The Key Club, Leeds, UK4th February 2020
3Teeth & Support: <PIG>
Two mighty industrial bands take to the stage – one ‘old timer’ English band, and one newer American band. Having been a fan of <PIG> for some years I almost regarded this concert as a death-match between them. Who will win?
<PIG>
Raymond Watts, founder of <PIG> has been the backbone of the UK Industrial music since the late 80’s, performing as <PIG> but also with KMFDM. He’s also worked with / toured with other big names in the genre such as NINE INCH NAILS and EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN. He often has a more layered, almost orchestral quality to his music than other Industrial acts. “The Wages of Sin” was released on download only in 2019. https://www.pigindustries.com
Music & Performance
I arrived at the venue, with only minutes to spare, I settled close to the front and the band stepped onto the stage - accompanied by the usual dramatic / orchestral intro. Raymond, with his artificial furs resembled an angry muppet, and his energy levels even after all the years passing still resembled ‘Animal’ from the muppets too. The band consisted of two guitar players, one drummer and Raymond on vocals. The venue has a very small stage, far from the best lighting but a pretty good sound system. The band look crowded on the small stage, and the reliance of almost purely red lighting throughout <PIG> and 3TEETH was tedious, perhaps I’m being overly critical as a photographer. However, none of this was to spoil the evening for the band, nor the crowd - the <PIG> fans are still in abundance and enthusiastically greeted the band.
<PIG> powered through their set like an explosion in a bacon factory. Full of energy and attitude like any self-respecting Industrial band should do. I’m pleased to say, after a gap from seeing Raymond play live that none of the key ingredients of the pork supreme were missing. Brilliant form, fine sounding, lots of energy - I loved the set. Great to see KMFDM material too.
Setlist
01. The Revelation
02. Mobocracy
03. The Chosen Few
04. Hot Hole
05. Find It Fuck It Forget It
06. Painiac (Nothing Touches Me)
07. Juke Joint Jezebel
08. Prey & Obey
09. Prime Evil
Set list from memory, I couldn’t successfully find one at the gig.
Rating
Music: 8.5
Performance: 8.5
Light: 6
Sound: 7.5
Total: 7.7 / 10
3Teeth
In 2014 3TEETH erupted onto the world with their first album (self-titled), a remix album followed (remixed by the likes of KANGA and AESTHETIC PERFECTION). A further two albums have been spawned; ‘<shutdown.exe>’ (2017) and ‘Metawar’ (2019). Tours with NINE INCH NAILS, RAMMSTEIN, TOOL, DANZIG and HIM have assured them a place in every Industrial music lovers cold heart. https://3teeth.org / https://www.facebook.com/3Teeth
Music & Performance
After 3TEETH have played the big stages with the likes of NINE INCH NAILS and RAMMSTEIN I wondered how they would work on such a very small stage at this tiny venue in Leeds. As I waited, pondering this thought, a scuffle broke out next to me, I couldn’t quite see what it was about, but the general idea was someone was upset because they couldn’t see the stage. Not entirely convinced violence was the answer, but there you go. The venue had been pretty busy when <PIG> played - now it was packed. With a mix of a Metal crowd and a Goth crowd it was quite an “active” crowd, and at times it just didn’t feel pleasant at all. Back to my thought though - when the band entered the stage, there was barely room for them to move - and certainly they had to leave behind their slicker usual stage set with their menacing visuals.
Accompanied by the aforementioned poor red lighting, they also exploded into a frantic energy filled set as did <PIG> - perhaps this time instead of a bacon factory it was an explosion in a denture factory? Not sure, but combine their energy with the bouncing crowd, and the front of the stage was more mosh pit than this advancing years Goth was comfortable with! I stayed for the first half a dozen songs, taking pictures, then retired to the rear of the venue, a slightly raised area where the merchandise table was situated. From here I could see how energy filled the crowd was - very impressive (from the safety of the merch table!).
I’ve not seen 3TEETH play live before, and I am now certainly fully converted, and prefer their live sound to listening at home. There is a certain depth, a more layered sound with a seemingly greater emphasis on the structure of the song than on CD. I would liken this subtlety, cleverly interwoven into the “high impact in your face sound”, to GARY NUMAN in his more recent years. It really works, adding a certain atmosphere, perhaps a little more menace and I enjoyed the set even more than I expected. I have since listened to the same songs on CD, and it’s all there, but live somehow it just seemed to get better to my ears. Quite frankly, in this reviewer’s opinion, one of the most impressive bands to see live on the circuit at the moment.
The result of my imaginary death-match between <PIG> and 3TEETH? As a long standing <PIG> fan, I hate to admit, 3TEETH not only put <PIG> to death, they rocked at the band’s funeral. Fantastic set, and I need to see them play on a bigger stage.
Setlist
01. Hyperstition
02. Affluenza
03. Exxxit
04. American Landfill
05. Time Slave
06. ALTÆR
07. Shutdown
08. Sell Your Face 2.0
09. Degrade
10. Slavegod
11. Chasm
12. Insubstantia
13. Pit of Fire
14. Atrophy
15. Tabula Umbra
16. Master of Decay
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Light: 6
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
All Pictures by Kevin Stevens
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