Wax Trax! to celebrate legacy with 2-day all-star concert at Metro
The revered Chicago record label Wax Trax! Records will throw itself a party April 15-16 at Metro, bringing back many of the artists and bands that put industrial music on the international map in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
In an announcement expected later Tuesday, the lineup for the “Wax Trax! Records Retrospectacle: 33 1/3 Year Anniversary” will include Front 242, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and Rights of the Accused. Luc Van Acker, Chris Connelly, former Ministry member Paul Barker and guests will perform the music of the Revolting Cocks. En Esch, Guenter Schulz and Raymond Watts will focus on the music of KMFDM.
Tickets ($60 two-day pass; $500 VIP tables) go on sale at noon Saturday via etix.com and will benefit Center on Halsted.
The Wax Trax! record store (originally on Lincoln Avenue ) and later label were founded by a couple of former Denver residents, Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, in the late ‘70s. Their store, stocked with imports and cutting-edge music, became the world epicenter for boundary-pushing artists who bridged disco, electronic music, rock, and the avant-garde. Some dubbed the sound “industrial disco,” an umbrella term that included Ministry, Front 242, Underworld, KMFDM, and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, underground acts who went on to sell millions of records.
The label went bankrupt in the mid-‘90s and Nash and Flesher have since died, but they left behind a towering legacy. The “Retrospectacle” looks to be the first major public tribute to the Nash-Flesher era.
greg@gregkot.com