The Haçienda opened its doors on May 21, 1982, and the very next day Cabaret Voltaire played its first gig there.
A year later, in August 1983, Cabaret Voltaire released The Crackdown, which is arguably their strongest LP (either that or Red Mecca), and the band did a brief series of gigs in the U.K. to support the album. As you can see from this marvelous full-page ad that appeared in the NME, the Haçienda was the first stop on the tour. (The two dates featuring Einstürzende Neubauten as openers are totally mouth-watering, no?)
The Haçienda show took place on August 11, 1983, and it was documented on video.
In 1982 Cabaret Voltaire had left Rough Trade, only to end up on Stevo Pearce’s industrial-friendly Some Bizzare Records label. That connection led Cabaret Voltaire to work with Mark Ellis, the prolific postpunk producer/engineer known as “Flood,” on The Crackdown. In the years to come, Flood would experience considerable successes with U2 and Nine Inch Nails, among many others. The Crackdown charted at #31 on the U.K. charts, but the Cabaret Voltaire faithful were surely relieved when the next few albums were stripped of those “accessible” elements to some degree.
I’ve seldom seen concert footage which is as bathed in darkness as this one, but the nearly hour of playing is no less mesmerizing for that. This show reveals them to have a decided lack of interest in their beginnings, as you will not find versions of their early tracks “Nag Nag Nag” or “Three Mantras” here.
Setlist:
24/24
In The Shadows
Gut Level (Version)
Over and Over
Talking Time
Animation
Product Patrol
Crackdown
Dream Ticket
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘TV Wipeout’: Cabaret Voltaire’s rigorously post-punk 1984 video compilation resurfaces
‘We use the music as an exorcism’: Cabaret Voltaire takes over ‘Night Flight,’ 1985