Eight different versions of Love Is Still Alive opened the last Laibach concerts on the current tour. Which were followed by a mix of older and newer songs. There was The Coming Race or Ordnung und Discipline from the album Ein Musikal aus Deutschland and especially the songs Lepo – Krasno and Glück Auf! from this year’s Sketches From The Red Districts album. On it, Laibach return thematically to the mining town of Trbovlje, where they originated, and even contradict their own origins and roots.
That they don’t renounce the past is also shown by the repertoire from the current tour, which included Death for Death and Krava gruda – Fertile Earth from the early eighties or the famous quirky adaptation of Sympathy For The Devil by the Rolling Stones.
Laibach remain the controversial group they were in the eighties, when they played with totalitarian symbols and the associated mass culture. They are dedicated not only to music, but also to visual arts and have also presented themselves at London’s Tate Gallery.
In 2015, Laibach also performed in North Korea. North Korea’s penchant for mass political propaganda was bound to attract Laibach’s attention. The visit is captured in the documentary musical Liberation Day.
Laibach inspired many groups, it is quite obvious with Ramstein, then they themselves were inspired by the mysterious San Francisco The Residents, also exploring the links between pop culture, the masses and the Third Reich and bringing very bizarre adaptations of rock classics, which was what Devo did.
How Laibach played the DPRK. The film captured the seemingly impossible
