Killing Joke lurk in rock and roll’s shadow world where they weave with electronic instruments of mystic fire magical incantations and dark grinding musical shapes that linger in the air like Aleister Crowley’s opium-scented nightsweats.

I’ve been in on the Joke ever since I saw their epic performance at NYC’s Peppermint Lounge in 1981. Killing Joke is not a band you watch, it’s a band you become a part of. The zone between artist and audience is decimated in a pounding, unrelenting surge of energy and mantric mayhem. The apocalypse and resurrection in one blow to the head. Post-punk mindfuckers and proto-industrial metal pioneers, Killing Joke approach music like alchemy: it isn’t worth a shit if it doesn’t change something.

This video footage of Killing Joke performing at Philly’s legendary punk venue the East Side Club in 1981 is history, plain and simple. Not even the crude technology thru which these signals were recorded could constrain the power and urgency of KJ.
 

 
Killing Joke, one of the most ferocious and intense live rock acts of all time, are currently on a North American tour in support of Absolute Dissent (Spinefarm Records) their 13th full-length album and the first to see the original lineup of Jaz Coleman (vocals), Geordie (guitar), Youth (bass) and Paul Ferguson together in 28-years.

Upcoming Killing Joke tour dates:

12/06/2010 Cabaret Du Musee – Montreal, QC
12/07/2010 Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON
12/09/2010 Crofoot Ballroom – Pontiac, MI
12/10/2010 Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
12/11/2010 Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL
12/14/2010 The Venue – Vancouver, BC
12/15/2010 Showbox – Seattle, WA
12/16/2010 Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR
12/17/2010 Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA
12/18/2010 Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA

Below, Bruce Alexander Prokopets interviews Jaz Coleman over the weekend in New York. Coleman reveals a few extraordinary facts about the life of one-time Killing Joke bassist, Paul Raven, who died in 2007. If you just want to cut to the chase, go to about 7:00 minutes in.
 

 
Two of the most exciting live performances by a rock band that I’ve seen were Killing Joke at New York’s Peppermint Lounge and Limelight in the 80s. Intense, powerful, transcendent, Killing Joke’s influence has been long and deep. Underrated but much loved by their fans, KJ are gods among men.

Here’s a fan-made video interview with Killing Joke’s lead singer and high priest Jaz Coleman. Plus, a live performance by Killing Joke in Munich, 1985.
 

 
Parts 2 and 3 of the interview and live performance video after the jump…