Front 242 are saying goodbye to their European audiences. After a career that spanned four decades, which saw them topping bills on stages around the world, the Belgian band is switching off the synths and turning on the house lights.
The Black Out tour comes to London with a set of greatest hits locked and loaded. From the opening of “W.Y.H.I.W.Y.G.,” the crowd in the Electric Ballroom is ready to celebrate. There is jumping even in the slower bits – though there aren’t many of those, as the band keep the tempo and spirits high throughout. A Sunday curfew means there is little time between songs, and there is a lot of ground to cover.
The set includes “Body to Body,” “Moldavia”, “U. Men,” and “Red Team.” Crowd favourites, like “Welcome to Paradise,” get the security guards nervous at the level of dancing. The evening’s highlight is the rising chord of “Take One,” which tracks faithfully to the studio version. At the end, the crowd lose it for “Headhunter” – willing Jean-Luc de Meyer’s voice to last just a few stanzas more.
The band return to stand in profile in front of a video scrapbook of their career. It has been long and successful, and they are cheered into retirement by the loudest audience the Ballroom has seen in ages.
The evening began with Sweden’s Rein. The changeling has reinvented herself again, showing off a leaner set with even more angles and Numanesque asides. Backed by her coproducer, Djejotronic, Rein patrolled the stage, throwing shapes like Janet Jackson filtered through an MS20.
An energetic set, drawing in “Accelerate,” “Reincarnate,” and “Bodyhammer,” got the crowd in the mood for the evening’s party. It ended with a retooled version of her early track, “There Is No Authority But Yourself.” Rein, like the proverbial river, is never the same performer twice, but she does not disappoint.
