Killing Joke, Astoria, Friday 14th October

I've seen Killing Joke three times now. The first time was in Edinburgh at the Network in 1991. Afterwards my friend Marisa and I went to a club, which I've since discovered was run by bootpunk and zotz. It was a great gig, and Jaz scared the hell out of me, staring into the crowd like he was memorising faces for doing dreadful things to later... I saw them again a few years later at the Mayfair/Garage in Glasgow on the Pandemonium tour and they weren't quite as good, but they were still pretty scary.

Jaz didn't scare me at all on Friday, but I had a great time. He looked terribly pleased to be there and seemed more like he was recognising old friends in the crowd, and perhaps he was, Killing Joke have been around more than 25 years now and have a devoted and loyal fan base.

Geordie was as aloof and utterly cool as ever. I'm told Paul Raven didn't look too happy, but I couldn't see him because a bloke who reminded me of a very tall version of mr_tom was blocking my sightline. The drummer wasn't Dave Grohl in the end, but he did a good job.

They opened with Communion, which was strong, but then they went into Wardance, which was absolutely storming. Much jumping around and singalonga Jaz ensued. Actually it was that sort of night, lots of bouncing around and joining in at the chorus. Jaz even seemed to encourage it. I seemed to have been lucky to be near the bit of the pit that apparently had NMA fans in it, they were pulling each other up and generally looking out for other people, but I heard the audience was aggressive and pushy elsewhere.

I can't remember everything that was played, but we definitely got The Wait, Complications, Requiem, Primitive, (it was heavy on the first album, which suits me fine) Darkness Before Dawn, Money is Not Our God, Whiteout and Asteroid. They went off for a few minutes and then returned for an encore of about three songs. They were joined onstage by a female violinist (Jaz told us to be nice and welcome her and afterwards they gave her a bouquet of flowers) for the final song Pandemonium, dedicated to their merchandise guy, Jester, who sadly couldn't be there as he has cancer, because it's his favourite song.

I really enjoyed the gig, they played lots of my favourite songs (I was actually disappointed that Wardance was second, as that's my very favourite and it's nice to have something to hope for and look forward to) and the atmosphere was strange great!

Probable setlist (looks about right!)

Communion
Wardance
Sun Goes Down
Primitive
Darkness Before Dawn
Total Invasion
Requiem
Butcher
Money is not Our God
Frenzy
Asteroid
Whiteout
Wait
Complications
Psyche

Inside the Termite Mound
Blood Sport
Pandemonium