I hadn’t heard much of Atari Teenage Riot before listening to founding member Alex Empire interviewed on Resident Advisor’s Exchange podcast a few months ago. Alec started ATR alongside fellow Berliners Hanin Elias and MC Carl Crack in the early 90’s, and is the only originator still with the band. He was joined at the Velvet Underground last Wednesday by longstanding vocalist Nic Endo, who has been with the band since 1997.
ATR grew out of the melting pot of culture which emerged after the fall of the Berlin wall, drawing influences from Berlin’s booming techno scene, as well as the avant-garde style of punk which had emerged in the city. They were highly political from the start, reacting against the Neo-Nazi movement which had claimed techno as its own, and infusing their lyrics with messages about government oppression and anarchist ideology. 25 years later not a lot has changed, the band have kept their striking mix of electronic beats, 90’s synth melodies and politicised vocals, while managing to remain relevant in our rapidly changing geo political environment.
Taking the stage around 11pm, ATR launched directly into their high-paced brand of digital hardcore, immediately captivating the small but dedicated crowd. Glitchy ‘vhs’ style visuals were projected onto the wall behind the band, evoking nostalgia for the early 90’s world from which the band emerged, while blue strobes pulsated into the audience. The focus was steadfastly on the 2 vocalists, while a third band member worked the laptop and various synths and sequencers at the back of the stage.
The adoration of the crowd was palpable, this was certainly one of the more intimate shows I have been to at the Velvet Underground, but it was obvious that the people who had made it out were all longstanding fans. Lead vocalist Alex Empire did much to foster and build the excitement in the room, handing out ample high 5’s and handshakes to the front rows, and pointing around the microphone for people to scream into at the crescendo of various songs.
One thing I really enjoyed about the performance was the variety of songs. I walked in having only skimmed some of the bands biggest hits in the days preceding the show, so I was expecting most songs to follow the same fast-paced hardcore formula. It quickly became evident that I had underestimated the diversity of their back catalogue, and given that they have been around so long I really should have known better. At times the guttural screaming on many of the songs lifted away, and we were left with a beautiful call and response from the vocalists over tightly controlled beats. Other times the vocals were stripped back even further, as with the title track from 2010’s Is this Hyperreal.
Returning on stage for an encore Alex Empire directed the crowd to ‘make some noise for the Canadian Underground scene’, receiving a resounding cheer. Someone called out ‘how good was Recon?’ to which Alex responded ‘Recon was amazing’, referring to the Montreal hacker conference where the band had performed earlier in the month. The band continued to talk about hacker culture and call the audience to action for the remainder of the encre, before finishing with the tightly controlled chaos of Activate.