Combichrist preview

Combichrist
House Of Blues, Chicago
Wednesday, February 4, 2009

I could easily break off a bunch Wikipedia knowledge or poach the last-updated-in-Spring-’07 biography on the band’s official Web site and make it sound like I have some sort of working knowledge of Combichrist. Truth is, though, I’d never heard of them before Today We Are All Demons arrived at the Illinois Entertainer office.

That in itself isn’t surprising. It’s common case to learn as you go when doing a “Stage Buzz,” but it’s considerably less so when the band is headlining a venue the size of House Of Blues. Generally speaking, I know, or at least know of, bands capable of these sorts of gigs. Thanks to Today We Are All Demons (Metropolis) I’m now familiar with Combichrist, though I’m not sure my pop music fluency is any greater for it. Led by Norwegian Andy LaPlegua, the group are a basic, pummel-your-partner, blood-on-the-dancefloor industrial. LaPlegua’s M.O. is making club-friendly songs that also sound moshpit-worthy, but without any guitar (LaPlegua plus two percussionists and two keyboardists comprise Combichrist’s live lineup). Add the axe, and Combichrist would go from basic hard-edged industrial to basic, death-disco industrial metal. Slightly more interesting is the fact the band dress like Mad Max versions of the vampires from that Josh Hartnett movie, 30 Days Of Night . . . or slightly less homoerotic members of Rammstein.

Also interesting is this: Bill Moseley, the (Barrington-born!) actor who played Choptop in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Otis Driftwood in House Of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, is in the video for “Sent To Destroy.” That’s awesome. Plus, now I have a reason to always remember Combichrist.

Black Light Burns and Desillusion open.

— Trevor Fisher

Click here to watch the video for “Sent To Destroy.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly