Laibach

Live at The Roxy Theatre

Hollywood, California

June 1st, 2015

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

The legendary Slovenian group known as Laibach return to Los Angeles on the 35th anniversary of their forming to the day.

At once a performance art project, a political movement, and a kick ass musical troupe that pioneered experimental industrial music, they have an air about them that no other performing group can match.

Bombastic, militaristic, moving, and disturbing are all attributes that can be laid at their feet and usually all at once. Their albums over the years have taken many musical directions and they grace our shores this time around in support of their latest release, "Spectre".

This album is very electronic and at times glitchy but also has the militant and political underlying structure and message that is prevalent in most of their works.

Lyrically, they are challenging to the listener, to quote them, "they are not simple pop musicians" but do incorporate pop elements when necessary for their greater scheme.

Laibach have no opening act, they need no crowd warmer or introduction. Laibach do not speak during the performance, they gesture and emote on cue. All introductions and speech come from an ominous voice pre-recorded.

The set started with two large projection screens in the rear of the stage coming to life with thin white lines flowing across them. Two men came out, one to each side of the stage and stepped up to a synthesizer.

They began with noisy distorted sounds slowly building into a deep atmosphere. A third man came out and took his place behind the drum kit.

Their female vocalist, Mina Špiler, came out and moved to a synthesizer at the front right of the stage. Finally the lead singer, Milan Fras took the stage with his signature head dress and facial hair.

The first song of the set was "Olav Tryggvason", an opera originally by Edvard Grieg about the king of Norway in 995. The song was epic and not at all like the new album in terms of musical style as they performed it very classically.

This lead into their version of "America" from their previous album, "Volk" but part way through blended into a unique rendition of "Satanic Versus" from their "WAT - We Are Time" album.

So far they had been very somber and more neoclassical than their latest offering but the set made a definitive pace-change when they moved to "Walk With Me" off of "Spectre".

Laibach is steeped in hidden meaning and irony depending on the song but this piece is very up front about their message: "Stop hanging around, being useless day in and day out. Come walk with me, and we'll change the world and its sound".

Continuing with material from the new release they did "No History" which I absolutely love and it was great live. The opening track of the new album begins with a chorus of whistling and is fittingly titled "The Whistleblowers" so it was apparent what was next when everyone on stage except the lead singer began whistling the opening march.

Taking a respite from the militaristic electronic beats, they played the down-tempo "Koran". A thoughtful song with heartfelt questions about the book and religion based on its teachings. The song states "So many questions on my mind, I believe in a better world, I believe in brotherhood" and then asks are not these the same values and goals spoken of in this book?

Things went into high gear again with the awesome electro-industrial dance sounds of "Resistance is Futile". Borrowing from Star Trek the eponymous line of The Borg and emphasizing it with "We are Laibach, and you WILL be assimilated".

This epic song brought about an Intermezzo as the band left the stage and a ten minute counter began ticking away the seconds. As the counter came to zero, the piped in voice said, "and now for something completely different" prompting the counter to begin counting back up, but the Monty Python reference was a joke as the band came back out and took their places.

I have no idea what the next song was, it was in a different language, maybe Italian? At times Mina would shriek and scream and there were dark images on the screens behind them that reminded me of Italian horror films. The drummer would take a violin bow and draw it across the edge of a cymbal to create harsh sounds that collided with the female shrieks, it was quite disturbing.

Delving further into "Spectre", they played "Americana" followed by "We Are Millions and Millions Are One", both excellent songs with deep meaning.

They went back two albums for the amazing "B Mashina", a great song about dreams rising into the sky that has this monumental build that finally explodes with power and it really blew everyone in the audience away.

They played "Bossanova" off the new album which has one of the lines that stuck in my head, "I am having a good time and I want my nation to breakdown" but live he changed this to "excel".

They took me by surprise with a cover version of Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man". The song itself has bizarre lyrics such as: "You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand. You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?" You try so hard but you don't understand." The way the singer approaches cover songs is at once poignant and hilarious, his intonations and delivery changing the original in profound ways. This was a really bizarre but great song the way they performed it, and I loved it.

It was at this point that they did one of the songs I was hoping for the most, "See That My Grave is Kept Clean". It is an awesome cover of a song from the late 20's by Blind Lemon Jefferson and the version they did live was even more distorted and industrial than their album rendition. The lyrics are moving and dark and all around a classic Laibach song.

Milan bowed and gestured to the other members who bowed in turn and then followed him off stage. The audience immediately began rhythmically clapping to call them back.

After a moment they returned in single file and resumed their places. Their first song of the encore was "Love on the Beat", another cover and brilliantly executed with lots of glitchy electronic distortion and an ominous delivery with the guttural voice of Milan.

They continued with a favorite club track from their "WAT" album, "Tanz Mit Laibach", or Dance With Laibach. This song got a lot more dancing and movement from the audience than any previous and was definitely one of the more known tracks.

This brought them to their final track for the night and they went way back to their 1987 breakthrough album "Opus Dei" for "Leben heißt Leben" or Life is Life. This was my sixth time seeing Laibach live and I have seen this song many times now, but the version they did tonight was just awesome. Huge powerful choir by Mina and the two keyboarders and Milan's deep voice was at full strength for this epic song.

It was an amazing experience, as every Laibach performance has been, whether in Europe or here in the States. I had been anticipating this concert for months and was moved, surprised, and impressed once again by the mighty Laibach and their unconventional form of message through art. This truly is what art is and anyone who witnessed it will come away from it for the better.

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