“America’s Most Dangerous Kult” was in St. Louis Wednesday night at Delmar Hall for the first night of the third and final leg of the Evil Eye Tour. The fourteen date tour kicked off in St. Louis, MO and will end on April 5th in Santa Ana, CA. This tour has focused heavily on the band’s early career from 1987-1997 while on both the Wax Trax! and Interscope record labels. The band released six albums during those ten years and are celebrating 36 years of music. Joining My Life With the Trill Kill Kult on this tour are Detroit’s husband and wife avant-garde duo ADULT. and Los Angeles based composer, artist, and music programmer KANGA.

TKK based in Chicago and founded by Groovie Mann (born Frankie Nardiello) and Buzz McCoy (born Marston Daley) originally started out as an art film to be called My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. The film was never finished but they took the music that they had recorded and released a three-track EP on Wax Trax! Records. TKK helped develop the industrial music genre and as the band progressed they would add elements of disco and funk but would keep the references to drugs, Satan, Jesus, sex, and occult imagery that would make them a frequent target of censorship groups, including the PMRC. My first introduction to TKK was with ‘After The Flesh‘ on the Crow soundtrack. I had picked it up as I was a fan of Stone Temple Piolets and Nine Inch Nails, the only industrial band I had been exposed to up till that point. That soundtrack opened the doors to several bands that I would not have been exposed to listening to the radio in the 90’s here in St. Louis unless it was on a collage radio station (that at that time I didn’t even know was a thing).

As the lights went down members of TKK took their spots. At stage right was Buzz McCoy (keys/tracks) , stage left was Mimi Star (bass guitar), and centered in the back on risers and flanked by sad Madonna banners on both sides and the TKK cross behind him was Justin Bennett on drums. Finally Groovie Mann came strutting in wearing a leather jacket, leather hat, and his shades and jumped into ‘Burning Dirt’. After ‘Burning Dirt’ Groovie told the St. Louis crowd it was good to see everyone and be back before really getting the night going with ‘A Daisy Chain 4 Satan’. It didn’t take long for fans to start dancing to the hypnotic beats and pulsating lights. The band really doesn’t engage with stage banter and lets Groovie Mann’s dancing and the music do its thing. I went out to the bar near the end of ‘Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness‘ to grab a drink and as the beginning of ‘The Days of Swine and Roses‘ kicked in I overheard a fan in line say I’m not missing this one and jumped out of line along with several other fans, including myself. The main set ended with ‘And This Is What the Devil Does‘ off their debut album I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits. The band did not stay gone long before coming out without Groovie for the instrumental ‘Final Blindness‘. Once Groovie took the stage again the band played the final four songs of the encore. The night of fans dancing and singing along ended with ‘Kooler Than Jesus‘.

ADULT.

KANGA