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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Sascha Konietzko
By Christy Goldfinch
If all you’d heard from KMFDM was the opening bars of their current single, “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” you’d probably figure the frontman for yet another bloody punk-metal moron. Here are the relentlessly thumping bass, the frantic driving guitars, the growly voice snarling silly lyrics with absolutely no trace of irony. It’s music made for moshing.
If all you’d heard from KMFDM was the “Candy” remix of “These Boots ...,” you might think some superstar d.j. was readying for yet another Mitsubishi commercial. Here are the monotone vocal sample (“confess ... confess ... confess ... “), the hypnotic otherworldly synthesizers, the thundering loops of big-beat techno. It’s music made for trancing.
Both views are accurate, except that Sascha Konietzko is no moron, and he doesn’t do commercials. The genre-bending German artist/musician/producer founded KMFDM in Paris in 1984, and the band’s abrasive techno-metal sound quickly earned them underground stardom in Europe and the States. The leaders of the industrial-dance revolution are currently touring behind their 13th full-length, a visceral bit of nihilism appropriately titled Attak. It’s a comeback, their first album in the three years since the bitter Adios, and KMFDM is partying like it’s 1989.
Dressed in black leather down to the knee boots , the blond-mohawked Konietzko barks in German and English over a sonic assault of samples, synthesizers, and hero guitar riffs. Stage production is minimal — a few flashing lights — because it’s all about the throbbing beat. For grimy, dark, danceable industrial — well, as Konietzko himself sneered on the 1997 single “Megalomaniac”: “KMFDM is better than the best.”
8pm Sun. $20-22.50. Deep Ellum Live, 2727 Canton St, Dallas. 214-373-8000.
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