POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Sextasy Ball Concert Becomes a Tame Mechanical Occasion

It clearly wasn’t a Bob Dole rally Friday at the Hollywood Palladium. So thousands of young men and women in leather bondage clothing and insanely skimpy outfits were dressed appropriately for the occasion, for this was the Sextasy Ball, a concert with a rather obvious motif, starring techno-kings Lords of Acid, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and Prick.

Audience members ranged from 14-year-old girls to middle-aged men who apparently thought this show would be hotter than what they’d see at a strip club. Some of the fans had collars and some wore garter belts--and not just the women. Many, though, were enraged to find out that whips and chains weren’t allowed inside.

Actually, the Sextasy Ball was fairly tame. Promised sideshows of body-piercing, fetish demonstrations, sexual art and various other kinky exhibitions turned out to be a bust. Mostly, it was just small-scale sales booths offering nothing more than what you can see any day in Venice Beach.

And the music--oh yeah, there was music--was mostly prerecorded. With the exception of the songs played by opening band Prick--with its intriguing blend of early Cure/Bauhaus Euro-rock and American industrial--most of the numbers started out not with the drummer counting out the rhythm, but with somebody backstage pressing the Play button. This wouldn’t have been so bad if the musicians hadn’t acted as if they were playing the recorded parts--or if the quality of the musicianship hadn’t deteriorated so clearly when they did actually play.

Fans of Chicago-based Thrill Kill Kultand Belgium’s Lords of Acid probably didn’t come for great musical virtuosity anyway, so the groups’ sets weren’t complete failures. The rhythms of such hits as “Sex on Wheelz” and “Rough Sex” were strong, so many in the audience had a field day shaking to the beat.