Concert Review: KMFDM

by Todd Maternowski

You know you're at a KMFDM show when the very first person you see at the door is wearing a gas mask. And why not? A KMFDM concert is far more than a musical show, it is an event to see and be seen, a Great Gathering of the Goths. Particularly in Dallas/For Worth, where roughly half the usual denizens of The Church - the gothic/industrial club every Sunday night at the Lizard Lounge - were in attendance at the KMFDM show, transforming the Ridglea Theatre into an industrial dance club for three hours last Friday night.

The opening act, the multinational outfit Combichrist, ripped into the crowd with a furious performance full of high-energy stage antics and thundering electronic beats. While most of the songs were just exhortations to dance, the music was indeed very danceable and kept the jackboot-and-extensions-wearing crowd at a high level of excitement for an hour (no room for any slow romantic ballads, unfortunately). This was no doubt due more to the hypercaffeinated stage show, as shirtless, mohawked band members jumped all over the stage, crawled over their instruments and struck photogenic poses throughout the set.

A second opening act, the ABBA-esque supergroup Snow Black, was scheduled but did not perform. A mixture of former members of Ministry and Skinny Puppy, this was to be the freshly-formed Snow Black's first live performance ever, and their absence pushed the start of the show back a full hour (no doubt angering that half of the audience who could've been spending that time building up their Warcraft empires).

Ultimately came KMFDM, the headlining legends of industrial music - although frontman/founder Sascha Konietzko strongly prefers the term "Ultra Heavy Beat" to describe his peculiar brand of music. Difficult to categorize, the band's music is a melting pot of electronica, heavy keyboards and metal that creates an unmistakable atmosphere of sound perfected over 15 albums and hundreds of live shows. The band is clearly unafraid to experiment, and creates songs with strong philosophical and political content, although the lyrics were nearly impossible to distinguish under the bowel-loosening heavy bass beats quaking through Fort Worth that evening.

The band performed several greatest hits, including some new Rammstein-esque metal songs off their newest album Hau Ruck, before finishing the party with a double encore (amusing side note: the stereotype of the efficient, timely German was in full force, as KMFDM started the show at precisely 10:30 p.m. and finished their first encore at precisely midnight. The second encore took them to 12:06 a.m., which must have been painful: but then, KMFDM has always been an incredibly fan-friendly band). For this 20 year old band to continue to put out a new album (and international tour) every year is quite a feat, especially as they refuse to sit back and rest on their laurels, slashing through the frontiers of industrial/metal with every new offering - as well as making perfect background music for fragging n00bs. For serious music lovers, Quake addicts and just anyone who likes wearing fishnets with four-foot-high leather boots, KMFDM is the party of the year.