Halloween offered a real treat over at Metro where KMFDM was playing the first of their two night run at the city’s most beloved music venue. Can you think of a better way to celebrate the spooky holiday than an industrial rock show? I certainly can’t!
First up was Morlocks who are from Sweden. They have been opening for KMFDM on this entire tour. Morlocks was like this weird blend of industrial rock and viking metal, with a little bit of classical music thrown in for good measure. Their songs were anthemic and orchestral, full of energy and have big booming choruses. They were a lot of fun and the crowd really warmed up to them quickly. They played 45 minutes and you couldn’t help but smile while they were playing.
KMFDM’s current tour, which Chicago was the final stop on, is to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band. It’s crazy to think that it has been four decades since they first formed, and even crazier to think of how fast that time went by. Behind the band was a backdrop showing most of their album covers of the past four decades. The band has always had iconic artwork on their records, just as the band has reach iconic status in the industrial rock world. The current lineup of KMFDM is founder Sascha Konietzko as well as Lucia Cifarelli, Andy Selway, and Andee Blacksugar.
The stage setup was similar to KMFDM shows of the past decade. There was a pair of podiums for Sascha and Lucia, who handle all the vocals and electronics, a drum kit behind them, and al bunch of various stage light rigs.The band took the stage and immediately got right into the first song of the night, “All 4 1” which is off the album, Hyena. It was a good kickoff song for what was to be a really enjoyable set of tunes. They followed up with “Sucks” and the band sounded great and the sound in that room was impeccable!
Lucia got her first chance to shine when she came out from behind her podium to sing lead on “Freak Flag”. On top of it having a catchy chorus, her dancing while singing was downright hypnotic. Every time she had lead vocal duties on a song she took total command of the stage and the entire audience was captivated. This is not to diminish Sascha’s stage presence when he was singing leads, he too commands the stage in an almost intimidating way with the way he paces back and forth about the stage, only stopping at his podium to control some electronics. Everyone was in top form.
For being billed as celebrating 40 years of KMFDM, the setlist didn’t celebrate nearly all 40. Absent were any songs from the first couple of albums so aside from “Godlike”, “Money” and “Naive”, there was no representation of any of their old Wax Trax favorites like “Don’t Blow Your Top”, “Virus”, or even “No Meat No Man” but I guess it makes sense as the vocalists who sang those songs haven’t been in the band in decades, but it still would’ve been nice to hear a modern take on those songs with Sascha and Lucia singing them. The songs they did play were great, but the overall setlist was similar in scope to their recent tours. The performance was spot on, however, and ranks extremely high in great KMFDM performances for this era of the band. The band had so much energy and the crowd fed off of it and everyone had a fantastic time.
After 70 or so minutes, the band ended their man set with “Adios” and weren’t even gone for more than a couple of minutes before returning for a five song encore! They started that with “Professional Killer” which featured guest vocals by Sascha and Lucia’s daughter, Anabella! It was really cool to see a full family up there singing a really great song together and it had to be a memorable moment for the family. The ended the night, and the close to two hours of performing with “Paradise”
After 40 years as an active and evolving band, KMFDM showed the Metro crowd on Halloween that they still have a lot to offer and here’s hoping we get 40 more years of great music and great performances like this one, and there was still one more night to go!
