Show Review: KMFDM and Chant at the Belasco 05/17/2023

“KMFDM/Better Than the Best/Megalomaniacal and Harder Than the Rest…”

As is typical of working in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, my live concert experiences are constantly in flux with my day job. So it was after a seven-week run of live theater work that I finally had my evenings back to cram in some concerts, with KMFDM and Chant at the Belasco to kick off what would become a whirlwind two weeks of live music before jumping right back into more theater work and officially losing my social life for the next six or seven weeks. Self-pitying aside, it was a great night to head into Downtown LA with a friend to finally see the truly legendary and outstandingly prolific KMFDM for the first time!

I went into Chant completely blind, and they are definitely one of those bands that make it worth it. Drum-based at the core, this duo hammers those heads like the gods of thunder, blending the enthusiasm of modern industrial with the percussiveness of old. This also marked their 100th show touring with KMFDM, which Sascha would bring up later in the evening, and it was quite clear how well the two groups mesh together.

For myself, it was something of a bucket list concert. As a sprout in the late 90s and having my first year of High School affected by the Columbine Massacre, I grew up in an environment that was relatively hostile towards people who liked listening to heavy music. Suddenly, instead of being regarded as the weirdos, we were the potential school shooters. If you dared to sport a Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, KMFDM, or <insert-transgressive-artist-here> shirt or patch, you were subject to much more intense scrutiny from the school administration and the more “with the grain” mass of the student body. So to finally be able to see KMFDM without that stigma so heavy in the air left me with a feeling of euphoric joy.

While even a cursory glance at KMFDM’s discography suggests many lineup changes, the core trio of founding member Sascha Konietzko, Lucia Cifarelli, and Andy Selway has been going strong since 2003, and with the more recent addition of guitarist Andy Blacksugar, they turned out a hell of a show.

Launching right into it with “D.I.Y.” from the classic line-up’s ADIOS album, the house felt like it was surging with energy, with old and new fans alike dancing, moshing, and singing along. From there, we got a smattering of songs from across four decades of music (see setlist below) ranging from electronic dance to industrial, political rage. Obvious highlights include classics like “Light,” “A Drug Against War,” and “Son of a Gun” (a personal favorite from the XTORT album), as well as some floor-stomping newer material from HYËNA and PARADISE, whose title track closed out the evening. All-in-all, the band maintains a vitality that few of their reputation can claim to hold, and they certainly don’t show any signs of simply slowing down any time soon.

Setlist via setlist.fm