So, I went to see a long time favorite band of mine last night: Front 242.  They played here in Chicago at the Vic theatre.  It was pretty crowded but not sold out, which was surprizingly nice because I was able to enjoy the show with some elbow room.  The lineup had was one man on a completely MIDI triggered drum kit, another controlling the synths/sequencer/electronics, and two lead singers.  The light show seemed to be synced to the music as well which, accompanied by a huge video display, made the show mesmerizing.

It is one thing to listen to Front 242 in headphones, yet another thing to hear them at a decent volume in your living room, another still to hear their music at a club (where you are really just being bombarded with the music physically rather than a mere ear as the sound passes), but to see them live, in a venue like the Vic is just positively enveloping.  I felt every kick drum deep in my chest and the sequenced basslines were competing with my very heart's rhythmic timing.  Yeah, I left with that post-apocalyptic ringing my ears, but it was so worth it.

It is no doubt that Front 242 are considered the Godfathers of EBM/Industial, with a catalogue that extends twenty years, the show was basically a playlist of greatest hits, of note was:

No Shuffle
Quite Unusual
Headhunter
Welcome To Paradise
Body to body (pre-WaxTrax)
Commando
Lovely Day
Funkadafi
In Rhythmeus Bleiben (too lazy to spell check that)
...

That just names a few, the list goes on...

In addition to a great visual performance, all the songs were reworked with more a modern sound palette, well ... that's not altogether true,  the songs still retained their instant recognizability, but newer patches were certainly applied to great effect.  Imagine pumping all the mid 80's tracks through a "Jetson-ifier" set to 2005 (or 2010 for that matter).  It was a nice surprize.

All in all, the show was great (are you catching onto that yet?).  I don't see too many industrial/ebm bands these days.  The first concert I ever attended was Front Line Assembly back in 1990 and I remember being blown away back then.  Seeing Front 242 now brought me back to a weird state of comfort (since I've known most of these tracks for years), freshness (since the songs all seem to get an "upgrage"), and nostalgia for all the yesterdays of my life when all I did was live and breath ebm/industrial (though, we just called it NewWave - which, in retrospect, was the wrong label, bah!).

I think Front 242 just made my top ten list of all time favorite shows. :)