LAIBACH
LONDON GARAGE - 15/12/10
Another anniversary and this time it is Laibach who have hit the grand old age of thirty. To celebrate they are playing a special show and as I walk into The Garage I can see straight away that it is an eclectic and eccentric group of people who have come down to watch. Many are dressed in military garb and the NSK (Laibach’s virtual state) sigil is displayed on arms proudly. Some of the ladies have really taken the opportunity to dress up for the occasion and of course there are the more normally attired with band shirts displaying everything from Ministry to Cradle Of Filth. The appeal of Laibach is massive and we were all united here listening to Bontempi keyboard music which was obviously chosen by the band and quickly became quite painful. With Laibach not playing until almost 9PM I could only feel really sorry for those here since doors opened at 7. One thing I have found curious is that Laibach never seem to play the same venue twice, certainly not in recent years. The Garage was not the best choice as by the time they came on it was rammed and must have been at capacity, moving around was pretty much impossible as was getting decent photos, the camera pit had two big projectors in it so was out of bounds.
It was Laibach revisited tonight and that was very much a case of as described, we were going back in time to listen to some early compositions. It was not however the trend of a band being lazy and playing an old album back to front as we quickly discovered with the discordant keyboard work of ‘Boji’ playing havoc with our ears. Nope the group had completely reworked their old songs and this had often (and not just to me but other hardened fans), taken them beyond the scope of recognition. As ever Milan Fras was the focus point and his glorious craggy vocals resounded through the venue with fantastic clarity. It had to be said the sound was absolutely fantastic. The female drummers were not on stage tonight but vocals were handled by Mina Špiler who had also hailed the band on stage with megaphone and was joining in with the other two console twiddlers.
Lighting was as ever spectacular with massive pulsing strobes flooding the stage for dynamic parts as the drum blasts hit their epoch. There was not much in the way of audience interaction, partly because there is a lot of stone statue worship as far as crowds at Laibach are concerned and also as people were like myself quite bewildered by radical reinterpretations of songs like ‘Brat moj.’ Considering some of these songs first saw the light in 1984 a lot of time has passed for them to be deconstructed and put back together again. It was kind of weird that the band did not play any of their well known cover songs but in effect covered themselves playing around with the likes of ‘Nova Akropola’ masters of manipulation to the hilt. A bit of techno reminiscent of past tour buddies Juno Reactor on what I believe was ‘Slovenska Zena,’ saw the end of this part of the set.
Any confusion swiftly vanished as we finished with the far past and went to more modern times. The unmistakable ‘Tanz Mit Laibach’ swaggered in and the crowd, well factions of it, were finally tempted into moving. This quickly led into a bit of a party atmosphere and with Milan heralding the troops we were ready to march to the hefty beat and bang heads in time. Although not as incendiary as a full ‘Anthems’ set from the band we were very happy for the next half hour or so and bounced around to the likes of ‘Alle Gegen Alle’ and Das Spiel Ist Aus.’
With a good 90 minutes or so played they were not quite done yet as we got what I guess could be termed as a few cover songs to finish off with, well if you count national anthems from Volk as such. I thought America was particularly stunning against the US flag and Mina’s fantastic voice really had a chance to shine. Of course considering where we were we had to get ‘Anglia’ too and for a moment it was like last night of the proms, speaking of which that is a festival Laibach should perhaps play. The Garage could not contain them that’s for sure.
Review and photos by Pete Woods
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