Burn Out (with Chemlab) at the Miramar

Coldwave (a sound combining guitar with electronic-heavy industrial rock) favorites Chemlab will be taking over the Miramar Theatre on Friday, May 7^th.  Their “Midi Ghetto Tour” also includes cyberpunkers (a blend of industrial, punk, electronic, and metal sounds) Left Spine Down, featuring Jeremy Inkel of Front Line Assembly, and fellow cold-wavers 16-Volt, whose lineup for this tour includes the band’s own Eric Powell along with Steve White of KMFDM/Pig.

This tour returns vocalist Jared Louche to performing with members of Boston-based electronic/industrial outfit mindFIELD as his backing band (musicians he’s worked with on and off for the last five years).  Louche (formerly known as Hendricks — ‘louche’ is defined as “not reputable or decent” by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and is a term used to describe a part of the process of drinking absinthe), the only constant member, started the band with Dylan Thomas More and (short-term) Joe Frank in Washington D.C. circa 1989.  After releasing their first EP, 10 Ton Pressure, Louche and More relocated to New York.  The album Burn Out at the Hydrogen Bar, Chemlab’s most successful release thusfar, came out in 1992, followed by East Side Militia on Fifth Colvmn Records. The band broke up in 1997, but later reformed for short periods several times, releasing three additional albums.

Musicians who have played in Chemlab include drummer extraordinaire Martin Atkins (Public Image Limited, Killing Joke, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Pigface), bassist Charles Levi (My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult), the late William Tucker (Ministry, Thrill Kill Kult, Pigface), and guitarist Greg Lucas (The Final Cut). Having toured with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, KMFDM, White Zombie, GWAR, Sister Machine Gun, and USSA (featuring Paul Barker of Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Pailhead, 1000 Homo DJs, etc.), among others, Chemlab has created its own ‘machine rock’ sound, dubbed ‘angel-dustrial’.  Later albums were released on labels including Invisible and Underground, Inc., and also a few remixes on Wax Trax. Louche also performed with industrial monster-group Pigface and appeared on the 2003 album “Easy Listening…”, notably lending his vocal stylings to the image-laden spoken word piece “Binary Stream”.

If you walk out of the venue wondering what the deal is with “Fuck art, let’s kill” printed on a bunch of tour shirts, this was from a DC-based band, Furnace, Louche was in circa mid-late ’80s.  Most notably, this phrase was on a t-shirt (reportedly, one of only about twelve that were made) worn by Ogre in the “In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up” video (Ministry’s recording of their “The Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Taste” tour, 1990 – ’91), which was given to him by his old friend Jared at the DC stop of the tour.

The band has been invited (as are you) to a party at Club?, located at 5^th and National (807 S. 5^th Street) after the show.

Chemlab performs at the Miramar Theatre (2844 N. Oakland). 8 p.m. 21+