Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Križanke, Ljubljana
Concert date: June 7, 2015
Los Angeles crossover metallers Body Count shook up the world in 1992 with the controversial Cop Killer, but they proved they’re way more than just the rumors swirling around them. Body Count are also, and above all, a great crossover band and an experiment that succeeded in translating the language and »attitude« of the Black ghettos into punk and thrash metal. The Ice-T and Ernie C partnership fused what seemed at the time like total opposites some twenty years back, carved out its own recognizable sound and recorded at least two classic records, Body Count (1992) and Born Dead (1994). Almost nine years passed between the third and fourth albums; in between, Body Count blew Ljubljana away for the first time and tragically lost three important original members. Guitarist D-Roc the Executioner died of lymphoma in 2004, bassist Mooseman was shot dead in a »drive-by« in 2001, and drummer Beatmaster V died of leukemia in 1996. The original duo mourned for a good while, but came back from the dead reinforced in 2009, and last year they released the excellent comeback Manslaughter, which finally brought them back to Ljubljana after a hefty eighteen years.
The honor of warming up the crowd for the evening’s main motherfuckers went to Trbovlje hardcore outfit Kreshesh Nepitash, who turned out to be a fitting and well-chosen opener. Even though the audience started chanting »BC, BC« soon after nine, the Trbovlje lads still drew a pretty decent crowd that didn’t listen to them in a completely anemic way. A band thematically quite close to Body Count, in a good half hour they unloaded all their rage over the state of existence of the little guy, the social distress of the 99% and a raw critique of capitalist society onto Križanke. When a band comes from Trbovlje, one of the towns with an especially high unemployment rate, it can only sound more sincere. Despite an injured arm, Matic Hribar did the frontman job with distinction, since the criticism coming out of his screaming vocal cords sounds even closer to the individual, which the punchy backing vocals only underline. The same goes for the varied riffing of Nejc Kuder and Peter Dolčina (Ragespect), which roared like a wave of striking workers despite the lousy sound.
In just under half an hour the stage techs had everything ready for the return of the legendary Body Count, and when the lights finally went out and the cult intro from the debut, Smoked Pork, boomed out of the speakers, the crowd roared like an Airbus engine, and the chants of »BC!« and »Body Count!« kept going long after the way-too-quick goodbye. But before that, Body Count, led by the boss himself, Ice-T, unloaded a nice selection of classics, saying hello with the cult Body Count’s In the House. Already during that one the space in front of the stage came alive, with brutal moshing that seemed to have no end, and the band showed up in fantastic form, biting into the songs with full force and even faster than on the studio releases, despite the poor sound, which was made even worse by Ice-T’s somewhat feeble vocals. Luckily the sound got fixed in the first half of the gig, and only then did the band really pull the Uzis and Magnums out of their pants and serve up a »drive-by« massacre for the crowd, with the crunchy guitars of the duo Ernie C (who, with his slightly graying afro tuft, looks from a distance like a Black Bobby Liebling, hehe)/Juan of The Dead (the only white guy in the band, known of course as Juan Garcia, guitarist of EvilDead and Agent Steel), buzzing like chainsaws. You can’t imagine Body Count without Ernie’s devilish soloing, and his antics come across even better live. There was no need to waste words on the crushing rhythm section; that was clear the moment the bass guitar of energy bomb Vincent Price (Steel Prophet) rattled for the first time and Ill Will touched his drumstick to the drumheads for the first time. Under Ice’s leadership the gig slowly reached boiling point, first with the mega hit There Goes the Neighborhood, then the ballad KKK Bitch, a phenomenal and surprising take on The Exploited classic Disorder, and the first single from the new album, Talk Shit, Get Shot, which Ice dedicated to a fifteen-year-old in the crowd, telling him to aim it at the »bullies« next time and explain to them that Uncle Ice-T has his back. The main set predictably ended with the ironclad Cop Killer, a new Slovenian anthem, as Ice-T dubbed it, with his son Ice Tracy stepping from the background to the front to join him. After the farewell, at the demand of the roaring crowd, who had created a truly exceptional atmosphere and earned praise from the band too, Body Count gave Ljubljana an allegedly unplanned encore of two more songs, starting with Enter the Dark Side from Manslaughter and finishing with an anti-racist anthem in Body Count style, Momma’s Gotta Die Tonight. Live, in a slightly extended version with Ice-T’s acting bits thrown in, it came off exceptionally, so the bitter aftertaste from the too-early ending was a little less sharp. The gig ended without any big goodbye after just an hour and a quarter; judging by the action in front of the stage, Body Count could have given the crowd at least Bitch in the Pit and Evil Dick too. But no matter the obviously too-quick ending, Body Count successfully proved they’re not just a »nostalgia act« but a band that still has something to say, and I hope the follow-up to Manslaughter gets here sooner than in eight years. Let’s also hope the excellent turnout at Sunday’s gig is a sign that we can expect similar bigger names here in the future too. The crowd is more than obviously hungry for it. Bitch!
Setlist
BODY COUNT:
1. Body Count’s In the House
2. Body M/F Count
3. Masters of Revenge
4. Bowels of the Devil
5. Necessary Evil
6. Manslaughter
7. Drive By
8. Voodoo
9. There Goes the Neighborhood
10. Body Count
11. KKK Bitch
12. Disorder
13. Talk Shit, Get Shot
14. Cop Killer
— encore —
15. Enter the Dark Side
16. Momma’s Gotta Die Tonight
Photo gallery
