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Alright,
all the pretension stops here. I knew this band by name from way
back, however I never got around to checking their music. The
industrial style I had heard so much about never really appealed
to me which to tell you the truth is the second reason why I
never bothered with these Teutonics. The first reason of course
is that I never grew the balls to walk up to a record store
clerk and ask for a Einstürzende Neubauten record. That’s mostly
because I have no idea how to pronounce that name. But I have
always known of their existence, influence and status as
godfathers of industrial music. Checking this neatly filmed DVD,
I can see that bands/theatrical acts/fools/etc as ordinary as
The Blue Man Group have copied this band’s gimmicks. No, the
Neubauten don’t paint themselves in colors, nor have played Las
Vegas or Orlando for extended periods of time, but do rely
heavily on percussion to create this mechanic music. Some of it
is drums, but mostly the band picks up the experimental tag by
using all sorts of junk (trash cans, carboard boxes, scraps of
metal, pipes, springs, air compressors, etc, etc) in all sorts
of way to charge their music with textures. And they don’t only
bang on the stuff; they literally make love to it, caress it,
incite it with a stick, punch it, drag it through the crowd,
etc, etc. There are guitars there too, but their sound, at
least during this presentation, is not that prominent.
Recorded on their 26th year
anniversary at Berlin’s Palast der Republik, the building that
housed the East German Parliament before demolition started in
2006, this DVD displays plenty of material mostly taken from
2004’s Perpetuum Mobile. A couple of things are evident
right off the bat; vocalist Blixa Bargeld has not only a
commanding voice but is one of those rare frontmen whose mere
black-clad and barefoot presence captures the audience and
serves as the focus of attention. And second the band does its
part, focusing on the music and leaving the visuals to the bare
stage that hosts them. Not being very familiar with the
Neubaten’s music, I can not attest as to how this material
stands in comparison to their old material, what I can tell you
instead is that the performance starts hard and strong with a
moving and loud song that subsequently dives for a few minutes
of tender quietness and layered almost hushed sounds. Towards
the third part of the show, things get moving again and we are
treated to the presence of a choir comprised of fans. You can
tell this mostly because they look like your regular German
youth and they don’t necessarily sound like a choir.
Official Site
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