Getting showered with sparks by a giant bearing an angle grinder is not how most people spend their Friday night.
But Battery 9 fans come out in their droves for this kind of treatment, especially because live performances from Johannesburg’s finest industrial outfit are so rare.
‘There are a lot of people I haven’t seen in years,” said a fellow journalist to me. ‘Ons kerk se mense,” he added, beaming from ear to ear.
To be quite honest that is exactly how it felt because Battery 9 pulls a crowd from all walks of life. The only thing they have in common is a love of bone-crunching, spine-tingling industrial beats. From the shirtless sweaty guy who was so excited he kept trying to hug everyone no matter how they resisted, to the guys with the stocks in the back of the smokey Rock Bar, who were clamping bondage fanatics down for a good old spanking.
The event was the launch of Battery 9’s new album, Galbraak, which loosely translates as Spewing Bile.
It’s been three years since the last album, Straks, which was the inspiration for getting the band back on the gigging circuit in the first place.
There is no doubt Battery 9 is Paul Riekert’s band.
Original member Huyser Burger may still be steadfast in his support, angle grinder or paint brush in hand and their new guitarist may fit the part, but Battery 9 is still Riekert’s dark tongue-in-cheek vision, soundtracked by menacing machines, screwed-up electronics, meaty repetitive guitar riffs, distorted vocals and lyrics that deal with the dark and absurd aspects of the human psyche.
The audience was in rapture, bouncing around to tracks such as
Consume and
Selfoon from Straks and newer tracks like
Enough Rope.
The band even pulled out a couple of classics such as Aag Fok from Gris and Kiss the Machine from Strop.
Riekert also had the entire catalogue of his One F label for sale, so fans could complete their Battery 9 collection by purchasing all seven of their groundbreaking albums, while also picking up great releases by Trike, Die Menere, General Dealer, Swim Club, Bittervrug, Breinsakde, Nul and Thys Nywerheid.
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