Club Anything has long filled a niche for Milwaukee, providing a venue that caters to fans of industrial music and all things goth. Despite it being a freezing Thursday night, the club’s “KINK! Masquerade” still managed to draw a fair sized and devoted crowd last week. They sported black lace, corsets, black eyeliner, lip piercings, top hats, fishnets, and a variety of Mardi Gras style masks. It was a night for latex and leather.
Creepy art and classy pin ups hung on the wall and fetish fashion videos played on the screens. The crowd mingled in the absinthe bar and in the front stage area, where plastic skeletons illuminated by black light paint stared down at the bands below.
First to take the stage was Murder Love God, led by a singer who goes by the single name Medavon. He also sings for local band Lockjaw, a popular local band in the industrial-metal scene. Lockjaw just celebrated an album release at Club Anything at the beginning of January and calls their brand of music “hell-rock."
Medavon paced the stage with a microphone, wearing a sleeveless dress shirt to show off his tattoos, a cowboy hat, and some ancient Egyptian-looking eye makeup. Behind him, a small shrine of cocktail candles glowed in a strobe light, underneath a cross wrapped with Christmas lights and adorned with a cow skull. He was flanked by headlining band Incekt’s Jeremy Gardipee and Saul Laufer, both playing synthesizers. The frantic industrial rhythms gave the singer a chance to show off his vocal prowess, a good supplement of music for Lockjaw fans.
In between acts, some ladies amped up the kink factor by tying up brave souls from the audience in elaborate rope work. They then hooked the ropes up to a suspension system which dangled the volunteer a few feet in the air.
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Following Murder Love God was Incekt, a local duo on synthesizers. The droning electric sounds also featured distorted vocals and a thumping drum machine. It was dark and atmospheric, along the lines of Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy. After the bands, some of Club’s resident DJs took over, spinning more industrial favorites.
It was a good night for Club Anything, who switched management last year, and for fans of industrial music.