Esch in the club early on...it's hard to miss a 6 foot bald man wearing a white dress shirt, pothole tights and plaid? shorts. They opened up with It Won't Do, which features a nice classic Guenter guitar hook. Purrrrr. That song was worth admission price alone. |
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The crowd was bouncing from word one. En Esch, like Pig, is very charismatic and fascinating to watch. He has this gawky, vaguely femme way of moving that seems almost graceful, despite how lanky he is. Several times he fellated the microphones in one way or another, and later announced that he "doesn't get blow jobs, he GIVES them." EEEEP! No human should be able to swallow as many mics and he was attempting to. (twitch). Might I also add that on the DickNity album, there is only one song labeled as being a sex song. Never mind that half of the songs have sexual innuendoes anyway. You're not fooling anyone, En Esch. The man is a phallic symbol. He certainly was... friendly with a few ladies at the Cleveland show.
I got myself a space up close to the stage, but I found I really didn't want to be where I was, as the Melanie was directly in front of me and every drunken male kept getting in my dancing space to drool over her. #2, I wanted to be on the other side, watching Guenter play. (luckily I got a spot at the opposite side in cleveland.) The lack of Guenter is one of the reasons I just didn't like the new KMFDM. I'm biased, I suppose, but there was a gap where his influence should have been. For Slick Idiot, he was dressed kinda plain, just a blue shirt and short pants/shorts and scruffy hair (which I was rather fond of). His manner was more quiet onstage than I expected. With an only an occasional tongue flicking at some people in the front row, he left En Esch to do his prowling, lurching and humping to keep everyone entertained. I expected Guenter to be more actively flailing around with the crazy guitar stuff that he does, but surprisingly he was very calm and didn't move much. In fact he made it look effortless, which I think impressed me even more.
Slick Idiot did almost all the songs from their album, and also included some old KMFDM favs in the encores. They played a reworked version of Godlike, Leid Und Elend, and a mosh pit inducing Drug Against War. The crowd went nuts for Make Me Believe as well, the second most danceable track next to It Won't Do. I was particularly amused when during Blast, En Esch decided he had "A big fat ass" instead of "a big fat blast". This from a skinny german guy in tights. Damn cool. The energy was running high and everyone was having a good time. Despite having drunk guys intruding on my stomping space, I was overjoyed to catch these guys on tour and so up close... and fortunately, I got pics from the Cleveland show.
In short, Slick Idiot is a drug against KMFDM. As much as I liked Sascha's work, KMFDM is seriously missing the talent that they once had in Guenter and En Esch and it's starting to show. The Slick Idiot show equaled if not surpassed the energy onstage (and in the audience) that KMFDM had, and with far fewer special effects and people onstage. I can't wait to see what these guys do once word really gets out about them. DickNity, in comparison with Attak is far better at holding your ears hostage. Slick Idiot is more like what KMFDM should have been, and if they keep up the good work I think that there is going to be a switching over of fans. If any of you haven't seen them yet, get off your butt and do so! You KMFDM fans who don't know about them - SHAME ON YOU. Put that catholic guilt to use and pick up DickNity from the website, tour, or cleopatra records come October to get the rammstein remix on the disc.
You will enjoy this album, I promise.
Don't leave yet! Go look at more Slick Idiot pictures before I hurt you.