My friends Randy, Barbara and I arrived at exactly 7:00pm on a cold Seattle night. Already there was a line, which 45 minutes ago there wasn’t (I had scoped the venue out prior, and heard Laibach practicing. I also heard girls giggling inside. Laibach has emotions!). Anywho, guess who’s standing behind us in line? None other than Tom Shear of Assemblage 23. But we decided not to bug him, but him being there, man – everyone was coming to see Laibach!

A not too long of a wait and an ID check later, we were in! At first I was scoping out every corner of the small (not Catwalk small, but still already packed) venue in hopes of finding Betsy of herzeleid/megaherz fame, but to no avail (I would not see her this night, try as hard as I did to look for her, she was on the opposite side of me during the show. Maybe next time I’ll see her when Wolfsheim comes to town (just gotta work on coercing her to go to Wolfsheim)).

First order of business: the purchasing of swag, and shitloads of it. I had brought $60, and I was planning on spending it all. And I did. I bought:

1 kick ass Laibach shirt
6 sweet Laibach stickers
1 Laibach flight pin (so my Megaherz flight pin has a neighbor now)
1 Laibach DVD
and 1 box of Laibach condoms

Yes. I bought Laibach condoms. They were the most hilarious thing I had ever seen in my entire life, I HAD to get them. And I did. Now I just need to find a grrl to try them….*ahem*

Since the venue was on crunch time for hiphop night, the first act quickly opened: Bonfire Madigan. I have never heard of them before, and frankly, I was not too impressed. It was a single woman with a cello playing with recorded music. The music wasn’t very good, and I didn’t think it fit in with Laibach’s type of music – Laibachian (apparently Laibachian is a word – watch the DVD, you’ll see). I thought the chick was hot though, my friend Randy was convinced she was a dude. We all agreed that it wasn’t that great.

I also (between the 2 sets) ran into Mike from Noxious Emotion. He’s so cool. We shook hands, exchanged pleasantries.

Anywho, after she was done, classical music started to play, and an NSK member came out (his name escapes me, he does a lot of essay writing, I’ll goto the Slovene of Athens later and find out his name) and read a paper about the decay of Amerika. It ruled. The crowd was in agreement with him, as was I.

Now time for LAIBACH!

The track listing:

B Machine
In The Army Now
Dogs of War
Alle Gegen Alle
Mars on River Drina (as interlude)
God is god
Tanz mit Laibach
Du bist unser
Now you Will Pay
Great Divide
Wirtschaft ist tot (as interlude)
Achtung!
Das speil ist aus
Wat
(begin encore)
Mama Leone
Sympathy for the Devil
Gubert Einer Nation
Opus Dei
Wir Tanzen Ado Hinkel ( Zeta Retcula Mix)

The entire concert was heavily guitar driven, which enhanced many songs (Dogs of War) while ruining others (Mars on River Drina).

B Machine started with a really long interlude before the lead singer (Milan-?, no one knows their names) came out in trade mark headware and a vest. The show started out with lots of NATO tracks, which (save for Mars on River Drina) were really enhanced. I was mesmerized by the video art playing with the music – images dancing to the Laibach music.

The lead singer left the stage while the band played a very guitar-driven version of Mars on River Drina, which I felt was not as good as the NATO album version (which is amazing). This version was extended for a little longer until the lead singer emerged back on stage minus his vest. He started off this set with God is God.

After God is God, 2 pairs of cherry red lips quickly ran onto stage as Tanz Mit Laibach was beginning, and begin to play a single drum each while marching in step. I loved it! The rest of the set would be WAT material, which had its stomp-ness increased 50 fold. (Note: WAT is a very electro driven album, the only people one stage were lead singer, 3 drummers, 2 guitars, all the electro was playing from recordings).

The set would be broken into 2 sets of WAT songs, an interlude between the two being the album version of Wirtschaft ist Tot, minus the vocals. I was so glad they played a Kapital song, since it’s my favourite album by them, but this version was a bit shorter, no vocals, and more guitars (this was not the Metal version mind you).

The lead singer came back on stage with the 2 female drummers (they had left during this song to possibly make out). The drummers were minus their fezzes this time, showing their pigtails Drooooolll

WAT was the ending song, but the customary everyone leaving the stage for a few minutes for an encore ensued. The band came back on (the chicks were now minus their pony tails, I suspect a huge make out session was going on in the back) and played the new song Mama Leone. The rest were classic old Laibach songs. Sympathy of the Devil greatly benefits from different vocals and more guitar, however Opus Dei and Geburt Einer Nation suffered, as there were no trumpets or other classic instruments – really guitar driven, not really true to the original songs, but still neat to hear.

The band ended after Opus Dei, but stood on stage for a few more minutes while Wir Tanzen Ado Hinkel played in the background. The lead singer said nothing, but clapped at us is satisfaction – it had been a good show.

I was greatly impressed by their performance.

PHOTOS!