Combichrist

Last Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, we finally saw the last of our Fall whirlwind of concerts. I think the count was up to 10 or so, I sort of lost track after the fourth or fifth one. I don't even think we have one scheduled for December. We have tickets for a Bassnectar show, but both shows are sold out and they are being scalped for a fortune, so Kurt may sell them and pay for our Coachella tickets out of the proceeds.

Anywhoo, I digress. We went with Dan, Janis and Ian to the Masquerade to see Combichrist. Combichrist is an electro-industrial act led by Norwegian Andy LaPlegua, who apparently makes his home in Atlanta now.

I will admit I had never listened to them, or actually heard of them, prior to Kurt mentioning he wanted to go see the show. I downloaded most of their music and tried to get up to speed beforehand. The music was pretty standard, Nitzer Ebb-esque aggroindustrial music. While far from being very original, it was still very listenable and there were several tracks I saw on previous setlists that I was excited about hearing.

We got to the venue just as opening band iVardensphere was ending. Their music was not very distinct or memorable, so I am not really upset that we missed them. It was only two guys on keyboards and a man and woman on what looked like oil drums. Lots of chanting and repetitive rhythms. Likewise, second band Aesthetic Perfection, while sounding more professional and polished, was still fairly unmemorable. Some of their synth riffs were fun in a 80s Depeche Mode way, but most of the songs broke down into unintelligable screaming.

Combichrist came out with Andy on vocals and three other band members, two drummers and a keyboardist. The show was pretty good, hitting most of the songs that I was aware of and some that the crowd clearly knew more than me. The light and visual show was pretty incredible; lots of cool projections and images. A friend of ours who couldn't make it to the show refers to Andy as the human ping-pong ball. It is an apt description as he does tend to bounce back and forth from one end of the stage to the other.

All in all, I had a fun time at the show. The music was enjoyable (if slightly repetitious at times) and the visuals were enough to keep you mesmerized. It didn't hurt that Andy and his band were all ripped muscle studs either. I would likely go see them again as long as I was with a good group of friends like this concert.