Industrial Music Legends Jam At Metro To Help Suicide Prevention

By Casey Moffitt in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 23, 2015 4:38PM

Metro plays host to the fourth installment of the annual Cold Waves industrial music showcase this weekend, bringing an impressive collection of talent to help raise funds for a local suicide prevention charity. It's rare to see bills chock full of industrial acts these days, so we'e excited by this one.

The weekend includes two monster line-ups, with a total of 14 bands performing Friday and Saturday night, featuring some of the legends of the art form as well as newer talent.

Godflesh will headline Friday night, bringing its brand of bone-crushing, teeth-rattling tunes. Godflesh nearly shook Metro to its foundation when they performed there last year, for the first time in Chicago in 18 years. This time around, we expect the duo of Justin Broadrick and G.C. Green will be playing some material from their latest studio effort, A World Lit Only By Fire, which continues their tradition of laying down bass-heavy, percussive tracks.

A World Lit Only By Fire reminds us just how much we've missed these juggernauts since they split in 2002. Plus it's always exciting to have the chance to see anyone who helped pioneer a musical movement.

Speaking of pioneers, Friday also includes a set by Lead Into Gold, featuring Paul Barker, the former bass player from Ministry. As half of the Luxa/Pan production team, Barker and Al Jourgensen spent a 16-year reign of terror turning rock 'n' roll on its head with frightening results. The pair helmed a fistful of projects including Revolting Cocks, Lard and 1000 Homo DJs.

Lead Into Gold released just one full-length album and a few 12" singles for the local label Wax Trax! in the late '80s and early '90s. It's the only Luxa/Pan outfit fronted by Barker and it's far less aggressive than most of his other projects. Still, it's heavily percussive with synth-driven gems. Barker, who has not performed in the U.S. for more than 20 years, dusts off his act.

Sandwiched in between is the dark ambient innovator Lustmord. A onetime member of the Australian industrial/noise band SPK, this Welsh composer (a.k.a. Brian Williams) broke out on his own to create his own vision of forbidding music. Also intriguing is Author&Punisher, a one-man act dreamed up by Tristan Shone who plays his own custom-made instruments he calls Drone Machines, Dub Machines and Masks. This collection includes a wild eight-way microphone, creating a vast array of sounds and tones. The music is challenging at times, but strange and inventive enough to catch our attention.

Pruient, Lab Report and locals Two From The Eye round out Friday's bill.

The party continues Saturday with Front Line Assembly, Bill Leeb's post-Skinny Puppy project, headlining. Pop Will Eat Itself brings it own vision of electronic party music on a brief U.S. tour for the first time in 20 years. Australian ambient pioneers Severed Heads, Cocksure, High-Functioning Flesh, Rorschach Test and Human Traffic will also perform.

Despite all the great bands and all the music this weekend, Cold Waves has some serious underpinnings and somber origins.

Cold Waves began in 2012 as a memorial to Chicago musician and sound engineer Jaimie Duffy, who spent 20 years in the local music scene playing in bands including Acumen Nation. He was known and admired for putting incredible effort working sound boards at Metro, House of Blues and Cubby Bear, as well as numerous street festivals. But the showcase has evolved into a fundraising effort to benefit Hope for the Day, a local suicide prevention charity.

Hope for the Day incorporates art and music projects into its programs with those who suffer from depression or those who have had suicidal thoughts. Hope for the Day also has an educational arm which aims to reduce the stigma of suicide, as well as its outreach programs.

Cold Waves will be held Friday Sept. 25 and Saturday Sept. 26 at at Metro, 3730 N. Clark St., 6 p.m. both nights, Friday and Saturday shows are $45 each, 18+