Front 242

It’s damn near impossible to talk about electronic dance music in 2015 without evoking images of gluttonously overpaid DJs and neon-festooned millennials sweating away in bacchanalian party scenes, but the form was once (and remains, in some circles) so much more than the bloated, vapid beast it has devolved into in its most mainstream contemporary guises. Like any art, if you dig into the roots of it and seek something authentic, you generally find the gold, and at the far roots of the embarrassing mutant mainstream electronic dance music has become, you’ll find the legendary Belgian-bred industrial cult heroes of Front 242.

Without Front 242’s programmed, synthetic thump, martial vocals, and sampled sound manipulations, it’s safe to say the world of dark music and dance music would be a far less interesting place. The band represented the next logical step from early experimental artists like Throbbing Gristle and its music was truly ahead of its time, and while it certainly has an audience and was massively influential, we believe it still has not quite received the acclaim it truly deserves from the mainstream music media. Front 242’s sound, even amid the flood of electronica, remains fresh, visceral, and downright enthralling. The band is credited with forging the EBM or electronic body music genre in the early ‘80s and it’s work has since has been of inexplicably consistent quality over the  years they’ve been a band.

Though they have not released new music since 2008, Front 242 has remained a serious live act — which works out well for the many fans most interested in experiencing the songs that made the band’s legacy what it is in the flesh.

Front 242 will be bring its influential industrial stomp to Miami’s Grand Central on Sunday, September 20. It will be the band’s only southeastern performance on this tour and if the setlist is anything like what the band has been using in recent years, it’s going to be an absolutely incredible night, if only for a opportunity to be pummeled in person by “Headhunter” or “U-Men”! Opening the night is South Florida-based electronic duo Les Anges De La Nuit, and DJ Mikey R of Radio-Active Records.

Sunday, September 20 at Grand Central + Radio-Active Records + Poplife present: Front 242. 8pm, all ages.
RSVP | Tickets: http://ticketfly.com/event/796119

~ Von Bader