IAMX – Stereo, Glasgow April 15
After four IAMX gigs within the last four months we know Chris Corner likes it dirty. When we arrived in this shady side street where the Stereo opens its gates to the world of tinnitus, the small grey bus with Berlin plates already claimed its position there. For the ones who have never been inside the Stereo, here’s a little overview: You go through the front door, down the stairs, into a cellar-like storage room which then hosted the Merch, through another door into the actual cellar. It’s small, dark, moist. Thank God it was too dark to identify any mould. Parts of the painting on the wall already came off and endow a good view at the old brickwall. You could as well store really old red vine there (which I’m pretty sure Mr. Corner would love to have around his stage btw.). But all that seemed just perfect for the gig and IAMX’ dark sexy sound. Looks like us fans need a little bizarre mood to be turned on...
The gig started off with a powerful “Bring me back a Dog”. Again. Just like the two gigs before. Yes, this song gets the people going and for that reason is a good opener, and it is one of my personal favourites, but it’s getting boring to know what will happen even before the show started. Right, maybe I should just stop going to so many IAMX gigs in a row and it’s my fault then, but is it too much to ask?
“Nature of Inviting” was up next, one of the new masterpieces coming out of Chris Corners glorious dark mind. About that time his hair changed from greasy smooth to wet and curly, due to a high rising percentage of humidity in the room. That must be the reason why he needed to throw all of his sweaty towels into the crowd after using them. Funny how the people were fighting hard to get one of those dirty, wet things like he’s some kind of Teenie-Star. Chris Corner, totally aware of how high his fangirl-level is, enjoyed teasing them with another towel and another pointed finger at one person at a time while singing “I love you! – I hate you!”. To me it seemed like he had never had a lot of eye contact with his audience until that very day.
As Mr. Corner once mentioned in a blog he is extremely pissed that some cocky journalist who got the new album for prelistening was sharing the files on the Internet and now every dumbass can download it weeks before the release.
I was very happy to hear “Skin Vision” again, my personal love story, which took me almost two years to like and I am addicted to now. The obligatory “President” was somewhere in the middle of the set and gave the people the chance to sing along even more. This song is super-present and an “earcatcher” at every show, no matter how often you hear it. Same for “Kiss + Swallow”, which has been an all time favourite for the fans for years. Other songs from the new album were “I Am Terrified”, “Tear Garden” and the fast paced “Think of England”.
Let’s take a closer look at his fellow performers (because that’s what they are, not just musicians, but performers):
Keyboardeuse Janine was dressed up SM-doll-like with her typical, anything but average make-up. Berlins’ cabarets would be proud to have her.
Even if he’s trying to hide at the dark back of the stage, drummer Tom caught our eyes with big black feathers on the shoulders of his jacket as well as the eye mask, although I can’t say if it was really just a mask or lots of black make-up. If you ever get bored (which I doubt) you can spend a fun night counting the broken drumsticks he throws behind his back during one show. Drumstick industry is surely not endangered of financial collapse, thanks to this guy!
Last but not least there is guitarist Dean, who was the secret star in the diffuse red lights. He was the one pushing the audience to their boundaries, kept them moving, shouted at the audience and moved his hips to the rythm, giving everything he had.
Once again, this was another proof of IAMX’ grandiose live qualities. Different to anything else, captivating and exhausting. If you’ve not seen them yet, hell, DO!
ally