On Sunday, October 15, I attended a KMFDM and Combichrist concert at the State Theatre in St. Petersburg. KMFDM, an acronym for “kein mitleid fuer die mehrheit” (meaning “no pity for the majority”), were formed in 1984 in Germany by Sascha Konietzko, whose alias is “the Kap’n.” Sascha is from West Hamburg, and remains the constant founding member in the band. KMFDM’s genre is Industrial (compare to bands like Nine Inch Nails, Combichrist, Ministry, etc.). Some of Sascha’s side-projects are MDFMK, Excessive Force, and Schwein.
We arrived in St. Pete around 5-5:30, so we definitely had some time to kill since the show was scheduled to start at 8. Unfortunately, we killed that time sitting in front of State Theatre, hahaha. Chris’ (my boyfriend) dad showed up, and shortly after, Jon (Chris’ brother), Laura Berger, and Bryan Babb arrived. After we got inside, I ran to the merch booth while Chris held a spot in the front for us, and then we switched (much smarter than us both going up at the same time, leaving our spot open for others to take).
Combichrist and KMFDM were the only two bands there, which is awesome, ’cause I didn’t need some not-totally-awesome band opening for two totally awesome bands. That also meant that their sets could be wicked long, too. Combichrist came on and played songs I definitely knew, and some I wasn’t too familiar with but had heard. Their set was wicked energetic; the audience began sloshing back and forth, ramming into each other, and and the crowd’s involvement was important to their performance.
KMFDM came onstage, and, of course, the crowd went ballistic. There was this guy who looked like Willem Dafoe (the Green Goblin from Spider Man) in a KMFDM wifebeater who continually elbowed all of us to try to get up front. We all stood our ground, though, ’cause people like him shouldn’t be allowed to get their way. There was an equally short-like-me girl standing next to me who went off on him… haha, she was cool. But anyways, KMFDM played a ton of songs I didn’t even recognize. I knew maybe 6 of them. :/ But it’s all right because they put on an awesome show. Chris feels special because he was the ONLY person who got to touch Sascha. XD I’m thinking it was linked to Chris screaming “yee-haw” during the intro for “WWIII” and Sascha (whose face was stern for the entire show, save this one moment) obviously getting a kick out of it (the intro is a banjo playing for nearly a minute). *shrug* Just a hunch.
