Went to an Einstuzende Neubauten concert at Irving Plaza with Tommy Sticking Point on Saturday night... I'd never heard of, let alone heard, them before... but Tommy said they were a cool German band from the 80s, so I figured they'd be like Kraftwerk and I'd enjoy it. I should've been clued in that in fact they are not like Kraftwerk when I arrived to a sea of pseudo-Goth-punk NYU students waiting to get in. I also expected them to dress like Falco (dunno why... he's not even German), but they all came out dressed in trendy, head-to-toe black outfits. The lead singer looked like Steve Buscemi with longer hair, the bass player like Tom Savini (the before photo) in a halter top, the drummer like a black-haired cross between the drummer from Crowded House and the lead singer of Flock of Seagulls, the random percussionist like the love child of Clint Howard and Robert Benigni, and fairly normal-looking guitarist and keyboardist. One of the interesting aspects of their music is that they utilize power tools, metal objects, and construction materials in their percussion and rhythm sections... kind of like Blue Man Group, but not really. I really liked the first 8 or so songs, but then the concert really started dragging. There is definitely a threshold for how much of that you can listen to at once, especially for a first-timer, and they exceeded it by almost an hour. It didn't help that there was a lot of time spent between songs badmouthing Clear Channel (which isn't such a bad thing, but spread the show too thin). I'm not sure I'll ever buy one of their CD's, and I doubt I would see one of their concerts again, but I thank Tommy for expanding my musical horizons.
P.S. If the blonde-haired, pink-shirted girl from the show who kept following me around is reading, please leave me alone... you were kinda creeping me out!