Front 242
Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
September 15, 2024
Photos by Raymond Ahner
When reflecting on the musical juggernauts that spearheaded the electro-industrial and EBM genres in the 1980s, there aren’t a lot of other bands that touch Front 242. The Belgian band was at the forefront of the genre, their songs and albums becoming staples of the burgeoning industrial movement at the time. For whatever reason I had always missed the band whenever they came through San Francisco, and with their current Black Out Tour being billed as the band’s farewell tour, I knew that this would be my last chance to see these masters live.
Once the lights in the Great American Music Hall darkened, a screen hanging above the back of the stage showed footage of the band (Jean-Luc De Meyer, Patrick Codenys, and Richard 23) walking along a deserted beach, the imagery being used on promotional ads for the farewell tour. Soon all three members, as well as live electronic drummer Tim Kroker, came onstage to an eruption of fanfare before breaking into “W.Y.H.I.W.Y.G.,” the opening song of their third album Official Version. The abbreviation stands for “What you hear is what you get,” a mantra that Jean-Luc and Richard repeated throughout the song, the phrase also acting to set the mood for what the band had in store for the audience for the rest of the show, as if to say, “these are the last songs you’ll ever see us play, so strap in.”
What the band did have in store for the audience was a set that spanned most of their recorded output, with only no material from their most recent album (2003’s Pulse) being performed. What we did get though were two new unreleased songs in the form of “Fix It” and “Generator,” the two having been played by the band at their shows in 2020. Whether or not recorded versions of the two songs will ever see the light of day is unknown, but the crowd’s reaction to them was just as strong as if they had played something from their albums Geography or No Comment.
I would be lying if I said that Front 242 played a single song over the course of their 17-song set that wouldn’t be at home at a weekly goth night like DNA Lounge’s Death Guild, with the endless strobe lights and fog machines adding to the feeling. Every single song had the crowd jumping and dancing, arms flailing in the air throughout the venue, the limbs poking out of a sea of black shirts. At one point towards the end of the show I made my way to the back of the audience and could feel the floor shaking from so many people jumping up and landing at the same time. Regardless of if it was to a classic song like “Body To Body” or something more relatively recent like “Punish Your Machine,” the crowd was permanently on their feet and dancing, some of them likely thinking that this would be the last time that they would hear these songs in a live environment.
And then there’s the band itself. Despite being in their 60s, all of the members of Front 242 were relentless in their performance. Having done it for over forty years, the band has their live show down to a science, with Jean-Luc and Richard playing perfectly off of each other while Patrick stood behind his synthesizer looking like the coolest guy you’ve ever seen. And then there’s Tim Kroker who’s been the live drummer of the band since 1997 and played the beats to these songs perfectly, with Richard 23 sometimes playing electronic percussion as well.
Despite every song receiving a warm reception from the crowd, the two that got the biggest reactions were saved for towards the end of the show. First there was “Welcome To Paradise,” originally the b-side of the band’s most well-known song, “Headhunter.” As soon as the sampled vocals of Rev. Farrell Griswold proclaiming “Hey poor, you don’t have to be poor anymore!” rang through the venue the crowd began dancing with and pumping their fists in the air with a newfound enthusiasm. With the song being probably my favorite by the band, I was one of those audience members. Once the band finished the song, they briefly left the stage before coming back for a two-song encore.
The other song that got the biggest reception was the aforementioned “Headhunter.” Arguably the band’s biggest hit, if you’re a DJ and can only spin one song by Front 242, it’s probably going to be this one. I’m not sure how many members of the audience knew that this was the last song of the night, but whether they knew or not, this was the one that truly had the floor shaking, seemingly everyone in the crowd wanting to send the band off with knowing that the members of San Francisco’s industrial community are nothing to scoff at. Fingers flew up as the chorus rang out: “One: you lock the target, two: you bait the line, three: you slowly spread the net, and four: you catch the man!” It’s a song that obviously meant a lot to the members of the audience and usually it’s one of the first electro/industrial songs that you hear when you get into the genre. Seeing it live was truly a huge moment for me, as I’m sure it was for everyone else in attendance.
After that the band left the stage again. I thought that the show was over, but the crowd was treated to a slideshow of Front 242 throughout the years as an instrumental song played over the PA. As the slideshow went along, the band members clearly aged in their photos, until the last photo onscreen showed them at their current age. Then Front 242 came onstage for the last time in San Francisco to a massive applause from everyone who was left in the venue. The command that the band had of the crowd throughout the evening was truly astounding, something that most bands even half of their age aren’t able to muster. But here they were, godfathers of the electronic and industrial scene, showing us how it’s done one last time.
Opening the evening was Spike Hellis, a duo from Los Angeles clearly influenced by the headlining band. I had seen them a couple of years ago opening for ADULT., and while they were good at that show they were great opening for Front 242. Cortland Gibson and Elaine Chang stood on opposite sides of a steel rafter, their microphones and electronic instruments connected to it. Performing mostly material from their 2022 self-titled album, the songs were presented live with a level of ferocity that wasn’t captured in the studio, with songs like “Mouth” and “Cause Of Death” finding Chang’s and Gibson’s vocals transformed into cries and screams onstage. I can’t wait to see them again.
