LA2, London
8 July 2004
Digital Hardcore’s new signing, Panic DHH, seem to be the hot new thing on the Industrial circuit. Having managed to miss them thus far other than hearing their truly awesome album Panic Drives Human Herds, I had little idea what to expect. Would they be able to replicate the grinding “Skinny Puppy meets Ministry and they have a fight”sound of the studio? Would they be worth watching, or may I just as well stay at home?
Yes to the first, yes to the second, and a big “you gotta be fucking kidding!!!” to the third. Panic DHH live are a truly wonderful experience. Judging by the huge crowd they got (kind of large for a support band) and the amount of people who missed them (they played fairly early) and kept asking me “what were that support like then? I’ve heard they were supposed to be pretty good” I’m not alone on this one. They certainly look the part- a born frontman, well, fronting (more on him later), a Goth chick rocking out on guitar, a tattooed maniac beating fuck out of a drumkit and a slightly geekier-looking bloke with a big panel of electronics, from which burst the sounds of the abyss. With some Drill’n’Bass tomfoolery thrown in. Oh yeah, they got the image well and truly sorted.
Frontman (told ya we’d get back to the bugger) Robbie Furze was previously better known as Alec Empire‘s live guitarist, and it shows. Aside from the brutal chugga-chugga onslaught provided by himself and Juliet Elliot, he strikes the Rock poses like he’s been doing this all his life (indeed, he may well have been). Coming on like the mutant offspring of Alec Empire (all that “fuck you” attitude) and Trent Reznor (lots of feet on monitors, screaming his little black heart out moments, climbing on speaker stacks- this man needs a stadium), he screeches, whispers and howls his way through a set consisting pretty much of that wonderful album, before departing with a shrieked mantra of “PANIC! D!H!H!” over an ATR-style noise meltdown.
After they finished, a guy came up to me and said “fuck, man, I was always pissed off that I was too young to see Atari Teenage Riot” (okay, I’ll get me zimmerframe), “but, shit, I’ll just keep going to see these guys instead!” Fucking incredible. Go see them now before they become big and expensive, as they thoroughly deserve to. It’s a brave band that’ll let someone this good play support.
After that, I was toying with the idea of going home. I hadn’t heard any KMFDM in about fifteen years, and kind of liked the idea of ending my night with Panic DHH still ringing in my ears, but boy, am I glad I stayed. KMFDM are indeed a band brave enough to risk comparison with DHH, and with damn good reason. Without preamble they launch straight into WWIII, Sasha all spiky mohican and shades, Lucia freaking out like some bizarre Communist recruiting poster that’s had PCP slipped into its borscht- the room goes nuts. (Of course, me being old and still not quite recovered from a Guitar Wolf show two months ago, I stood variously to the side or by the bar, depending on how much booze I had left at any given time).
Much more Metal than I ever remembered them being, but still with (persons concerned about the bastardisation of the English language by cliché may want to cover their eyes at this point) “pop sensibilities” (ouch) helped along by bouncy danceable rhythms, they come across as a poppier Ministry, or maybe a more metal EC8OR. “Stars and Stripes,” a particular highlight of the show, was the cue for much air-punching and devil-horning (among both the band and the crowd, it must be said), representing (on this evening’s evidence at least) the perfect fusion of the Pop with the Metal. The addition (well, a long time ago now, but still new as far as I’m concerned) of Raymond Watts, aka Pig, also seems to have given their sound something more of a Foetus-esque grind.
Of course, having missed much of their subsequent career, I’m spending most of the gig thinking “yeah, this is pretty fucking amazing, but DO THEY STILL PLAY “GODLIKE”?” And yes, they do. Totally Metalled up, rocked out and beaten with a blunt instrument, it is indeed as its name would suggest. KMFDM were fun, exciting, ass-kicking, tight, spectacular, and a must-see. Almost as good, then, as Panic DHH.
-Deuteronemu 90210- a handful of entrails and a headful of MAD!!!-
