RevCoAs far as I am concerned this is absolutely a seminal live album and one that’s up there alongside Ministry ‘In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up.’ There are quite a few parallels between the two, as line ups in the two bands were very similar with Al Jourgensen, Chris Connelly, Paul Barker and Bill Rieflin involved in both. That combo would record some of the greatest albums ever made in the industrial genre and beyond namely the Cocks ‘Big Sexy Land’ and Ministry’s ‘The Land Of Rape And Honey’ and ‘The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste.’ If you have followed the bands careers you will no doubt be aware that Al has, to put it mildly, fallen out with his ex-comrades and I think it would be fair to say detests the air they breathe. This has all been recounted along with the heady tales of mass drug consumption, hookers, all manner of pranks and even debauched episodes involving tossing of dwarves when the Cocks riotously went on tour, more than living up to their revolting moniker. How much of it is actually true is open to interpretation, I would personally interpret it as being around 101% true taking into account the stuff they forgot about!

This live DVD and double CD has been reissued and about time too. The action takes place in the Chicago Metro on Sept 4 1987 and the bulk of the material is from that 1985 album ‘Big Sexy Land’. With the 4 aforementioned musicians we have on said album and here the addition of Luc Van Acker of Front 242 who was a founder Cocks member and compatriot in carnage.

The first thing I thought on putting the DVD on since seeing it on video years ago (I had played the discs several times) was just how damn young everyone looks. It really is quite a shock! They kind of resemble the cast of Penelope Spheeris classic Suburbia a bit, all fresh faced and un-ravaged.  They also seem kind of camp with leather and figure hugging shirts but I am sure that is not unintentional, after all this is the band who went on to deliver ‘Beers Steers And Queers.’ The picture quality is not the best to be honest and looks like a straight VHS transfer. Mind you amidst all the dry ice this does not spoil it and gives it a nice retro, even grindhouse look. Lots of the footage is in black and white which works well and there are some random trippy effects utilised such as psychedelic kaleidoscopic musicians, random graphics and some religious iconography well timed to co-ordinate with the last track. The band members apart from Rieflin behind the drums constantly swap around with everything, all getting involved with the banks of keyboards as well as the vocals although the bulk of the latter are done via Jourgensen and Connelly. There are also two dancers who I can only describe as wardrobe malfunctioning blonde trailer park trashettes who look like the two similar blonde ladies in Gummo, but am sure they were not. They cause a mess dancing and rolling around the stage as the band members also get tangled up and fall over them too.  There’s also some bloody stage cutting with razors proving that it was being done well before the black metal lot got in on that particular action.

Musically despite Barker and Connelly (according to Al) hating the live sound and wanting the whole thing scrapped, its excellent as far as I’m concerned. The songs are powerful, crushing, mind-melting, masses of industrialised insanity with samples flying out all over the shop, great melodies and some excellent raw musicianship. The twanging bass definition is thick, tribal drumming bombasts savage and the multi changing vocals really keep everything moving around. There plenty of funk to this and best way of describing the overall music is industrowaxtraxebm! The repeated chant of ‘We Shall Cleanse The World’ sends chills down the spine, ’38’ which is about those that died with the Heysel Stadium collapse in Brussels (no doubt a subject close to Van Ackers heart) is equally reverential in tone with the song title getting embedded in your head. Then there’s ‘Union Carbide’ an electronic popping dance tune about the Bhopal disaster with the words “Dead bodies everywhere.” This was certainly a band with a message at their heart somewhat at odds with the trivial cock and clunge enthused current version around today.  The bouncing and brooding beats never let up and it’s difficult not to scream along with the words “someone somewhere wake me up” on ‘Attack Ships On Fire.’ As for the anti-religious finale ‘No Devotion’ for me it’s up there with Stigmata by Ministry, very much an anthem I grew up on. “The voice of God means nothing, anymore!” Fantastic.

On DVD you get a full 73 minutes playing time and although it may not look a million dollars as far as I’m concerned, especially as I never got the chance to see the band at the time, it’s as good as it gets and that’s good enough for me. As for the CD it’s a double and you get the bonus of 2 tracks recorded in Glasgow in 91, ‘Stainless Steel Providers’ and a corking cover of ‘Public Image.’  If this is an era you grew up through you will no doubt know these songs well, if not it’s well worth taking a trip back in time to see just how essential this music was. It’s a shame it all combusted in a way but as far as Revolting Cocks were concerned we did at least get ‘Beers Steers and Queers’ and ‘Linger Ficking Good’ which retained the spirit of this era before Al took a break and then led the band into a sort of enjoyable but inconsequential parody of itself.

(8/10 Pete Woods)    

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