Bürgerhaus Stollwerck, Cologne, Germany14th March 2014
Laibach - “Spectre” Tour
With their new album 'Spectre' LAIBACH truly managed to re-invent themselves, aspiring for a much more accessible and even poppier sound while the concept behind 'Spectre' is, at first sight, less ambiguous than previous LAIBACH works, albeit political as ever. LAIBACH seems to take sides with Occupy, Snowden, Manning & Co. and predict that “Europe is falling apart”. We took sides with LAIBACH and checked out their 'Spectre' tour in Cologne.
The Bürgerhaus Stollwerck in Cologne rather hosts theatre performances, revues, comedy events and only occasionally live concerts, so the LAIBACH gig was a rather unusual event for this venue. But LAIBACH are unusual in any setting or context, anyway. Since their beginnings in 1980 the Slovenian band is one of the most unique, intricate and complex phenomena in the music scene, and surely one of the most provocative as well. In terms of art LAIBACH is arguably in the same league as ground-breaking acts like EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN, BAUHAUS or NICK CAVE, for example. And maybe even with KRAFTWERK – at least the Slovenians have in common with the German Electro pioneers that they have taken their body of work to the museums of this world, as e.g. LAIBACH's performance at the Tate Gallery of Modern Art in London in 2012 and various exhibitions have shown. LAIBACH is in fact just part of NSK, or Neue Slowenische Kunst (New Slovenian Art), a substantial art collective of which LAIBACH are the department for music, so to speak. Other departments of NSK are concerned with theatre, painting, film, or philosophy. In 1991 NSK even constituted the NSK state, a virtual state in time without a territory and a citizenship which is open to everyone.
This is just a quick hint at the complexity of LAIBACH and NSK. If you are truly interested in the subject you should read the book “Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK” by London-based cultural theorist Alexei Monroe, which is in fact an elaborate scientific paper with an in-depth analysis of the socio-political, artistic, and cultural background of LAIBACH and, by all accounts, very much worth reading. But be warned, it's an intellectually challenging scholarly piece and in case you hope the book would explain LAIBACH, you might ask LAIBACH to explain the book to you after reading! The book was also available at the merchandise stall at the Bürgerhaus Stollwerck, along with t-shirts with lovely slogans as “Freedom of speech, go to hell”. LAIBACH have always been intellectual troublemakers and true masters of ambiguity, suggestiveness and perfidiousness. The Laibachian Pop of 'Spectre' might mislead you to think that the LAIBACH of today are much tamer and less subversive than in their days of marching Industrial beats. And indeed there's hardly a review which doesn't claim that with 'Spectre' LAIBACH gave up their latent ambiguity and would now very clearly take position on the political spectrum. Chances are that the reviewers just wrote off the record label's press release for 'Spectre', and chances are too that LAIBACH simply set a little trap here. The demystification of LAIBACH could as well be just another myth! http://www.laibach.org / https://www.facebook.com/Laibach
Music & Performance
After an one-hour delay, filled with classical music and Jazz from tape, the band finally entered the stage of the Stollwerck to the sounds of MARC-ANTOINE CHARPENTIER's 'Te Deum', better known as the Eurovision hymn. LAIBACH started with their own 'Eurovision', which features the above mentioned line “Europe is falling apart”. A contemplative and dark opening of the show but still it feels like a pressing political manifesto. The first half of the concert is exclusively reserved for the 'Spectre' songs - all of them, mind you! Just like on the new album, Mina Špiler plays a prominent part in the performance, agitating behind her keyboard rack like behind a speaker's desk, while singer Milan Fras appears less like the grim, growling demon of the old days but rather like the demure elder statesman of NSK. The feminine touch that Špiler has increasingly introduced to the band over the recent years suits LAIBACH well, and it has perhaps contributed to Milan Fras more humane stage presence these days. However, Fras still refrains from any communication with the audience and leaves this to a narrator from the off, actually pre-recorded addresses spoken by Peter Mlakar from the “NSK Department For Pure And Applied Philosophy”.
An amusing mockery on Rock show stereotypes, and a reminder that this is surely no conventional concert, even though LAIBACH are probably closer to a conventional concert with their current set-up of five and their melodic and sometimes even soulful 'Spectre' Pop than ever before. LAIBACH love to fool you, and the paradox between form and content is still intrinsic for their conceptual art. LAIBACH simply have inverted the signs, from a controversial impression that debunks Pop to giving a Pop impression which subversively redirects controversy. The new LAIBACH show of course comes along with a great light show and an impressive video screening on two huge screens in the back. Unlike previous tours the videos are rather associative and abstract. There were swirling and flashing graphics, excerpts from song lyrics, ballet dancers, images of Milan Fras, but you have to wait until the 'Iron Sky' songs 'B Mashina' and 'Under The Iron Sky' in the second half of the show to get a glimpse at the totalitarian kitsch LAIBACH have become so infamous for. Between the two parts of the performance there's a ten-minute break, an interlude as they are common for theatre plays as well. In a way another reminder that this is no conventional Rock gig.
The second chapter of the performance features songs from the entire career of LAIBACH, although it was not exactly a greatest hits selection. Starting with songs in Slovenian language like the impressive 'Brat Moj' to the 'Opus Dei' track 'Leben-Tod' to the cover of the Blues classic 'See That My Grave Is Kept Clean', LAIBACH delivered a taste of their “Monumental Retro-Avant-garde” for another 40 minutes. But fans had to wait until the encore to get to hear the probably most popular LAIBACH hit, 'Tanz mit Laibach', introduced from the off by a diabolic “Everybody dance now!”. 'Das Spiel ist aus' (“the game is over”) adequately finished the show, which was equally entertaining and thought-provoking, an invitation to dance to the bombastic beats and thereby making a statement at the same time. With 'Spectre' and the respective tour LAIBACH step out of their niche and prove their quality as Pop entertainers – but beware, they will allure you, they will debauch you, they will mislead you and they might stab you in the back! And you will thoroughly enjoy it!
The 'Spectre' tour continues until the end of May (as of now) and is surely one of the must-see shows of this year!
Setlist
01. Eurovision
02. Walk With Me
03. Americana
04. We Are Millions And Millions Are One
05. Eat Liver!
06. Bossanova
07. Koran
08. The Whistleblowers
09. No History
10. Resistance Is Futile
---Intermezzo (break)---
11. Brat Moj
12. Ti, Ki Izzivaš
13. B Mashina
14. Under the Iron Sky
15. Leben-Tod
16. Warme Lederhaut
17. Ballad of a Thin Man
18. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
---
19. Love on the Beat
20. Tanz mit Laibach
21. Das Spiel ist aus
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 9
Light: 10
Total: 9.8 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.black-cat-net.de / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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