Atari Teenage Riot and Otto von Schirach @ Gramercy Theater 9.23.11

Atari Teenage Riot's Alec Empire

An overwhelming week initiated with a wild ride of emotions left us wanting to exert all this excess energy and rage. There was no better place to let loose with Atari Teenage Riot and Otto von Schriach at Gramercy Theater.

When Otto von Schirach walked out looking like a  wrestler with a penchant for bejeweled grandma sweaters, it was apparent this was going to be the ultimate otherworldly freak show. Joined on stage by the silent but potential deadly dancer Lily, the Crack Monster and an inflatable pink flamingo, the Miami producer put on a ridiculous breakbeat funhouse nightmare that won over the early birds. It felt like like watching a faction of the Fantastic Nobodies with their usual musical companions, Modeselektor, present via deep booty-dropping bass (naturally, these kindred spirits have collaborated before.)

The Crack Monster and a masked Otto go crazy

The creepy, unsettling awful good time came to a close after 45 minutes with a song about santeros. The Spanish word caused our ears to perk, as per usual, when Otto introduced the song sans accent. This lead to wondering if he was one of us (we would later find the Cuban/German costumed crazy is :)) and admittedly, his assumed Latino cred was the red bow on the killer-clown-from-outer-space-severed-head-in-a-box of a gift that is his live show.

The thought of being swallowed up the sweaty vortex of adrenaline-fueled madness we envisioned Atari Teenage Riot concerts to embody was scary and intriguing. Surprisingly, the floor was desolate compared to what we expected it to be when the band hit the ground running with opener "Activate!" The digital hardcore trio Alec Empire, Nic Endo and CX Kidtronik eventually lured the shy out of the woodwork with their relentless energy and got a decent mosh pit going that lasted the whole set through.

ATR's Nic Endo and CX Kidtronik

The crowd rattled to the sound of ATR's best like "Sick to Death," "Delete Yourself" and "Burn, Berlin, Burn!" and new songs "Blood in My Eyes" "Codebreaker" and "The Collapse of History" from most of their current manifesto Is This Hyperreal???. Almost a decade gone, a member lost (R.I.P. Carl Crack) and a member gained in CX Kidtronik, Atari Teenage Riot resurrected in 2010 to finish what they started in a world that continues to be at the mercy of oppressing forces. Alec's monologue in the title track especially echoed the current climate in NYC with the Occupy Wall Street protests taking shape, their non-violent protest against corporate greed subject to police brutality. For an hour we shouted, pumped our fists and danced to these protest songs in solidarity... and it was beautiful. --Cheep

Photos (via)

Rammstein/Combichrist @ Madison Square Garden 12.11.10

Our awesome birthday weekend fun and year of concert amazingness literally came to an end with numerous bang-bangs via Germany's most beloved boy band Rammstein Saturday night.

After months of denial/disbelief that we were actually attending this show, the excitement slowly crept and blew up in our brain on our way to MSG. This shit was legit, we were about to be part of one of the important events in our musical history!

A quick trip to the merch table for some posters and an odd moment with two random dudes from a state shaped like a mitten (were they hitting on us or making fun of us?) later, we took our seats and tried to contain ourselves for the time being.

Norwegian "aggrotech" band Combichrist opened the show. We hadn't checked them out prior and had assumed they were just another cateater metal band but alas they were more to our liking, a run-of-the-mill industrial band with two drummers and decent synths. Their sound was shit but that's not rare for an opening act at Madison Square Garden.

By mid-set some nervous nail-biting occurred but we killed some time Google searching the band then trying to figure out if Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland was the guy playing guitar as I was informed via Wikipedia. Snail fact-checked via Borland's Twitter and confirmed. Why is he still playing with Limp Bizkit if he has good taste in music? The band began to sound a lot better after finding this out but then their half hour set came to a close right after, womp womp.

We started to get all butterflies-in-the-tummy excited, ready to pop with overt happiness for the most entertaining over-the-top rock show. After about a year or so of just watching videos of Rammstein playing to tens of thousands musics festival in Europe feeling all kinds of deprived, we were in it to win it! We were two among the fishnet freaks, rocker sluts, Germans -- and the largest concentration of people wearing Rammstein merch we've ever seen in one place -- from all over the country, the world! so freaking pumped to be seeing them and ready to smell the benzine.

After about a decade long absence from the States, they took the stage to the crowd chanting "RAMM-STEIN!" opened with the appropriate hype song, "Rammlied" and charged on through a 2-hour action packed, album spanning set -- including encore, filled mostly with songs from their latest, Liebe ist fur alles da and their many singles, including American favorite "Du Hast."

We went nuts all set (as if we could help it) singing broken German, jumping around, headbanging. Especially during our favorite, "Du riechst so gut." One guy with long hair one row down won the "That Guy, That's The Guy" award for being awesome all show, let his hair loose to headbang during this song and this song only. We loved it!

Also finally witnessed the band's infamous and very ridiculous stage theatrics in the flesh! Like Flake's obligatory sail across the pit and Til's big little penis coming foam on the whole lower-level/pit during the very hilarious "Pussy." And the fire! There was a crossbow "shooting" fire arrows into the air, metal wings on fire. Til poured sparks on Flake in a dirty bathtub which turned him from a PVC trench coat wearing, crazy-legged mad scientist of synths into a sequin-suited crazy-legged mad scientist of synths! Explosions! We kept jumping every time something went "POP!" Super silly and too much fun.

On our way home we overheard a guy say that he'd thought there would be more fire, haha. Honestly, there could've been a little bit more fire, it didn't feel quite as potentially life threatening as we imagined it would be! There also could've been more violence in the pit (since we were not in it haha), it wasn't even near the animalistic death vortex we pictured pre-show. Civilized bunch, these Rammstein fans.

Rammstein, however, signed sealed and delivered! This band just does not give a shit. As you know, we love people who don't give a shit and don't take themselves seriously. Needless to say, their industrial rock opera tapped our bottoms and we came out of there with a boner increase of 400% for these Germans...and the bittersweet feeling that lingers after seeing a great, long-awaited show that just passes by so quickly and becomes another memory patch in gray matter.

Watch videos of the show here.