(From IC Liverpool, an online arts & entertainment magazine, 7 October 2003.)

Killing Joke

Carling Academy Oct 6 2003

by Ian Lambeth, Daily Post

IT'S been a decade since Killing Joke last played Liverpool but they returned with a bang on Friday night.

Frontman Jaz Coleman has been pretty busy over the last few years. He has worked as composer in residence for the Prague Symphony Orchestra and rewritten New Zealand's national anthem to incorporate Maori.

And there has recently been a return to the studio, with the new album - critically acclaimed as their best to date - the eponymously titled Killing Joke.

But Coleman is not your typical classical musician, as he was only too happy to prove on Friday night; dancing around the stage like a demonic court jester, as the band played their way through their back catalogue of post-punk classics with an edge that many younger bands can only dream of.

New tracks like Seeing Red and Blood on Your Hands were interspersed with songs spanning their entire career, including Wardance, The Wait, Psyche and Kings and Queens.

It was fantastic to see a band of Killing Joke's calibre return to Liverpool and all credit to the Carling Academy for putting the city back on the touring map.