BY ANDERS SMITH-LINDALL
Whether it's Nine Inch Nails' unfettered assault of black-clad doom
and gloom or Marilyn Manson's
cartoonish costumes and provocative theatrics, the play's the thing
in the industrial-metal genre.
Stabbing Westward, Chicago's entry in the next-Manson derby, returned
to its adopted hometown
Wednesday night at the Riviera. But the scene was less than amusing.
Frontman Christopher Hall took himself far too seriously compared with
Manson's self-parodies.
Likewise, his bandmates failed to muster any semblance of the visceral
crunch-and-wail that NIN's
Trent Reznor offers at his best.
For two solid hours, the Westward five churned out faceless, soulless
slop. While Hall and lead
guitarist Mark Eliopulos shamelessly struck rock-star poses out front,
Walter Flakus twiddled the
knobs of his sampler, and the rhythm section of bassist Jim Sellers
and stand-in skinsman Geoff
Dugmore slogged along in the muck.
When he wasn't prancing and preening downstage, Hall huddled over the
microphone, grimacing as
he delivered his pained--or maybe just painfully cliched--lyrics.
Pop psychologists would have a field day with the religious imagery
in Hall's act. In the set-opening
``Drugstore,'' he thrust his arms out to cast a crucified silhouette.
Later, he clasped his hands
together until his knuckles were white as he sang, ``God, I hate myself''
and ``Why can't you see my
need for forgiveness?''
The crowd moshing stopped long enough for the shout-along choruses of
Westward's radio hits,
``What Do I Have to Do?'' and ``Save Yourself.'' The former boasts
one of the band's few
memorable hooks, but even that was lost in the sludge at the Riviera.
The opening band, God Lives Underwater, provided a few hooks of its
own, as well as a measure
of subtlety and nuance that Stabbing Westward lacked. But a predilection
for faux-funk synth riffs
and monotonous, whiny vocals outweighed their modest accomplishments.
At their best, Manson and Reznor can compel, frighten and even amuse.
Stabbing Westward and
God Lives Underwater inspired only yawns.