It’s official. My wife just confirmed the hotel reservation where we’ll be staying the night of the Current 93 show in London on May 28.
For those unfamiliar with Current 93, they are a band that rose from the depths of the early 80’s British industrial scene with the likes of such greats as Psychic TV, Cabaret Voltaire, 23 Skidoo, Coil, Nurse With Wound and others. The ‘band’ officially only consists of one permanent member; singer and song writer, David Tibet (born David Michael Bunting. The name Tibet was given to him by Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV front wo/man Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and has seem to have stuck ever since). C93’s music style has ranged from full on industrial assault to almost classical style (with strings, piano, etc), to folk, to hard rock, to (most often) a beautiful mixture between any of the above.
My introduction to Current 93 came around 1985 or 86 with the fantastic album Dog’s Blood Rising. I admit that what attracted me most at that time was that Tibet’s references to Christianity seemed like straight up tongue-in-cheek irony (I mean, just listen to this quick sample of “From Broken Cross, Locusts” to see what I’m talking about). As it turns out though, Tibet’s Christian references were/are actually anything but ironic. David Tibet is, in actuality, a very deeply religious and Christian individual, though not in a very mainstream sense of the idea. He has about as much in common with folks like Jerry Falwell as Anton Szandor LaVey would. Oddly enough, this revelation of David’s deep sense of Christian belief only made me like him and Current 93 that much more, as I’ve always considered myself to be fairly (Gnostic) Christian as well.
Since that first listen, Current 93 has remained my favorite musical group to this day. In all these years, though, I have never actually seen them perform. That miscarriage of justice is about to be corrected on May 28, though, and I cannot wait. This show will be a huge event. Not just because I’ll get to see C93 perform for the first time, but because (a) this is the first time that Current 93 will perform alongside of long time collaborator Nurse With Wound (b) it will mark the 25th anniversary of Current 93, and (c) it will be a celebration of David Tibet’s 50th birthday.
Check out the official concert poster here.
And to understand why I’m excited, give a listen to the live version of the song “Dogun” below (from a concert in 2008) as loud as you possibly can. Then imagine it 100’s of times louder with the energy of a live crowd.
As I may have said before, I can’t fuckin’ wait…
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