Concert Review: Combichrist, Filter, Lord Of The Lost, Rabia Sorda

Munich, Backstage Werk, June 5^th, 2016

Right on time with the release of their newest album ‘This is where death begins’, Combichrist started their ‘Make Europe Great Again’ tour, which will keep them on our beautiful continent until late July.

They’re taking three bands out on tour, Filter, Lord Of The Lost and Rabia Sorda.

First off, you got to go see that show. The energy those bands bring on stage is one of a kind.

Rabia Sorda and Lord Of The Lost, both German bands, created an awesome atmosphere from the beginning. It’s not a common thing for opening bands to get as much positive responses from the crowd. Not so that day.

When Rabia Sorda entered the stage at 7.30 pm, the people were still pouring into the venue, since they only opened a small side entrance. Some people might have missed parts of a good show, which is always a bit annoying.

Lord Of The Lost played a one hour set, which is pretty long, considering them as an opening act for the two headlining bands. Lights and sound were perfectly mixed. They started out with their new single ‘For The Love Of God’ and played all the better known songs throughout the night. Last time I saw them in Munich it was the acoustic show, which in itself was a beautiful thing. But this time there were no seats nor suits, this time it was back to the original song versions again with no time to rest.

After two awesome performances the crowd was really pumped and admittedly it was probably not that easy to build on that. Next up was Filter.

When Combichrist came on stage at about 11 pm, it only took a few notes and the audience was back again, singing and dancing and simply having a good time. It was the third time I saw that band live and the energy, the driving rhythm and the overall powerful performance convinces me every time. There’s always discussions about bands changing their style or getting too hard or soft, too much electronic or too few. That might be the case on the records (but for one, that’s a matter of opinion and secondly, bands evolve, or at least they should. Who’d honestly listen to the exact same kind of music over a long time span on every record released? Would be boring with time.), but Combichrist’s live performances are pretty heavy. What might be the ‘fault’ of a very dedicated rythm section with Joe Letz and the ‘new guy’ Nick Rossi (ex-New Years Day), who clearly found his place on stage with that band. Combichrist played old and new stuff, like their newest single ‘Skullcrusher’, but also ‘Maggots at the party’ and ‘Get Your Body Beat’. Filter’s guitarist Oumi Kapila joined the band on stage for the last few songs. They closed their set with ‘What the f*** is wrong with you people?’ at about 15 minutes past midnight. Pretty late for a Sunday, but definitely worth staying up late.