Laibach @ Club Perversion

Laibach, Club Perversion, Los Angeles, 3/20/97

Well folks, I have a confession to make. For its name, Club Perversion was really not all that extreme and scary. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't exactly an ice cream social, but it certainly wasn't disturbing. The thing that struck me most was how much this was just like any other bar in LA. People stood at the bar, carefully sliding their lime wedges through the slender necks of their Coronas - admittedly they were usually abundantly clad in vinyl or leather and pierced in all kinds of interesting places (I didn't even know you could pierce your biceps...). People also tended to slip into that ever-endearing LA patois - I would occasionally hear an "ohmigod" or "like, dude", but admittedly it usually ended up something akin to "Ohmigod, like, the goth room isn't playing goth, dude." And really, how frightening can a club be if the guy standing at the door is wearing an Eddie Bauer t-shirt? OK, so some of the people inside were wearing chain mail and rubber, but they at least had a kinda friendly look about them.

I was also a little disappointed in Laibach's performance - they played mostly from their new repertoire, which is to be expected, but unfortunately they've traveled farther down the road to electronic/techno and away from their earlier stuff which, though truly scary, actually was more interesting musically. However, they did do some lovely cover versions of other people's songs:

The Final Countdown - Europe (80s folks)
Jesus Christ Superstar - Andrew Lloyd-Webber
Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
One Vision - Queen

It was still interesting to see them live - there was absolutely no conversation with the crowd and no introduction of the individual band members. Why? Because they're part of a totalitarian art movement in which individuals do not speak: the Group speaks as a whole - at least that's what they'd have me believe. But you and I both know that the drummer probably likes his eggs scrambled while everyone else goes for sunny-side-up. I suppose they take their little movement rather seriously - they've declared themselves a nation without geographic boundaries, have started issuing passports, and will shortly begin issuing a currency with which they intend to replace the ECU. When you look at it on that level, I suppose I could claim I was doing currency research for work. Why bother, when on a more realistic level, they're just bunch of sweaty Slovenians making noise and selling overpriced t-shirts. I think that's at least a misdemeanor in Texas.

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