Killing Joke at the Wiltern Last Night
Timothy Norris Killing Joke at the Wiltern
[For more exclusive photos see Timothy Norris' slideshow "Killing Joke @ The Wiltern".]
Killing Joke
December 18, 2010
The Wiltern
There were so many mini-vans in the parking lots surrounding the Killing Joke show at The Wiltern last night, it could have been a Wiggles concert--"Spot-A-Mini" was the game of the evening.
Between sets, it seemed so quiet (and the bar so empty), the we had a sudden fear that the show had been canceled and nobody was there. But it wasn't a failure: there were people there, they just weren't doing anything. Everybody was milling quietly about waiting politely for the band to go on.
As the band took the stage the crowd half-heartily let out a cheer and the band opened with "Tomorrow's World."
After they finished, Jaz Coleman said "that was for Paul Raven, he used to live here" and they went straight into "Love Like Blood." Really? That's it? It's been a while since Paul Raven's death but that seemed abrupt and odd.
After such an incredible show as they'd had at House of Blues just over two years ago (October 2008) this was a disappointing change of pace. Tonight the band was tight, Coleman's voice was flawless, they sounded great, but there was nothing happening--they were just up there playing their instruments and getting through the songs.
At House of Blues it was chaos, the band was on fire, the crowd was out of control. There were black eyes and exhausted masses sprawled out in parking lots all over West Hollywood. People couldn't stop talking about the show for weeks.
This was more like a listening party put on by a record label.
In theory there shouldn't be anything wrong with a polite crowd, but it just seemed, well... wrong. It was just unnatural.
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