Suicide Commando at the Gramercy Theatre

Suicide Commando is a Belgian electro-industrial act created by Johan van Roy in 1986. Electro-industrial is an outgrowth of electronic body music (EBM), which first came to prominence in Belgium in the early 1980s combining elements of industrial music, electronic dance music and synthpunk. While EBM has a minimal structure and clean production, electro-industrial has a harsh and layered sound. Industrial dance is a North American alternative term for electronic body music and electro-industrial music. Fans associated with this music scene call themselves rivetheads.

I was an unsuspecting spectator at Suicide Commando’s only U.S. concert this year, tonight at the Gramercy Theatre. I came wearing a simple sweatshirt, but many came dressed in extravagant wardrobe; some outfits were leather-and-studded heavy metal, some gothic, some fetish wear, and many others indescribably colorful. Suicide Commando took the stage at 1:15 a.m., accompanied by a guitarist and programmer, another keyboard programmer, and a drummer. Van Roy’s vocals were intentionally distorted to additional grittiness and harshness, as they were with opening acts Frontal Boundary and FCFG820. The music was hard and abrasive electronic dance music. Van Roy sang repetitive lyrics like “Severed Head”, “Come on and Hate Me” and “Death Cures All Pain.” Each song had its accompanying video backdrop, and many of the videos were excessively bloody or gory. One video seemed to be of a surgery or an autopsy, exploring a person’s inner organs. Another video repeatedly looped close-ups of a young woman using a knife to slice her arms and spread her blood on a checkerboard floor. This may have been enjoyable for fans of splatter films, but the music and the overall scene was too diabolical for my tastes, and I exited rather quickly.