Leæther Strip Live at The Complex, in Glendale, CA 05/23/2014

Legendary EBM/Dark Electro pioneer Claus Larsen returns to Los Angeles treating his long-time fans with a massive set list spanning both his Leæther Strip career as well as some songs from his side project Kluteæ.

Claus has rarely toured in the two and a half decades that he has been putting out cutting edge industrial dance hits so all of his followers here in Los Angeles were excited to see him perform.

Claus hails from Denmark and is the sole song writer but live he has his partner Kurt on keyboards behind him while he sings.

I first got into Leæther Strip in the early 90's when he was a key player in the European dark electric dance movement spearheaded by Zoth Ommog records and put out here in the States on Cleopatra Records. We had every release, both the domestic and import versions and loved every album. With that much back catalog, there was no telling where the set list would go but I knew we would be happy no matter what.

Claus started the set with a song I really didn't know very well called "Kill A Raver" which had a slow build up until it hit the stride of his signature aggressive electronic sound.

This led into one of his early anthems "Civil Disobedience". Claus always addressed dark things in our world, whether it be fighting the oppressive powers of government or our own internal struggles with containment of the soul.

In this set alone he did a number of his club hits that touch upon these dark topics such as "Hate Me!", "Japanese Bodies", and "Don't Tame Your Soul" which is one of my all time favorite tracks of his.

One of his Kluteæ songs was "Desert Storm" which along with another song he played, "Black Gold" deal with the world powers' greed and strive for oil and war.

Between addressing the things that bother him in the outer world, he also comments on his own internal struggle with songs like "Introvert", "Under My Control", and another one of my favorites, "Strap Me Down".

He did an extensive set with more songs than I can even remember. Each time it seemed that he would be done, he would ask the audience if they wanted to hear more and even though he had played for well over an hour and half we all said yes and he pulled out track after track. Additional standouts for me were "Adrenalin Rush" and "Fit For Flogging".

I had an amazing time and enjoyed every song. It was so hot in the venue that everyone was literally dripping sweat, my pants just glued to my legs as we bounced around and danced to the music. It was a great turnout and everyone felt fulfilled by the huge amount of material he covered. Hopefully he tours again before too long but each time he does, we are treated to a prime event.