Idolator

Watching Jesu at the Gramercy theater a few months ago it seemed like Brodrick wanted to be back in Godflesh as much as I wanted him to!

There was much more on stage rocking than the music called for.

@Jess: Andres Serrano directed the video. The creepy old man is the late Bob Flanigan, a S&M performance artist who also appeared in NIN's "Happiness in Slavery" video. (He's the guy sacrificed to the torture chair).

I was fortunate enough to see Godflesh on what would be their final US tour in '96. It still is in my top 10 list for most memorable club gigs I've attended.

@schwarzsturm: Very envious that you caught them. I had tickets to the aborted tour some years later, while I had to miss them -- opening for Skinny Puppy! -- back in 1992 as well.

I love Jesu and liked Godflesh. I've enjoyed some Swans and Jarboe solo stuff. "Storm Comin' On" on the Lifeline EP wasn't bad at all. But the J2 project... I'm not sure about that yet. Especially the ululations in "Tribal Limo." (Samples at theomegaorder.com.)

@Ned: I've met many Godflesh listeners who were so jazzed to see them on the Puppy and '02 tours only for their hopes to be squashed. The '06 gig at Peabody's (Cleveland) almost didn't happen, as it was the day after the worst lake effect snowstorm in 10 years buried the city. The weather reduced the crowd size to roughly 300 hardcore fans who shoveled their way to the club. Ted Parsons had just been hired as their new drummer and he was a real machine (lousy pun, I know) behind the kit. I like Jesu as well, but the 'Flesh will always stand above the rest. I should try and dig up the pictures I took from that show.

Were you able to catch Puppy prior to the Last Rights tour? I never got to see them while Dwayne Goettel was still alive.

Never got to see Puppy at all, then or now. Good friend/fellow Idolator commenter Mackro got to see them as his First Ever Show back in the mid-eighties or something. My first show, I got .38 Special with Night Ranger opening. Le sigh.

I missed Godflesh three times - once because I couldn't make the gig, and twice because of entry visa problems on the tours mentioned above. I did get to speak to Broadrick once when he was being interviewed on NJ metal radio station WSOU - I called in right after the interview ended, and we had a quite nice conversation about Techno Animal, God, and his work with Painkiller.

I like the J2 EP OK, but Jesu just bores the pants off me. I walked out a few songs into their debut NYC show - boring, boring, boring, and Irving Plaza's ultra-shitty sound mix did them no favors.

I saw Godflesh on the Pure tour around 91 or so. Monster Magnet opened.

My fondest memory of the show, which was at the Marquee in NYC was that there were people climbing to the top of the stage monitors and diving off. During one of their tunes the DAT machine running their drum samples broke. While they were trying to fix it there was a dude on top of the speakers waiting to dive. He was up there for about five minutes.

That was an insane show. I really miss Godflesh.

@Ned: Puppy's last tour was excellent. Although it didn't have the spectacle of the '04 tour, I thought they put together a stronger set list.

@Unperson: That's cool you got to chat with JK. The last time I was at Irving Plaza was to see Curve in '98. I remember the sound mix being slightly off as well.

@Noam: Was Robert Hampson touring with Godflesh by then? The Pure/Cold World/Merciless era was my favorite chunk of music from Justin and Ben.