Aaah. A concert worth writing about! DURANGO 6 from Tuscon, Arizona rocked the show awake with a sound reminiscent of Savage Republic (remember them?). Basic heavy drum beats, very bass filled, danceable urban tribal stuff. Definitely unique, quality sound.

Then..
CRASH WORSHIP! The show started with a woman doing a trapeze act. She ended her show by hanging from a rope BY HER NECK, twirling around impossibly fast - I don't know how she did it without breaking her neck. By this time drums and horns filled the air as body painted, tribal looking musicians snaked through the crowd.. a bass player on stage added to the sound.

The band eventually made it to the stage in darkness, two horn players, guitar, bass, two synth players and two drummers. The "concert" part of the concert was dark, chaotic, rhythmic, industrial tribal fucking FUN. The overall effect was something between Skinny Puppy and a Native American wardance. Lots of fluids tossed on the audience, drank with the audience, and generally spewed about. The concert was going strong when the club suddenly decided to turn on the lights and cut off the sound!

CRASH WORSHIP kept playing their horns and drums anyway. Two mostly naked women appeared above the audience, held up on a fruit filled platform by a few guys. The women threw huge pieces of fruit to the audience, and before you could say food fight, watermelon and who knows what was being smeared on people, eaten, and flying everywhere. The band kept making noise onstage until bouncers for the club dragged them off stage in head locks. The food fight turned more serious after that and the atmosphere started to look angry. After a few minutes of general chaos a naked drummer climbed on stage and played until his own band members dragged him off. More chaos including the pissed off club manager and sound man pacing around..

I should add that CRASH WORSHIP had carefully covered every bit of sound equipment remotely likely to get wet during their chaotic show, so the club's sound system was of no concern. The Electric Ballroom is a dive that hasn't been cleaned adequately in years, so a sticky floor is no concern either. Actually, I hate going to shows at this place because of its shoddy management, but that's another story.

The drummers and horn players started making noise in the crowd, and slowly headed for the front door. The crowd followed the band out, vandalizing the club on the way. Liquid and fruit was splattered everywhere, tables and chairs overturned, I saw a skinhead punch a sizeable hole in the drywall on his way out, anyway.. everyone ended up outside with the half-scared goons hired to protect the club no doubt sighing in relief.

The party continued in the parking lot... drumming, dancing, general fun. Within 10 minutes 4 or 5 police cars were parked at one end of the lot, the police lined up, evidently deciding whether or not to forcibly break up the party. At this point I hopped over a wall to catch a hidden vantage point for the possible upcoming chaos. I landed next to a bemused Mexican guy that was watching the whole scene from behind the wall. Anyway, the band wisely quit before the police moved in, and stashed all their equipment out of harm's way. The crowd eventually dispersed, overturning trash cans in the parking lot, kicking around bottles, etc. as the night came to a close.

A great evening of fun! It should be pointed out that this was a fairly tame, ho-hum show for CRASH WORSHIP. They were hampered, to say the least, by the idiots that manage the Electric Ballroom. CRASH WORSHIP often incorporates fire and more chaos into their shows. If you get a chance to see this band live, DO. Enough said.

Update: Crash Worship basically ceased to exist shortly after this show. Various members are doing new projects.