Review Tuesday: Lords of Acid / Combichrist / Christian Death / En Esch / Wiccid at Grammercy Theater, NYC

 SEXTREME FEST '17

Lords of Acid / Combichrist / 
Christian Death / En Esch / Wiccid

at the Grammercy Theater, NYC

Holy crap! What a line up! Worth it to lose sleep on a work night to see all these names on one stage.

WICCID

I know nothing about this band and arrived to the show too late for their set. Sorry.

EN ESCH

En Esch was a long time member of KMFDM (which I saw only a couple weeks ago) but departed in the band schism of the late 90s. He'd always been a major contributor in terms of writing and performing. I was hoping we would see some of his legacy performed.I was expecting a flamboyant bald guy complete with a feathered boa to take the stage, but a black-clad weary-looking man was what I really got.

Setlist:

1. Liebeslied
2. Friede
3. Do Me
4. Live and Let Live
5. Lied Und Elend
6. Juke Joint Jezebel
7. Godlike

Fans were well rewarded. He took the stage with a standing drummer (I am always suspect of standing drummers) a keyboardist and a female back-up singer. En Esch spoke very eloquently in between songs and sounded amazing for each song. I felt well rewarded with this set as I have never expected to see JUKE JOINT JEZEBEL performed live ever.

CHRISTIAN DEATH

Before going to this show I knew very little about this band. I have always known their name, but not much more. They hit the stage with an array of technical issues. First a broken guitar string the moment they started playing. Their levels were off. The sound was muddy. You can tell they were annoyed with what was going on around them but soldiered on and put on the best set they could considering the circumstances. And it was quite good!

COMBICHRIST

This is another band that I have know about for a long time but never gave them the chance to listen to their music. This was a crash course.

Setlist:

1. Today I Woke to the Rain of Blood
2. Can't control
3. Throat Full of Glass
4. Electrohead 
5. Fuck That Shit
6. Blut Royale
7. Exit Eternity
8. Get Your Body Beat 
9. Maggots at the Party 
10. What The Fuck Is Wrong With You?

The crowd went CRAZY for this band. Their stage presence was impressive, and the drummer was very theatrical, bordering on disturbingly distracting. Their sound was good. Their set was electric. Their fans are an impressive lot. 

LORDS OF ACID

I was first introduced to LORDS OF ACID before the middle 1990s. I worked with a dude who loved techno and would blast "The Most Wonderful Girl" repeatedly over our shift. When I thought about them more recetly I would check some youtube vids and found their stage presence to be utterly chaotic. So I needed to see this train-wreck LIVE!

Set list:

1. Voodoo-U
2. Young Boys
3. Dirty Willy 
4. Drink My Honey
5. She and Mrs. Jones
6. Mister Machoman
7. Blowing Up Your Mind
8. Do What You Wanna Do
9. Out Comes the Evil
10. The Crablouse
11. Rubber Doll
12. Rough Sex/Take Control
13. Pussy
14. Scrood Bi U

Encore:

• The Most Wonderful Girl
• I Sit On Acid

This set was a huge surprise to me. They played more of a rock / industrial set than techno. On stage they had an excellent drummer, tight guitar and bass section, a back-up singer, two keyboardists and fronting the band is DJ Mea. I found most of the songs fun to hear, but largely unrecognizable from their original album versions. That didn't matter, these guys were rocking out on stage and brought the good times with them. 

***

In conclusion I would say that the sound guy needs to work on his levels because I honestly feel that he hurt the sound of every single group that was on that stage that night. But every single act was a complete professional and put on the best show they could despite the unfortunate circumstances. Regardless, it was a fun time! 

This picture was posted by DJ Mea, and your humble narrator can be found in the front dead center!

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