Front Line Assembly-Wax Trax! Era Set live report Berlin |

Published by Alessandro Violante on August 10, 2026

Last year, the legendary Caustic Grip by Front Line Assembly celebrated its 35th anniversary, and to mark the occasion it was reissued by Wax Trax! Records, 35 years after its first and only original pressing. The new edition also included the track “The Chair”, which had not been featured on the 1990 release.

The same thing happened with its successor, Tactical Neural Implant, originally released in 1992 and reissued in 2022, thirty years after its first and only pressing.

This commemorative operation allowed many more fans to experience on vinyl what some consider to be two of the albums that most heavily influenced the entire evolution of EBM that followed — from the productions of Off Beat and Zoth Ommog to Wumpscut, just to mention some of the best-known artists and labels.

These records were released on the European market through Third Mind Records, while their distribution in the United States by Wax Trax! Records allowed Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber’s band to gain worldwide recognition, similarly to what happened with bands such as Front 242.

Besides the albums already mentioned, Wax Trax! Records also distributed the two 1988 LPs Corrosion and Disorder (later reissued as the compilation Corroded Disorder) and the 1989 album Gashed Senses & Crossfire. Perhaps they too will receive a proper celebration in due time.

This very long introduction serves to put into context how the idea to organize, in 2025, a “Wax Trax! Era set” tour, was conceived. The tour, started in United States, was named Cold Waves Presents: Industrial Nation 2025 Tour. In 2026, the tour was extended to Europe, allowing both American and European fans to experience unique live sets focused on songs taken from their releases between 1988 and 1992.

Among those fans was myself. I discovered this music precisely through Caustic Grip and Gashed Senses & Crossfire, and I had the chance to see the band live on August 5th at Gretchen in Berlin, Kreuzberg.

The tour was originally scheduled for May, but due to the great response, additional dates were added between late July and early August, including the Berlin show, before the band went on to perform at festivals such as M’Era Luna and Brutal Assault.

For this tour, the band is joined by different artists depending on the date. On some occasions, Rhys Fulber himself performed; on others, the legendary Portion Control — considered one of the main inspirations behind the FLA sound — appeared as support. Other dates featured Tension Control, an act characterized by a German-language old-school EBM sound. In Berlin, it was the latter who opened the show.

This report of the Berlin date was made possible above all thanks to the professionalism of the promoter and the New Berlin Konzerte management, who organized the event and allowed me to photograph the band without using flash, despite the fact that some people took photos and videos during the evening.

Despite waking up at 4:30 in the morning and spending a long day visiting museums and record stores between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, at exactly 7:00 PM I was already standing in front of Gretchen, ready to secure a spot in the front row and drink yet another beer of the day.

I immediately noticed an extremely well-stocked merch table, featuring tour T-shirts, the newly released Wax Trax! vinyl editions mentioned above, and the brand-new Artoffact Records edition of their 1994 album Millennium, a variant of the 2024 release celebrating its 30th anniversary.

This was also a special release, as the only previous vinyl pressing dated back to 1994. The stand also featured the latest release from Cyberaktif — the project currently maintained by Leeb, Fulber and Skinny Puppy’s cEvin Key, which also included the late Dwayne Goettel — as well as Fulber’s solo records and much more. We will return to Cyberaktif in the future.

Shortly after 8 p.m., Tension Control, the archetype of the old-school EBM artist, active since 2016, strikes the audience with his minimalist approach, pounding, martial beats, and commanding physical presence. Although much of his lyrics are in German and I do not speak the language, the words projected onto the screen behind him (“Tension Control Freiheit”) suggest that freedom is a central theme. I later discover that Freiheit is also the title of his latest album and that, more broadly, his lyrics draw on military, war-related, and comradeship-oriented imagery to explore themes such as free will (Reaktanz), resistance to an oppressive power (Resistance, Die Jungs vom Jugendwerkhof), proletarian pride (People Made in G.D.R.), and much more that I will leave for readers to discover.

His lyrics, of course, contain numerous cultural references to the German Democratic Republic (G.D.R.), from the Berlin Wall to the principles of Socialism.

The audience reacted extremely positively, and so did I. Looking back from the stage, I was very pleased to see that the venue was already almost full at 8:00 PM. Furthermore, a single word was enough to start conversations with my fellow front-row attendees, eventually leading to discussions about personal stories and music projects. This is Berlin. The ease with which spontaneous connections happen in this city cannot be explained — it has to be experienced.

After about an hour of live performance, Front Line Assembly finally arrived. Alongside Leeb and Fulber were Joey Blush on modular synthesizers (Blush Response, who has been performing live with the band since 2024) and Jon Siren, former drummer of IAMX, who has been playing with FLA since 2022.

After a brief introduction, they immediately launched into No Limit, the opening track of Gashed Senses & Crossfire and probably my favourite song by the band, followed by Resist, the opening track of Caustic Grip and one of their most iconic songs. The set continued with Big Money from “Gashed Senses”, the masterpiece Provision from Caustic Grip, Bio-Mechanic from Tactical Neural Implant, Digital Tension Dementia from “Gashed Senses”, Iceolate and Mental Distortion from Caustic Grip, perhaps the band’s most famous song Mindphaser from TNI, the devastating Body Count from the LP Disorder, and finally the encores: Plasticity, released in 1996 through Off Beat, and the Cyberaktif cover Nothing Stays.

The latter, with its lyrics, seems to pay tribute to their friend Dwayne Goettel, who passed away far too soon:

“A message to you
How I feel
Nothing stays the same
Stays the same”

A setlist like this almost feels like a greatest hits collection of their most famous songs. However, there is something important to remember: Front Line Assembly bring a physical intensity to the stage that their records struggle to fully capture. This is what makes the audience clap along with Leeb, move together, and leave satisfied: the fact that this is a real concert, not simply a CD being played live.

This approach may or may not appeal to everyone, but the band deserves every scream and every applause directed at them, because they give everything they have. Leeb is a powerful and emotional frontman; Joey Blush appears possessed by an unstoppable force, almost merging with his own instrument; Fulber controls the entire machine with obsessive precision; and Jon Siren attacks his drums with surgical accuracy and, needless to say, an industrial touch.

When the band strikes their percussion instruments in tribute to Test Dept., especially during the most intense moments such as Resist, Iceolate, Mental Distortion and, last but not least, Body Count, the physical impact of their live sound reaches its peak.

At the end of the show, there was no one left unsatisfied, fully aware of having witnessed an unrepeatable event. Front Line Assembly demonstrated their dedication, professionalism and decades of experience, proving once again why they remain one of the most important names in industrial music.

Tension Control setlist:

1. People Made in G.D.R.
2. Rise of the Machines
3. Freiheit
4. Reaktanz
5. Und keiner geht hin
6. Der Sheriff
7. Ahoi Herr Kommandant
8. 50 Hertz
9. Tanzkollektiv
10. Pain
11. Resistance
12. Die Jungs vom Jugendwerkhof

Front Line Assembly setlist:

1. Intro
2. No Limit
3. Resist
4. Big Money
5. Provision
6. Bio-Mechanic
7. Digital Tension Dementia
8. Iceolate
9. Mental Distortion
10. Mindphaser
11. Body Count

Encore:

12. Plasticity
13. Nothing Stays (Cyberaktif cover)

Front Line Assembly “Wax Trax! Era Set” Gretchen, Berlin 05/08/2026

Published by Alessandro Violante on August 10, 2026