Killing Joke, Coin
Principal Club Theatre, Thesasloniki, Greece
09/10/2010.
Killing Joke in Greece… Now, if this doesn’t sound colossal on its own, what the hell does? 30 long years of discography ready to be represented in front of us, by a group that had always a touch on different kinds of youth. Punkers, gothsters, metallers, even hard rockers, always had something good to say about the band. This is a great achievement in the times we live, and brings much more importance to a band’s status. Coin was the band that opened the show, to be honest I cannot understand how they were peaked, as they had no relation to the titans we saw next. They played seven songs that lasted half an hour, with the singer throwing some out of place screams on parts in their James/Placebo/Muse/Coldplay style. The girl on drums seemed as the only one who was really focused on the work she had to do. However, they gained the applause of the crowd, which was growing as time passed by.
Killing Joke start the gig five minutes before eleven o’clock with ”Tomorrow’s World”, a song from their self titled debut album, which was represented with five songs. Not a bad start right? Just as the recognisable part of ”Love Like Blood” emerges, I see all people in front of me jumping as high as they can. There is no game at all, it has been won by far, with Jaz Coleman showing us that he is a must-see frontman, a man that lives every breath he spits. Theatrical, enigmatic and focused on his part, he can either sound cold and industrial, but also emotional and bitter at times. I liked their last album ”Absolute Dissent” very much, so ”In Excelsis” was mostly welcome. Heavy as fuck, it seems that we’re going to have a great night, the songs of the new release sound twice better, working perfect on live situation.
”Wardance” is another one from the beloved debut album, the crowd enjoys and can’t believe what happens. Why should it take three decades to see this? Jaz thanks us and states we’re going to be awarded for this wait. Stating ”The economic crisis in Greece was engineered. It was engineered by the bankers, so fuck them”, gives the right pass for the title track of the last album. The sound is crystalline, one of the benefits of seeing a gig at Principal the last two years. ”Anybody for revolution? Did you say change?” he says, so ”Change” tears the air, and is followed by tracks such as ”Bloodsport” and ”European Super State”. We may miss Paul Raven on bass, but Martin Glover in his white suite stands out as a frontman and filling the gaps with his Rickenbacker bass.
”This World Hell” is another outstanding new track that was played. What follows is ”The Fall Of Because” from ”What’s THIS For…” and ”Ghost Of Ladbroke Grove” from the new album. Geordie Walker at the edge of the stage stays silent with his miltary looking hat and his guitar builds the right background for the night. The dynamic trio of ”Madness”, ”Requiem” and ”Eighties” was one of the highlights of the night. Jaz Coleman may not be looking on the crowd, looking like a cyborg that lost control sometimes, but he can’t hide a warm smile on his face from the crowd’s response. So after ”The Great Cull” and ”Fresh Fever From The Skies” from the last album, comes ”Asteroid”, an all time classic Killing Joke tune to make heads bang. Another new one is ”Deapthcharge” with its amazing groove and what follows is ”The Wait”, the reason I’ve been listening to Killing Joke, when I discovered that Metallica had covered this song, the one that had the biggest movement going on.
”Pssyche” closes the main set that lasted about 90 minutes. The crowd craves for more, and Jaz comes out in all joy and after thanking us for what happened, he brings another great smile with the band playing ”Complications” and with no pause, switching to ”Pandemonium”. I declare that this one was one of the best gigs ever in Greece. There is no room for complaints about many songs played from the new album, or why tracks like ”Millennium” were missing. I’d like some stuff from the previous album ”Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell” but we can’t have it all. I feel very fortunate to have seen this and I hope they will come back in the near future, so that more people will be able to see one of the most important bands in the history of our planet. Invincible force!
Aggelos “Redneck” Katsouras.