Location: Ljubljana / Križanke / Slovenia
Date: Sunday, 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 far more than 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 brought together what seemed like total opposites some twenty years ago, created 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, and in between Body Count wowed Ljubljana 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, after a solid eighteen years, brought them back to Ljubljana too.
The honor of warming up the crowd for the night’s main motherfuckers went to Trbovlje hardcore outfit Kreshesh Nepitash, who turned out to be a fitting and well-chosen opener. Even though the crowd started chanting “BC, BC” not long after nine, the Trbovlje boys still had a pretty decent-sized audience that didn’t listen to the band in total apathy. A band thematically quite close to Body Count, they unloaded all their rage at the state of the little guy’s existence, the social hardship of the 99% and a raw critique of capitalist society onto Križanke in a good half hour. If the band comes from Trbovlje, one of the hotspots of especially high unemployment, that can only make it sound more honest. Despite an injured hand, Matic Hribar did the frontman job with distinction, since the critique coming from his screaming vocal cords sounds even closer to the individual, something the punchy backing vocals only underline. The same goes for the varied riffing tandem of Nejc Kuder and Peter Dolčina (Ragespect), who roared like a wave of striking workers despite the subpar 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 of the debut, Smoked Pork, boomed out of the speakers, the crowd roared like an Airbus engine, and the chants of “BC!” and “Body Count!” went on for a good while even after the too-quick goodbye. But before that, Body Count, led by boss man Ice-T, served up a nice selection of classics, kicking things off with the cult Body Count’s In the House. Already during that one the space in front of the stage came alive, with the brutal moshing seemingly never ending, and the band showed up in fantastic form, sinking their teeth into the songs with full force and even faster than on the studio releases, despite the lousy sound, which also dulled Ice-T’s somewhat weak vocals. Luckily the sound improved in the first half of the show, and only then did the band really pull the Uzis and Magnums out of their pants and stage a “drive-by” massacre for the crowd, with the crunching guitars of the duo Ernie C (who, with his slightly graying afro tuft, looks from afar like a black Bobby Liebling, hehe) and Juan of The Dead (the only white guy in the band, known of course as Juan Garcia, guitarist of EvilDead and Agent Steel), which buzzed 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 demolishing rhythm section; it was clear as soon as Vincent Price’s (Steel Prophet) bass guitar, a bomb of energy, first rumbled and Ill Will touched the drums with a stick for the first time. Under Ice’s leadership the show 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 dedicate it to the “bullies” next time and explain to them that Uncle Ice-T protects him. The regular set ended, as expected, with the ironclad Cop Killer, a new Slovenian anthem, as Ice-T called it, joined from the background to the front by his son Ice Tracy. After the goodbye, at the demand of the roaring crowd, which created a truly exceptional atmosphere and earned the band’s praise, the band gave Ljubljana a supposedly unplanned encore of two songs, starting with Enter the Dark Side from Manslaughter and finishing with an anti-racist anthem in true Body Count style, Momma’s Gotta Die Tonight. Live, in a somewhat extended version with Ice-T’s acting bits, it came off exceptionally, so the bitter aftertaste from the too-early end was a bit smaller. The show ended without any big goodbye after just an hour and a quarter, and given the action in front of the stage, Body Count could have given the crowd at least Bitch in the Pit and Evil Dick as well. But despite the obviously too-early finish, 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 arrives here sooner than in eight years. Let’s also hope that the excellent turnout at Sunday’s show is a sign we can expect similar bigger-name acts here in the future too. The crowd is more than obviously hungry for it. Bitch!
Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Setlist:
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
