19th December 2014
Combichrist & William Control
An evening of Aggrotech and Rhythm 'n' Noise: COMBICHRIST came to Hamburg on the “We Love You” tour and brought along WILLIAM CONTROL as their support. As we arrived, the Markthalle where the event happened is pretty crowded, but it is no wonder. The show was shifted two hours later because of an accident on the road. But it was possible to enter the Markthalle at the normal entry time at 7.30 pm, so some fans who did not know about it might have waited for a long, long time. But this would be well rewarded.
William Control
Even though two waiting hours, there was still place in the room of the Markthalle, when WILLIAM CONTROL from the US entered the stage and opened the show. WILLIAM CONTROL, a side project from AIDEN singer Wil Francis, acts a bit like thrown together when looking at the outfits of the band members. Francis, who might looked like an Elvis Presley vampire, drummer Keef West dressed like a typical COMBICHRIST fan and then Nick Wiggins (bass) and Kenneth Fletcher (guitars) in plain shirt, but perfectly harmonize in their music. The Darkwave sound is well chosen for the support of the main act and while the room is getting fuller and fuller, the mood is also rising.
Francis lays down kind of a yoyo show with his microphone when he is not singing and West simply looks cute on the minimalistic version of a drum set in front of him. The band plays its full planned show of nine songs, no matter of the delay. But only before the last songs, Francis started to lose a few words to the crowd. But all in all did WILLIAM CONTROL create a great mood for the upcoming headliner of the night. http://williamcontrol.com/
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Lights: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
Combichrist
The Norwegian band COMBICHRIST, who was founded in 2003 by front man Andy LaPlegua, was first thought as solo studio project. But with the addition of the other members, the Aggrotech and Rhythm 'n' Noise project developed very fast to one of the most successful bands of the genre. In this year, COMBICHRIST released their seventh long-player ‘We love you’ and after the festival season this summer, the band is on big tour. http://www.combichrist.com/
Music & Performance
Before the main act was starting his show, an intro started playing. And played... And played... Suddenly, someone ran on stage, the crowd cheered - but it was only a stage hand, who disappeared immediately again. So the intro played along some more minutes, then finally the show began with the title song of the new album, ‘We love you’. LaPlegua wore an interesting mask which shone when the chorus came on. This mask remembered the "Destroyer" from the movie ‘Thor’, which matches perfectly the chorus "hate disorder love destroy".
The title was followed by the great ‘Blut Royale’, one of the most known songs of COMBICHRIST. Meanwhile, the Markthalle was pretty filled with people and a little dancefloor was formed in the middle of the audience room. Drummer Joe Letz could also make his own solo show with his performance. Sometimes drumsticks fly across the whole stage and almost hit keyboarder Z Marr on the head. Two or three times, also the tom-tom drums found its way to the front edge of the stage. At the end of the show, only half of the drum set stood at its old place. COMBICHRIST showed an inexhaustible energy in their performance. They danced and jumped by ‘Throat Full of Glass’ or ‘Never Surrender’ across the stage without any longer breaks. All in all, the songs sounded live even better than the recorded versions and you almost had to have fear, that you won't like the songs anymore, and then there are not played live at the moment. With ‘Shut Up and Swallow’, COMBICHRIST had the full support of the fans with the lyrics and at ‘Electrohead’ the energy seemed to get more powerful than before. After ‘Love is a Razorblade’, the main part of the concert was first over.
For three songs, COMBICHRIST entered the stage again. The first song of the encore was an acoustic version of ‘The Evil in Me’. Somebody throw two packages of cookies to the chest of LaPlegua, who was pretty amused about that. The empty bottle, which flow again after that, went right back to the audience. Finally, ‘What the Fuck is Wrong With You’ came also along and COMBICHRIST ended the show in Hamburg with ‘Sent to Destroy’, mixed with the first song ‘We were made to love you’ and created a nice frame of the show.
Setlist
01. We Were Made to Love You
02. Blut Royale
03. This Is My Rifle
04. Can't Control
05. Throat Full of Glass
06. Maggots at the Party
07. Denial
08. Never Surrender
09. Shut Up and Swallow
10. Electrohead
11. Get Your Body Beat
12. Love Is a Razorblade
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13. The Evil in Me
14. What The Fuck Is Wrong With You?
15. Sent to Destroy
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 9
Lights: 8
Total: 9.3 / 10
Full Gallery
All Pictures by Jan Termath (http://www.profound-passion.com/)
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