The setlist in Pordenone:
Slogun (Factory 7")
Leichenschrei medley
Byzantium (new)
Schmutziputzi (new)
Ground Zero: Infinity Dose (Information Overload Unit)
Gamelan (new)
Xylazine (new)
Berufsverbot (Information Overload Unit)
Fetisch (new)
The Mothman (new)
The Snow (new)
As you can see they played quite a bit of new stuff but also made some nice dives into the classics. The old struff was remixed/reworked, but still not too far from the recorded versions. The show began with some technical issues with a laptop on mute (senior moment, haha...). Not the best start, but that was fixed soon enough and the show went on. Regarding the laptop on stage, I find it funny how everyone seem to fetischise the "analog" and "tactile" while genre greats like SPK are perfectly comfortable with laptops on stage. I imagine there were a few laptops on stage at the VOD Fest too?
Anyway. The audince was responsive and Graeme + son seemed like they wanted to be there and enjoyed themselves on stage. Peronally I was pleasently surprised with the gig as I didn't expect so many old songs. It actually got noisy and nasty at times. As I see it, the new songs were okay, but as you can imagine not really what you want after hearing an immortal classic. The on and off in terms of "great old" and "okay new" songs made me (and probably many others) feel a little mixed about the whole thing which highlights the paradox regarding a re-union gig like that: you want a nostalgia party from a band that really shouldn't be nostalgic at all, and it feels like it just can't be done right. A full-on greatest hit parade would be going against the essence of SPK as innovators, but no one is really that interested in the new stuff. They went for a mix of the two approaches and I guess that was the best option they had. In the end, I'm happy I went and feel like it was better than I expected but also that it's maybe better to leave the past in the past and pay more attention to the current. I was tired after the show and just went back to my hotel, so I didn't pick up many immediate reactions from the crowd. I have texted with a few people afterwards, though, and according to them the response was pretty much split between those who were dissappointed, those who were happy, and those who were simply happy to have witnessed it. That division is to be expected and I guess I belong to the last category: happy to have witneed it.
