JULIEN-K + INERTIA
The Borderline, London
22/06/2011
VICTORIA FENBANE
Pics by MOND

I was surprised that I've never been to The Borderline in Soho. I was even more surprised to discover that I've walked past it countless times - it's hidden behind The Crobar and down a dead end, a bit of a hidden gem too.

The first band on were Inertia. It seems that they've been around forever - by that I mean since I joined the goth scene in the late 90's. I first saw them during my university days around 1999 and have to admit I haven't paid much attention to them since. They play many gigs/festivals support slots in London therefore have fallen into the 'I'll watch them next time category'; however tonight I gave them my full attention. The sound was more metal than I remembered, but this may have been due to the sound engineer bringing the guitars higher up in the mix, this was almost confirmed by a more 'industrial' sound by the second song.

Inertia played a couple of tracks from the recent covers album 'Kloned' - T-Rex's 'Children of the Revolution' and Falco's 'Monarchy Now' - which completely went over the heads of the fairly young audience. Overall the sound was reminiscent of old-school industrial with more electronic songs such as 'Repeat and Follow' standing out for me. A tight and professional set, as expected for such an experienced act.

Shortly after Inertia departed the stage the turnout suddenly looked smaller due to the majority of the assembled crowd moving to the front of the stage, suggesting that they were hardcore fans of the headline act. Despite the pedigree of the headline there were fewer than 100 people in the venue, most of whom were surprisingly young, odd in itself as the period during which those that were about to take to the stage had been at the height of their fame, was when the audience were likely to have been into other stuff.

Considering that Julien-K, now unrecognisable from the pretty eyeliner-wearing boys of before and now sporting the dishevelled look (I  felt like giving them a razor each), emerged as a side project from Orgy as an outlet for their electronic material, the sound was surprisingly rock. Maybe this was due to being unable to bring all their keyboards from the US which I felt let them down.

There was an interesting use of two mics for vocal effects and a drum kit composed of electronic pads as  standard. The drummer, Elias Andra, provided backing vocals, a rare thing to see from two bands in a night. If there was a major criticism it was the long silences between songs; with the material not being well known this felt a bit awkward. However, it could be a sign that the band were confident in themselves and didn't feel the need to rush the gig - in fact they played a relatively long set.

The crowd of "hardcores" gathered around the stage but didn't move much - possibly transfixed or through not knowing the material that well, who knows. Ryan thanked everybody for turning up in light of them not being that well known in the UK, and both band and audience partaking in a fair bit of banter, a number of whom were wearing the bands t-shirts suggesting that some were "imported" fans (foreign students studying in London?). Julien-K departed the stage quite suddenly once their set was done with no encore, I hung around a little bit to see if they would play any Orgy songs, but no. It was an interesting introduction to an act which have previously passed me by and have a following outside of the UK.

I'd definitely recommend them to Orgy/Oomph! fans and if you want to catch Julien-K yourself you can do so in August at M'era Luna Festival in Germany or Infest in Bradford - I just hope they bring all their keyboards.

Check out their more polished image/sound in the video for 'Kick the Bass':