Concert Review: Industrial Music Lives With KMFDM And Chicago’s Own Cyanotic Live At Metro

Mar 19, 2024 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews 0

By Cesar Glanville

Well it was like a large scale Cold Waves Festival in in late Winter this March with Ministry, Gary Numan, Frontline Assembly, KMFDM & Cyanotic over a 2-day span on Chicago’s Northside.

You can find my review of the Ministry show on HERE.

But lets talk about KMFDM/Cyanotic. First, whew.. the Metro was beyond packed, if having two of Industrial music’s powerhouses on back to back was going to make people decide to pick one and stay home the other? Nope, the crowd at both shows showed there is life in this scene that is often reported to be on life support.

And speaking of the scene and supporting bands who are out there doing it in the clubs and putting out consistent quality music lets talk about Cyanotic. Sean Payne (founder of Cyanotic and a driving force behind other electronic/industrial jam-makers CONFORMCO, Vampyre Anvil & Robohop) has assembled a great live crew with beat pounder extraordinaire Jesse Hunt, media guru David Kultgen (both also of CONFORMCO), guitarist Brad Huston, and Conner Eck on keyboards. This crew came out blazing and threw down a solid set of new and old songs that got the crowd moving, singing along and left them wanting more. Do yourself a favor and go see them when they headline next.

After Cyanotic whipped the crowd into a frenzy it was time for Kaptin K and Krew. A chorus of KMFDM sucks brought out the band for a 90 minute ear assault. The early portion of the set relied mainly on newer material and then some classics started to get sprinkled in. Songs off of ‘Let Go’ including the title song and Push! dangle a foot more into pure metal sounding jams with those KMFDM clinical sing along sections.

Surveying the crowd saw a mix of old and newer fans, with the newer (read younger) fans knowing the words to the more recent stuff which, again, shows there is hope this scene. With that said the classic still get a dance floor moving and much like Ministry’s Thieves, KMFDM’s A Drug Against War is an immediate pit mover.

The encore included a beautiful solo song by Lucia that will be part of her forthcoming solo effort. After that dance floor bangers Megalomaniac and Godlike moved the crowd and had Sascha saying ‘Chicago, yes always Chicago’ – it has always been an adopted home for the band and tonight they gave their neighbors an extend homecoming dance party.