NITZER EBB @ JAZZ CAFE, LONDON

Their second performance in London since the tragic passing of frontman vocalist and founding member Douglas McCarthy, industrial electroneers Nitzer Ebb performed in their home country (originating from Essex) with remaining original members Bon Harris on vocals and David Gooday (backing vocals, sequencer, percussion) alongside ‘Bit Hit’ drummer Jason Payne.

Opening on an ominous yet cinematic intro piece of keys and cymbal flutters, the group launched into their 1989 ‘Belief’ second album with single ‘Hearts & Minds’, Harris creeping about in between the flashes of chorus and then whispering amongst the piping woody beats of its other single, ‘Control, I’m Here’. Harris was ever full of expression in the tender abyss of McCarthy’s gaping absence, pacing up and down the narrow stage to the electro-creep and growl of ‘Blood Mooney’, a song that in its very sonic imprint fills the missing void of McCarthy’s gruff vocals.

‘Lightning Man’, one of the band’s best songs and the single from their 1990 third album ‘Showtime’, saw clarinet twists as Harris floated about the stage, narrating the Velvet Underoundesque allegorical lyrics with fervour before the power beats (and extra percussion by Gooday) in 1991 rock single ‘Godhead’, who also joined on vocals as the set list moved towards Nitzer Ebb’s 1987 debut album, ‘The Total Age’, with next single track ‘Join in the Chant’: a past reminder of the congruent duets of McCarthy and Harris and a return of Gooday on vocals, it was a moment of brave poignancy in the pompous, macho toxicity of the lyrics, at one point the pair embracing.

Nitzer Ebb closed their main set with the swinging chug of EBM staple ‘Let Your Body Learn’ and returned for an encore of ‘Violent Playground’, which as always was performed as an acoustic solo piece by Harris, closing on the pensively cinematic ‘I Give to You’, with Harris of course paying tribute to McCarthy. The group admirably continue with a kind of wounded strength and defiance to uphold their legacy.

21/03/26: Nitzer Ebb @ Jazz Cafe, London.