Review & Photos: Industrial leaders KMFDM remain alive and well after four decades

Written By Neil Shumate, OOTB Publications

In 1984 Germany’s Sascha Konietzko started an edgy, sometimes controversial, industrial-rock EBM (Electronic Body Movement) art-music project that became KMFDM… it’s now 2024 and twenty three albums later Konietzko continues to release new music and continues to take KMFDM on the road for lengthy tours, bringing packed venues the best of the genre pioneers, sharing stages across the country with vocalist Lucia Cifarelli, drummer Andy Selway and guitarist Andee Blacksugar.

Celebrating forty years, KMFDM stopped in Columbus last night at Newport Music Hall performing a wide catalogue of hits—songs dating back to 1990’s Naive and 1995’s Nihil all the way through a few newer tracks from 2022’s Hyena and 2024’s Let Go.

The stage front married duo of co-vocalists Konietzko and Cifarelli were often behind pulpit-like carts that held their “Ultra-Heavy Beat” electronic equipment, but they often stepped beside and in front of the stands to rock the mic with energetic moves and cat like prowls. Blacksugar jumped and danced with his guitar throughout the set and shined during brief solos, he also provided backing vocals.

Songs from the lengthy setlist that really fueled the crowd included: “Juke Joint Jezebel,” “Adios,” “Paradise,” “Rebels In Kontrol,” “A Drug Against War,” “Godlike,” “Terror.” All in all, KMFDM performed around 20 songs filling more than 90 minutes. The set was straight forward with no banter and a fantastic light show complimented each back-to-back song.

The crowd might be older, the iconic band might be older, but nobody let that stop them: It was goth dance night at the club and everybody showed up and nobody missed a beat to celebrate four decades of KMFDM.

Swedish cyberpunk four-piece Morlocks warmed the crowd up earlier having a power metal sound with an electronic bass heavy backing beat; minus the metal itself and without live percussion—at times resembling Atari Teenage Riot and other times more like Sabaton. A solid 45-minute set that fit the genre and put the crowd in motion.

See Tour Dates Here

https://kmfdm.net

KMFDM (click photos to enlarge)