Cold Waves industrial music festival has announced their lineup for Cold Waves IX, which is set for September 24-26, 2021 at Chicago’s Clark Street Compound. Headliners for the 2021 live return of the festival will be Front 242, clipping. and Stabbing Westward.
Other artists set to play Cold Waves IX include Consolidated, Youth Code, Dalek, Barker + Connelly and Odonis Odonis, along with many other smaller acts that can be found on the flyer below. It will be Consolidated’s first show in over 23 years. They’re an industrial hip hop group that was mainly active in the ’90s, but they released a comeback album this March called We’re Already There.
Cold Waves’ 2021 festival will take place across three venues in the Clark Street Compound, including Metro, Smart Bar and G-Street Tavern. Tickets can be found through Metro Chicago.
This year will be the ninth official edition of the event since it began in 2012. Although it was still held as a virtual experience in 2020 called Lost Weekend, the in-person festival was canceled due to COVID-19. Front 242 and Stabbing Westward had also been scheduled to headline the 2020 lineup, so fans will be happy to hear that they’re still planned for 2021. My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult had been the other act slated to headline in 2020, but their replacement, clipping., is creating more buzz right now since they’re a newer group with a unique take on industrial hip hop.
clipping. released their fourth album Visions of Bodies Being Burned late in 2020 to plenty of critical acclaim, including mxdwn reviewer Logan Blake’s opinion that it’s their “best work yet.” It’s stylistically similar to their 2019 record There Existed an Addiction to Blood, and both releases have shown them blending dark themes, noise and hip hop like no one else right now.
Front 242 is a much more old-school industrial electronic act, and one of the key bands in the EBM (Electronic Body Music) subgenre. They’re set to play an additional show presented by Cold Waves at Los Angeles’ Mayan Theater on September 30, alongside Consolidated, Paul Barker and Chris Connelly. Since all of those bands are set to play Cold Waves IX, the showcase will be like a miniature version of the festival for Los Angeles locals.
Stabbing Westward is a ‘90s industrial rock band who reunited in 2016 and began releasing new music again over the past couple of years, including 2020’s covers EP Halloween Hymns.They performed version of The Cure’s “Burn” from the EP during 2020’s virtual Cold Waves event. Stabbing Westward reported work on a comeback album titled Wasteland, which will be the follow-up to 2001’s self-titled LP.
Cold Waves founder Jason Novak made a comment on the 2021 event, while referencing its roots as a memorial concert for Chicago musician/sound engineer Jamie Duffy. “After almost 10 years since Jamie’s passing, it’s amazing to me to see how much this event helps carry people, helps support and enrich them… something he was known for doing himself,” Novak stated. “Not just the charitable aspects, but the event being such a source of positivity for so many, it’s pretty great. We can’t wait to bring this year’s amazing lineup together and levitate the audience after such a dark year.”
Photo credit: Stephen Hoffmeister
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