{"id":972,"date":"2014-04-30T22:39:16","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T22:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/?p=972"},"modified":"2015-01-23T16:35:24","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T16:35:24","slug":"combichrist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/?p=972","title":{"rendered":"Combichrist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Combichrist
\nApril 5 2014
\nTheater of the Living Arts <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By Doktor John
\n\"Layout<\/a>
\nPhiladelphia PA<\/p>\n

Atlanta-based aggrotech band, Combichrist performed at the Theater of the Living Arts on Philadelphia\u2019s famous South Street, the third stop on a 28 city U.S. tour that will cross the country and end up back in the deep Southeast in May. <\/p>\n

The opening act, William Control, did an admirable job of warming the crowd. Exhilarating and bizarre, William has an eccentric presence, dressed and groomed like a Jersey Boy at the height of the Four Seasons reign in the 1960s, wearing a snug shirt-and-tie, vest and sporting a perfect pompadour, totally discordant with his satanic persona and demagogic style. The image was subverted by the glimpse of tattoos sneaking up his neck above his starched collar and beyond the French cuffs of his sleeves. His take on music was totally weird but entertaining. His on-stage antics were casually mind-boggling, as he violently swung the microphone cable, vehemently chain-smoking and exhorting the adoring, predominantly female, crowd of fans to chant vulgar and evil slogans along with him. The beautiful blond Ash Costello in a black vinyl miniskirt joined him for a couple of songs. William Control\u2019s performance and many of his songs like \u201cOnly Human Sometimes,\u201d \u201cStrangers\u201d and \u201cRazor\u2019s Edge\u201d were disturbingly unforgettable.<\/p>\n

At around 9:30 pm and after a considerable pause, the theater went dark, the video screen lifted and an orchestral fanfare with a heavy martial groove filled the air. Toward the end, the band members took their places. The ominous, British-accented and robotic voice that is the introduction to \u201cWe Were Made To Love You\u201d commented in flat, emotionless tones,\u201d We love you\u2026now die.\u201d Terrifying in a hideous, red-illuminated, full-face mask, Norwegian native and frontman Andy LaPlega burst on stage, his harsh and raspy voice screaming the main theme of that track from the new 2014 album, \u201cWe Love You.\u201d The crowd, who, at that point, remained stationary, took up its venomous mantra of \u201cHate, disorder, love, destroy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The relentlessly driving \u201cToday I Woke to the Rain of Blood\u201d and \u201cBlut Royale\u201d charged the audience up, and soon a violent, but comradely mosh pit broke out in the center of the horde. The venue staff was exceptionally accommodating, allowing the dancers free reign as long as no one was being seriously injured. A \u201cgirl pit\u201d spun off with one statuesque brunette who discarded all inhibitions as she led a small crowd of punkish beauties who made up a significant subset of the spectators.
\n\"girl<\/a>
\nThe set list in general went back and forth between entries from the new \u201cWe Love You\u201d albums and their classic favorites such as \u201cThroat Full of Glass.\u201d One exception was \u201cNo Redemption\u201d a classic guitar metal piece that is the soundtrack from a video game.
\nThe melodious \u201cDenial\u201d offered a slight respite from the relentlessly driving, punishing style of most of the other songs. The track \u201cWhat the F\u2026 Is Wrong With?\u201d eloquently posed that perennial question — that all of us have asked — in the form of a rousing anthem that is from an album of a similar name. Sixteen songs made up the main body of this breath-taking show.<\/p>\n

The final song, \u201cLove is a Razorblade\u201d ended the set, but the enthusiastic crowd demanded more, so the band returned to the stage to perform \u201cF\u2026 That S\u2026\u201d and \u201cSent to Destroy,\u201d which together captured the quintessence of Combichrist\u2019s \u201cTechno Body Music.\u201d Lovers of this kind of hard-edge, mean-spirited style of music couldn\u2019t possibly have asked for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Combichrist April 5 2014 Theater of the Living Arts By Doktor John Philadelphia PA Atlanta-based aggrotech band, Combichrist performed at the Theater of the Living Arts on Philadelphia\u2019s famous South Street, the third stop on a 28 city U.S. tour that will cross the country and end up back in the deep Southeast in May. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}