On a rainy cool night in downtown Las Vegas COMBICHRIST brought their One Fire North American Tour to the Backstage, Bar & Billiards on Fremont Street, with guests Silver Snakes, Skumlove and EMDF.
Opening the show was local industrial / metal band EMDF, and it’s been awhile since we have seen these guys but like always they sounded great and even though their set was short the crowd appreciated what they were able to give. SKUMLOVE out of Hollywood was next on the bill, and this was an emotional for Skumlove, their guitar player Garrison Fargo, who had been ill passed away within 24 hours of this show. Instead of cancelling their upcoming shows, they decided to honor his life and celebrate it by doing what he would of wanted - by playing. Skumlove is an industrial rock band with an in your face attitude, led by Skum Love himself, who during their set jumped off the stage and started moshing with those in the small pit in front of the stage. This is a fun, hard working band who always bring it when they hit the stage, and even in the midst of tragedy brought a great show to Triple B's.
Silver Snakes is an interesting band who actually played with no lights, hence no photos of them. I would love to see this band at a bigger venue, their sound is powerful. This three piece outfit from Los Angeles sounded very dark and moody and experimental during their show, and actually got a mixed reaction from the fans, some loved them others were not so sure. I believe this is a band that has bigger things to come.
Combichrist is one of my all time favorite bands, and I was looking forward to seeing what they would bring us on this tour, as it was the first time we have seen Combichrist without longtime drummer / showman Joe Letz, who after 13 years departed the band to pursue other projects. As the lights dimmed and the smoke machines started pumping out the fog, the sound of background music playing “This Shit Will Fcuk You Up” started playing over the sound system. You could see two drum sets facing each other in the background, and the band's
configuration on this tour was Eric13 on guitar, Andy LaPlegua on vocals, Will Spodnick on drums and newcomer Dane White also on drums. As the intro faded, Andy and the band took their places onstage and went straight into “Hate Like Me”, and sent the crowd into a frenzy, as the pit opened back up and Andy moving frantically back and forth on the stage - then taking to a small riser, that put him above the rest of the band and made it easy to see him in all the fog that engulfed the stage. The band then went into “Never Surrender” followed up by their classic “Shut Up and Swallow”, and we were seeing classic Combichrist. In the middle of the set we finally for the first time got to hear last year's single “Exit Eternity”, and it was f-n amazing live.
About this time the band experienced some technical issue that lasted about 10 minutes, during which time they laughed and joked while playing bits and pieces of songs from other bands, saying they didn’t play the entire songs because they don’t know them -which got a chuckle from the crowd. Tech issues over, they once again hit some old school Combichrist songs and finished their set with classics such as "Electrohead", "Get Your Body Beat", "Maggots At The Party", and closing out the show with "What the Fck Is Wrong With You". This was a killer show from an underrated band - they bring it overtime they play Vegas.
COMBICHRIST SETLIST:
This Shit Will Fcuk You Up (Intro)
Hate Like Me
Never Surrender
Shut Up and Swallow
Satan's Propaganda
Guns at Last Dawn
Throat Full Of Glass
Exit Eternity
Can't Control
Blut Royale
Electrohead
Get Your Body Beat
Maggots At The Party
What The Fuck Is Wrong With You?
Photos from Harold Mountain / JustAFanPhotos