Skunk Anansie

Gravity Kills

Zurich Volkshaus

9th February 1997

This is my first gig in Switzerland, and it was good to see that there are some similarities, and some good differences, between a UK, and a Swiss crowd! People here know how to mosh like they do at home which is a good thing, with the added advantage that you don't get people swimming, so you can enjoy the mosh or just stand and watch or whatever, without getting kicked in the head!!!

However Swiss crowds give support bands the same treatment as UK crowds do, which is a shame.

Gravity kills were bloody good, no doubt about it. I've been to so many gigs where either the support band suck, or even if they are a good band, the sound is terrible for them. Gravity Kills however, sounded awesome, which made it even more annoying that the crowd just stood or sat and watched, with polite applause in between songs!

Gravity Kills put on a good show even though the singer jumped about lots, waved his arms about (the kind of things all good singers do). He even had a microphone which doubled up as a torch; well mental when the lights go out and you just see the lights on the equipment, and a bright light bouncing about the stage! However he did seem to be po'd with the lack of crowd response, but who could blame him? he keyboardist had a well smart keyboard which was on what must have been a kind of ball and socket joint, since he was spinning it round, tilting it onto strange angles, jumping on it and everything; very entertaining to watch I don't know how he got into those sorts of positions with a keyboard! Also the band has one guitarist and a drummer, who although not visually exciting (kinda difficult for a drummer I guess!) played very well. The whole band does perform really well, with a good loud but sharp sound.

It's hard to describe what kind of music it is! I always hate describing bands but find it a bit necessary with a relatively unknown band like this! They're American for a start and play a sort of industrial, alternative metal kind of thing! Hard to describe since they don't sound exactly the same as anyone else in particular (obviously a good thing), but I suppose if you had to lump them in with other bands, you'd probably say, NIN, White Zombie, Filter maybe a bit of Fudge tunnel as well! I'd definitely recommend them to anyone to see live, and I'd probably go and see them again if they did there own tour.



Skunk Anansie played an absolutely blinding set! I've always thought their singles were a bit average, but live they put on an amazing show, with Skin playing up to being a kind of "Anti-Sex-Symbol" very well, i.e. fellating what looked like an indoor TV aerial but made very strange noises when she was doing so!

She does make a very good singer, partly because of her incredibly powerful voice, but also because of her stage presence.

When Skin was lit up by a red or green light she does look very scary indeed, probably because with her being black, the light is absorbed making her look very demonic with her bulging white eyes!

Also she does the good old running and jumping about, jumping on top of the drum kit, kicking the cymbals, and entering in to entertaining banter with the crowd, rather than just standing there singing.

They played a mixture of old and new songs, most of which were the heavy mosh pit action songs, with a few slower ones thrown in to allow for a bit of a breather, with the compulsory light changes and big flashes, when the heavy bit kicks in!

So to summarise this was an excellent gig and I would recommend anyone going to see either band live, I know I'd go and see either live again!


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