3Teeth & <PIG>, Thekla, Bristol
3Teeth have very much owed Bristol this show following their last-minute cancellation from July 2019 when they were due to support Industrial legends Ministry at SWX (transpires they were a tad too lubricated to get through security at Heathrow which resulted in them being shipped back the mainland Europe from whence they flew in from) so it was really rather nice to see them safely in the country not to mention playing a venue whose décor truly fits their industrial wall of sound style such as the Thekla, despite the boat currently being a bit off-kilter in terms of mooring (it’s very, very obvious that the ship is leaning heavily to the right).
I ensured I arrived in plenty of time to see <PIG> (8) smash through a glorious set of post-industrial tunes as a heck of a bonus for the evening. Raymond Watts has either been in, collaborated or just hung out with pretty much every important industrial band you can think of since the mid-1980s and you can certainly tell as there’s not a Rockstar-move that he doesn’t have nailed down. Opening with The Revelation from the 2017 Prey & Obey EP closely followed by (relatively) new tune Mobocracy it’s very clear that this old dog has plenty of new tricks and he’s not afraid to smash them into our skulls to ensure we’re on board the <PIG> train for the evening. The decent attendance in place (particularly for an early start support band) very much get into proceedings and the dancefloor ahead of the Fluffy-jacket wearing frontman begins to writhe suitably. The set cumulates with a cover of KMFDM’s (whom Raymond has been a significant contributor to since the mid-80s) Juke Joint Jezebel), his own Prey & Obey and finishing the job with 1997’s Prime Evil. A corking set from a project which deserves way more love from the Industrial scene than it ever seems to get.
Onwards to 3Teeth (8) who take to the stage with minimal fuss and simply do what they do best: Make a lot of noise with a brilliantly harsh wall of distorted sound, fizzy guitars and huge drums, and right now they’re on absolute top form as they tear through a set comprised of a good balance from their 3 albums to date. Tracks such as EXXXIT, Shutdown, Pit Of Fire and Master Of Decay are delivered with precision aggression and an urgency which says that this band are determined to be recognized alongside more successful artists such as Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails and Ministry themselves and their take-no-prisoners approach to live shows truly backs this up. Frontman Alexis Mincolla patrols the stage with a level of menace and often hangs over the crowd from the speakers to give a true visual image (particularly since the stage setup is entirely backlit, a perfect look for a band of this nature). There’s more crowd interaction on this tour than via previous visits to our shores as Alexis snarkily comments that we’re all in luck as we’re on one of the few venues which will survive the rising sea levels over coming years (and to which a hasty retort of "OK Boomer" comes back from an audience member) so the gig is more than just business this time around.
The encore features President X, the fourth single from 2019s Metawar with Alexis in his full reptilian prosthesis as featured in the music video from the same and proceedings are ended with a very sweaty, satisfied crowd dispersing into the night. A great shame to not hear their excellent cover of Foster The People’s Pumped Up Kicks (particularly in a city where it has very much progressed to club-floorfiller) as that really would have really put the final bullet into the chamber, but overall a top-notch show from a band at the absolute height of their powers. If you enjoy industrial music in any of it’s forms you owe it to yourself to catch 3Teeth live.
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