My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult – at The Whiskey A Go Go – Los Angeles, CA

When I heard Thrill Kill Kult was playing the Whisky-a-Go-Go I went online and bought 4 tickets without even blinking. I’d always wanted to catch them live and planned on crossing it off my bucket list without a thought.
 

Then the tickets arrived in the mail and a burning question loomed in the back of my mind: but what if they suck? It’s true, when you’ve been a die-hard fan of a band that’s been around for over 25 years it’s natural to second-guess their ability to perform well “these days.” But, what’s different about TTK is the fact that their new album, in this humble goth’s opinion, is their most amazing record yet. I figured that alone made the TTK-acid trip worth taking. After all, the self-described kings of “Industrial Disko Elektro Sleaze” wouldn’t dare disappoint, would they?

My friends and I arrived just in time to catch DJ Toxic Rainbow walk on stage to begin his set, and let me just say, I really hoped his performance wasn’t a barometer for the type of night I was about to have. His set sucked so much ass I couldn’t decide between downing my vodka tonic in hopes of blacking out, or downing it so I could smash the glass, cut my ears off, and end my misery. It was a dub-steppy, pre-recorded, train wreck of a mess. As a fellow DJ I didn’t even care about the pre-record so much, but more about what it represented. Hey, asshole, stop waving your arms around like you’re conducting your own pretentious symphonic cacophony and LOOK THE FUCK UP AT THESE DISAPPOINTED FACES AND ACT ACCORDINGLY!!!! A DJ has just one job when he or she opens for a band: get the crowd ready to loose their minds. All he needed to do was set the scene for TTK to take the stage, get everyone pumped, and mic drop in a blaze of sleazy glory before the band took the reins. Unfortunately, he didn’t—and it was the audience who had to suffer through it. But I’m a silver lining kind of girl, and so I can say with all honesty that thank you fucking Jesus that was the only thing about this show that sucked.

About 15 minutes after the sweet and silent relief bought to us by the ending of Toxic Rainbow’s set, the house lights began to dim. I had elbowed and shoved my way right to the front and was rambling on with other fans about the classic tracks we hoped to hear. I began hooting and screaming like a white girl when I saw Buzz McCoy and Mimi Star walk on the stage. Honestly, Buzz didn’t look all the different from the classic TTK days, so it was Mimi’s sexy ass that really caught my eye. Dressed head to toe in go-go silver, purple hair in long pig tails, and her bass stiffly positioned at her upper thighs like a cock, I knew before Groovie Mann even walked on the stage that this was going to be a night to remember.

Almost immediately the whooping and throbbing of the lead track from Spooky Tricks” began echoing through the room, skipping the intro featuring sampled b-film-like female vocals as Groovie Mann strutted as arrogantly as ever onto the stage, grabbing the mic and asking the crowd in a his signature smoker’s cough growl, “If I give you some money, will you come to my room?” BOOM! The beat dropped, as my heart leapt, eyes rolled back in my head and every party of my body was throbbing to the bass line screaming, “yes, yes, yes!!!” From that point on every ass was shaking for the rest of the show. There was even a guy in a wheel chair next to me who couldn’t sit still through TTK’s mind blowing new set of spooky tricks.

The second song they launched into was “Daisy Chain for Satan,” a classic and one I’m sure the whole crowd was waiting to hear. I was blown away when I heard it! It took about 30 seconds for me to realize what song it was when I heard the sample “I live for drugs. It’s great,” and Groovie Mann—leaning far back exposing the shiny silver zipper that ran from the belly of his jeans to the back of his crotch, leather vest exposing his bare and sweaty chest—began whining in the scuzziest tone he could muster “Here where I will sit alone, lost here I will dream, why give me a drink, I need to think…” and it was then I realized how truly special this set was. Buzz McCoy, keyboardist and producer for TTK seamlessly meshed the industrial scum of classic tracks like “Do You Fear for Your Child?” and “After the Flesh” with the new Spooky Tricks sounds full of elements of disko, and industrial, along with Chicago house, dark electro, and even some break beats. It was faultless and glorious in every way. Groovie Mann delivered the scuzz, Mimi cared the bassline that I could feel in my knees for the entire set, filling in some of the vocal samples for songs like “Bella Piranha.”

The last song of TTK’s set was chosen perfectly. If the point of this tour was to show that they’ve still got it and to rub the crowd’s faces in a little bit of tantalizingly welcome sleaze while promoting the new record, then Groovie Mann, Buzz, and Mimi delivered. The tune they chose to close their set with was indulgently braggadocios—a goth anthem—and it was a track composed to celebrate what else but TTK themselves. As soon as the crowd heard Mimi’s sexy robotic chant: “And this is what the devil does…” it was like pure ecstasy. The song ended with an extension of the chorus “My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult…” Who else but TTK could so unapologetically congratulate themselves in a song that had the crowd in a uproar, reduced, and yet elevated, to cult-like followers of the church of TTK chanting and singing their band name over and over with them?

After what seemed like forever, the crowd still wasn’t satisfied. We needed another fix. TTK was happy to oblige, returning to the stage for a 3-song encore, the highlight of which was a Spooky Tricks-style rendition of one of their most well-known and beloved tracks, “After the Flesh.” It hit hard. It was aggressive, it was groovy, and it left me feeling like I needed a shower. It was over too quickly, like most good times feel. But the memory, the sleaze, the bass booming indulgence into all things taboo and “naughty” will live on forever. Thrill Kill Kult: after 25 years as the soundtrack to my life, I love you more than ever.

-Princess Darkness-
Big Wheel Contributor

 

 

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