Killing Joke

[Nick Medford]

On Sat, 26 Feb 2005 16:00:14 -0000, Ian Abrahams
<ian at ABRAHAMSI.FREESERVE.CO.UK> wrote:

>Line-up and set-list for that one, Nick?

Line-up: Jaz, Geordie, Raven, keyboard player whose name escapes me (think
it was the same guy who played on the 2003 tour), plus a new drummer- now
they haven't really had a regular drummer for many years now, various
luminaries like Martin Atkins, Ted Parsons, and Dave Grohl have done the
honours, but this guy tops them all. I didn't catch his name but a look
round the KJ site suggests it may be Ben Calvert (no relation I assume).
What I did hear was Jaz introducing him as "the baby" and saying he's only
22. An absolutely amazing drummer, huge pounding tribal beats played with
great skill and power, *exactly* right for KJ.

The set was something like this, I may have missed one out somwhere, and the
order may be off, but this is more or less right, note the seven, yes seven,
encores:

Communion
Wardance
Song And Dance
Primitive
Total Invasion
Frenzy
We Have Joy
Empire Song
Asteroid
Bloodsport
Requiem
Blood On Your Hands
The Wait
Whiteout
Pssyche

------------------
Darkness Before Dawn
Pandys Are Coming
Change
Sun Goes Down
Are You Receiving?
Love Like Blood
Pandemonium

What can I say, it was amazing. I've never heard Jaz sound like this, in
fact live I've usually found his vocals a bit disappointing compared to the
albums, but last night he had every angle from the melodic to the ferocious
completely covered. Right up in the mix too, lyrics audible throughout.

The played for a long time, 2hrs 15mins by my reckoning. Somehow they hit a
massive peak of intensity almost immediately and then just sustained it for
the duration. Huge churning guitar noise over a relentless pounding
backline, savage stuff I tell you. Jaz out the front twitching and shaking
like a shaman. "Intense" doesn't even come close.

I read on one of the KJ sites that they or their manager have tightened up a
lot on the backstage partying with fans before and after the gigs,
apparently because the 2003 tour featured too many half-wasted performances.
Thinking back to the Astoria gig in '03, it was good but certainly the band
didn't have anything like this level of focus and intensity. In fact I'm not
sure I've *ever* seen a band play at this level of intensity. Even though
I've liked KJ for many years, I never quite expected anything like last night.

Nick