The electronic industrial trio came with an aim to shock and amaze the patrons of Machine who, being an industrial night itself, should know what to expect from the veterans.  Unfortunately, the crowd were not prepared for the cavalcade of noise and distortion that makes the genre so great.

The band came on, wrapped in cling film and caked in blood,  a reference to a cult New Zealand film called ‘Bad boy Bobby’. This was one of many costume capers from the many years together.  Past exploits include killer clowns, zombies and other grizzly gear.  They started with the more odd of their repertoire, with free form noise, which to the trained ear reminded those of break through genre acts such as Throbbing gristle and Coil.  The crowd however didn’t seem to have such an ear, expecting a jumpy dancy sound.  Thankfully, by the 4^th song the songs had become a lot more coherent for the audience.  In front of the band stood two figures wearing ghoulish masks, acting out slow motion fight scenes and generally mingling with the crowd like a twisted Aardman animation.  Stand out tracks included ’Victim’, a song written about Sophie Lancaster, a goth girl whom back in 2007 lost her life to abuse caused by the way she dressed, as well as songs about zombies, creeps and all manor of angry outbursts.

There were more ambient moments, with a long ballad that calmed the soul, but they were soon laid to rest with the finale crashing down with their newest song ‘So Yeah!’.  A new album is on the way however, with promises of more anthems and anger that the fans will love.  “We never made this band for money” he band told me “We just love playing the music we wanna’ hear, and if people want to join us for the ride who are we to blame.”

The strange turn of events by the end of the set was that the regulars of the night were left wondering what had happened, whereas the more straight laced of the group enjoyed it immensely.  It’s like the band said, “we are our own worst enemy!”

The night continued with a vampire special as Machines’ Halloween night for the month, with DJ Presley of Mode and Gary Numan fame laying down tracks with expert skill for the remainder of the night, with guest Djs popping in and out with equal skill.

Dka