Nitzer Ebb “That Total Age”
Nitzer Ebb “That Total Age” 1987. Not on vinyl, but on ALL the other formats: I bought the cassette in ‘87 (and listened to it incessantly that year), picked up the CD sometime in the 90′s or early 2000′s, and am currently streaming it on Spotify (my tape player will probably munch the cassette and I don’t have a CD player readily accessible). Last night we got to see Nitzer Ebb play at Turner Hall here in Milwaukee – it was insane!! I danced non-stop for almost 2 hours (logging in over 10,000 steps and 2 cardio workouts on my FitBit 😅). The last time I saw them was over 30 years ago, in the summer of ‘90 when they toured with Depeche Mode – the bands are/were good friends and continued to work together on tours and recording for years after. Nitzer Ebb’s Bon Harris and Douglas McCarthy look older; I suppose I do, too.
Relentlessly pounding EBM/industrial dance, That Total Age was Nitzer Ebb’s debut album. The single “Join in the Chant” hit #9 on the US dance charts and the crowd went insane last night when they performed it.
They also played “Murderous” and “Let Your Body Learn” (two of my favorites and both also released as singles ), plus a hilarious ballad version of “Violent Playground” and “Alarm” as part of the encore. While not on That Total Age, Nitzer Ebb also played “Hearts and Minds” (we have that 12″ single on vinyl). Another top pick from the album is the opener “Fitness to Purpose.” My original cassette has the track “Warsaw Ghetto” which was not included on the originally released CD’s (mine doesn’t have it) but that track does appear on the 2018 reissue.
Daily (maybe) pulls from the vault: 33-1/3, 45, 78, old, older, classic, new, good, bad. Subjective. Autobiographical. Occasionally putting a record up for sale.
