I went to the Sextreme Fest '17 to see Lords of Acid and Combichrist in Louisville, KY this week. It was my first visit to the Mercury Ballroom. My night started out watching girls in front of me get the "wand" waved over them in a security measure. When it was my turn, the bouncer decided to get more personal and frisk me down. He did such a good job it nearly rolled my socks past my ankles. I would give him an A+ for doing his job, but kind of embarrassing to get into the venue and go in search of a place to right my legwear.
The show started at 8pm, right as billed, by a up-and-coming band, The Wiccid. Two men and two keyboards - after a girl's heart, you know! (I'm the kind of girl that isn't that crazy about guitars, but give me some good keyboarding and you'll have me on the dance floor in no time.) This Los Angeles duo was just signed by the Cleopatra Records. Nice chaps, who afterwards gave me a sticker for whatever purpose I chose.
Then we all waited almost an hour for Christian Death to come to the stage. They never did. We saw their roadies get the place ready for them (including projection screens that illuminated the band name upside down on white sheets), but a bit later same said crew took down the decorations, removed the instruments, and began to ready the stage for Combichrist. No details were given on why a billed act never showed.
But when Combichrist came on, no one even remembered Christian Death. I had never seen Combichrist before, but had albums and danced to a billion songs from them. They rocked. The most amazing thing about the show, other than LaPlegua's enthusiasm that was almost electric, was watching Joe Letz, the drummer, torment his "helper." The poor kid had to chase down so many drums, had to retrieve an untold amount of drumsticks, and had to reposition microphone after microphone - all the while doing so completely straight faced.
Lords of Acid came on and even with the technical difficulties they did a great job. It makes me a little uncomfortable to say I saw them as a fresh-faced college student in the '90s at the Sextacy Ball and enjoyed them still more than twenty years later. Okay, I'm not as dance-y as I used to be - one hip replacement later will do that to you - but it was still a great time.
All in all, I would call the evening a success! Who knows, maybe I'll see them in another twenty years!