I went to see Lords of Acid and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult Tuesday July 13 at Studio 7 in Georgetown. I listened to them when I was a teenager and it was cool to see them live.
The venue sucked and I gave them a bad yelp but both bands were good. Thrill Kill Kult did the best they could with what they have to work with, but I suppose their music is better mixed than performed lived.
Lords of Acid was interesting on stage. I do not know how old Praga Khan is, but he must be old, and he looks very old. The net says he did his first recording in 1988, so if he did that at age 18 he must be 40 now and if he did it at thirty he would be 52 now. 1988 was pre-computer days, and historically people were older than thirty to get established to record electronic music back then, so I would not be surprised if he was 60. He was totally wasted and did a lot to disrupt the band, laughing maniacally and bearing his teeth.
He came out with a wild look on his face and seemed very confused. He had the keyboard and a microphone to do vocals, but he hardly contributed directly to producing sound. There was a drummer, two guitarists, and then whoever their new female vocalist is. Praga Khan almost never touched his keyboard and he kept swinging his microphone around. He attacked the guitarists during most songs; the one with an afro usually was strangled until he could fight him back, and the one with long hair mostly got slapped and threatened. In one song Praga Khan got on the long-haired one’s back then started climbing to sit on his head. They both fell backward and Praga hit a speaker hard. I thought they were hurt because Praga’s neck hit the box behind him and his tailbone hit the floor, and the guy he was on just crumpled. The stage crew gave Praga a rubdown and a coke and the other guy walked it off then returned to stage. The girl singing and the other paid no attention and kept singing so eventually everyone went on with the show. Praga Khan apparently likes Coca Cola, because he opened four cans throughout the show, and it seemed to help him do more stage business.
I was surprised that this withered shell could have been the voice I know. I did not expect to hear him sing because I did not think he would stay in front of the microphone and anyway I thought the show was mostly prerecorded and moreso for his parts, but then about the third song they started up “Rough Sex” and the people slamming around in front quit dancing and started staring to see how they were possibly going to pull this off. Out of his cracked out head growled the voice I know saying, “When I think about love… I don’t think about bright moon…” and the rest of the lyrics and the chorus just like the recorded version. After the first chorus he quit singing to rampage and the crowd turned that song into a singalong. He did not have any more parts after that.
The female singer was good and she was not having his attacks, and when he started circling her and growling she gave him a look which said that she was the alpha. He gave her neck a play choke so as to not totally lose face but then she brushed him off without even missing any vocals. I take it that Praga Khan tied himself to the rights to the songs and band name so if these other four young talented musicians want to go on tour posing as a band they listened to when they were 15 then they have to put up with their crazy grandpa. Praga Khan jumped into the crowd to surf twice, and his minders brought him back to stage safely both times. They also continually picked up his keyboard when he knocked it down, plugged his microphone back in, and directed him to his part of the stage when he seemed lost.
Everyone at the concert knew all the songs for Thrill Kill Kult and Lords of Acid, so it was a happy crowd. We all knew the music and it probably would have been boring if they just played the songs through. I do not think they have money these days for elaborate stage shows but the rumor going around among the older crowd was that on their early tours they cast a model to play out being crucified on stage and then various band members would fellate this person. Since that kind of performance was omitted, I would have to say that Praga Khan’s stage activities contributed greatly to my enjoyment of the show.
Heehee! Sounds great, glad you had fun 🙂 xo