Unlike many contemporaries, the supremely influential Killing Joke can still boast their original line-up as a draw to paying punters. With these guys we’re not talking one or two founder members fleshed out with a bunch of Kens.
Saying that, If you’d walked up to the quartet after performing their first ever gig back in August 1979, telling them they’d still be packing out venues when the price of a pint at the bar was north of six quid, they’d probably be thrilled and appalled in equal measure.
Frontman Jaz Coleman is still the focal point of Killing Joke’s unique brand of club-friendly dystopian tribal goth. Tonight he’s decked out in a black one-piece, glowering menacingly from a pelmet of similarly dark locks looking like the kids entertainer from hell, particularly when faced with that trademark guttural howling vocal, forged in the white heat of the late 1970s London punk scene. Geordie’s guitar riffs still crunch like an old TV set hitting the deck when thrown from a fifth floor Continental Hyatt House balcony, everything expertly propelled forward by Youth’s thundering bass and Big Paul’s drums. Killing Joke’s groove is always meaty and funky in equal measure, tonights’ collective focussed fury inspiring a healthy chaos stage front. Coleman’s predicted ‘one great mosh pit’ is proving right on the money, plenty of that and and indeed what looks like a bit of wrecking too, enjoyed by those clearly old enough to know better but hey, what’s wrong with growing old disgracefully?
Opening with a classic one-two punch of proto-anthem ‘Love Like Blood’, their sole foray into the UK top 20, followed by the industrial tinged ‘Wardance’, one marvels at how contemporary these songs still sound today as well as how much of their sound has rubbed off on other bands.
Unsurprisingly, Killing Joke’s magnificent 1980 debut long-player features heavily in tonight’s setlist. Opener ‘Requiem’ is clearly still a tune and a half, despite sounding like The Guildford Clash. ‘Primitive’ runs it pretty close but the pick of the bunch, saved for tonight’s encore is the paranoid punk funk of ‘Change’ sounding as fresh as a daisy.
Nothing to see here, except for a fire still burning bright.
Words - Mike Price
Killing Joke official