[Los Angeles, CA] The first two bands made me really excited to hear Christian Death. But it turns out that my love for Christian Death is based on a very discrete period of time … and that Christian Death has been around for a really long time … even though the lead singer, he of the perfect dirty sexy voice (Rozz Williams, “Spiritual Cramp”), died decades ago. I’d seen that they had an extensive list of rotating band members but by the time they started playing it became clear that I had no idea who Christian Death was and maybe no one else did either. Much more grounded in rock than the first two bands. Whiny guitar, understated vocals, dirgey in an old-fashioned way. They had clear bejeweled face masks on or face jewelry. Performance art. Dry blues punk. Art punk. Complex and layered – with weird bits interwoven (e.g., bells, tings). There’s something very emotional about them – the wailing tone. They were all over the place … in a pleasant way… This iteration at least is very much X – including the big cowboy hats – which Ministry incorporated sometimes too. I don’t much like X – Rockboy did.. and probably the best band Rockboy introduced me to was X-adjacent Gun Club, whom I started hearing in this iteration of Christian Death … but maybe it was just a fever dream. SuperSuckers crossed with Stevie Nicks. NiceButAlsoDangerous, furious that I’d ‘made him’ go to this (false! I’m perfectly able/willing to go alone) tried to anger me beforehand by saying he bet it was going to be an all White crowd… he did give me pause because he said he’d listened to some of their songs and one included a ‘n*****’ lyric (teeth gnash) … and this genre (e.g., Ministry) does incorporate some questionable German-sounding marches, calls… google comforted me that the song was actually anti-racist but still at 1970s levels of wokeness. Anyway, lots of Latine persons, one of the three professional photographers was Black. Nonetheless, I am not well versed enough in this band to advocate for their racial politics. I often think back on how BrightShards accused ‘guitar-based music,’ or whatever slur she used for non EDM music, as homophobic and transphobic – false! – the whole New York 70s punk scene was super gender bendy and pansexual – similarly, this band was probably against organized religion in part because many members were gay. Whew, what a ride it was – was not :)
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