Death In Vegas

Often mutually exclusive, rock and electronic music are never easily combined by a band. One act has managed it fairly successfully over the past ten years or so, and they go by the name of Death In Vegas. Richard Fearless’ band started off as a studio-bound project and released the mostly-electronic Dead Elvis album back in 1997. It wasn’t until 1999’s The Contino Sessions and 2002’s Scorpio Rising that Death In Vegas became the live rock/electronic act that we know so well. Although we don’t ever get to see album guests Bobby Gillespie, Paul Weller and Iggy Pop onstage with Fearless and his band, they are never missed; Death In Vegas get their heads down and play seemingly elongated Krautrockin’ versions of their best known tracks. ‘Dirge’ chugs along endlessly until it spirals out of control with Theremin noise, ‘Aisha’ is terrifyingly intense and not just because of Iggy Pop’s disembodied voice booming all around you, and ‘Hands Around My Throat’ is as dangerously sexy as it appears on record, its jittery rhythms splutteringly filthy and enticing to the whole crowd. Fearless, stuck behind a bank of keys and computers and raised slightly up from his band, conducts everything with ease, like it’s always been simple to combine dance music and rock music. Yes, often the guest spots are what makes a Death In Vegas record but here, live, Fearless is the man in charge and the star of the show.