Santa’s Dark Companion
Haven’t been good this year? This is who’ll you see instead of Santa. Photo by Paul Koudounaris
Krammpstein does Rammstein at Alpine Village
Saint Nicholas, better known as St. Nick and better still as Santa Claus, knows who’s been naughty or nice, and good children are amply rewarded with train sets or a collector’s edition of Barbie dolls. But what about bad children?
More familiar to German-speaking countries than elsewhere, St. Nick has a counterpart, or a dark companion, who doles out the punishment bad behavior has merited. He’s called Krampus, he’s a forest deity of sorts, and according to Greg Reynard “he’s the bad cop to St. Nicholas’s good cop.”
Reynard should know. He’s the frontman and lead vocalist of Krammpstein, a shadowy twin of the German industrial metal band Rammstein. Presented largely in part by Krampus Los Angeles, Krammpstein performs on Saturday, Dec. 12, at Alpine Village in Torrance. Also on the bill is Sapphic Musk, an all-female quartet that defines their music as, among other things, warrior metal, Baltic metal, and Viking metal.
Krammpstein’s Greg Reynard, Josh Newell, and Tamara Rettino. Photo by Paul Koudounaris
Sinister fun
Photographs and video clips of Krammpstein reveal fog-shrouded, wildly costumed band members who seem to have a demonic aspect, even though what they play isn’t devil’s music at all but rather conveys a spooky, gothic sensibility and a showmanship that channels Gwar, KISS, and Judas Priest. As for the Rammstein connection, well, we’ll get to that in a moment.
Thanks to a Universal Pictures film (titled, simply, “Krampus”) opening Friday, Dec. 4, Krampus is about to gain some traction among the public at large. But for now Krampus Los Angeles, or specifically Al Ridenour and Al Guerrero, seems to be at the heart of all things Krampus. The two Als co-produce the Los Angeles Krampusfest, with the Third Annual Krampus Ball taking place Dec. 5 in Highland Park. And this Saturday, Nov. 28, they’ll be spreading the word about Krampus before an audience at the Goethe Institut on Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles.
Because most Krampus events take place far from the South Bay (where our deities tend to ride surfboards), the Alpine Village show, or rather extravaganza, may be the best opportunity yet to experience this phenomena firsthand.
Many of the bands that partake in Krampus activities do so in the spirit of just wanting to have a good time, and they tend to be comprised of musicians who principally perform with other groups. For example, there’s an outfit called Marilyn Krampson and another called The Kramps. The latter group, with members of Radioactive Chicken Heads, riffs on the music of the early ‘80s group The Cramps. Remember “Bad Music for Bad People”?
Krammpstein was initially in line to play at the first Krampus Ball, which was when Reynard decided on Rammstein as a band to parody and have some fun with, although in a well-intentioned and good-natured way.
“All the songs we do are parodies of Rammstein songs,” he says, “but they’ve been completely rewritten lyrically to be about Krampus, to be about Christmas. For example, they have a song called ‘Weißes Fleisch’ (white flesh), which is about abducting schoolgirls, and I changed that to ‘Weißes Zimsterne,’ which is cinnamon stars, a traditional German Christmas cookie.”
The lyrics of “Weiner Blut” contain the words “in der Dunkelheit!” (in the darkness), but in Krammpstein’s take they appear as “This is Duncan Hines!”
“And there’s things like that,” Reynard continues. “Just putting a different spin on it, and I think it’s pretty obvious that we don’t take ourselves seriously.”
Greg Reynard, William Smith, and Josh Newell of Krammpstein. Photo by Paul Koudounaris
Out of the cauldron
In some ways, Greg Reynard may seem like an unlikely candidate to be prancing around stage disguised as a horned ram-like creature. He’s from Buffalo, New York, and moved out here in 1990 to attend grad school at Caltech for molecular biology.
Afterwards, he says, “I worked as a lab tech, and I was miserable doing that.” So he taught himself computer animation, and these days that’s what he’s doing, working as a freelance computer animator.
That’s one side of Grey Reynard, and another has been his involvement in various heavy metal outfits, back in Buffalo, in the mid-‘80s, and then in Los Angeles, where Reynard joined a group called Green Jello (although the group later altered its name to Green Jelly because Kraft Foods began growling).
Reynard was with Green Jello from ‘90 to ‘92: “We put out a ‘Cereal Killer’ album, and ‘The Three Little Pigs’ was the one hit anybody ever cared about, because there was a cool claymation video that went with it.”
At the time, “The Three Little Pigs” was an MTV sensation (I had friends who loved it), and the tune is still cleverly amusing to this day.
“I’ve been in various metal bands since I was a kid,” Reynard says. “I’ve always enjoyed playing; I really like singing.” A certain modesty creeps in: “”I play guitar well enough to write, but that’s about the extent of it.” He’s also been in Terminal Grace and Godawful.
Krammpstein mastermind Greg Reynard. Photo by Jon Alloway
Apart from Reynard, Krammpstein’s current lineup consists of guitarist William Smith, bassist Josh Newell, drummer Angel Elias, keyboardist (and lighting wiz) Samuel Pfannkuche, percussionist Lisa Busjahn, and percussionist-vocalist Tamara Rettino. Each of them is in costume, and what ghoulish costumes that are!
“For everybody it’s kind of a side project, and it’s just for fun,” Reynard says. Actually, the band has played only a handful of shows, their auspicious debut being at an event called Krampus Rumpus at the Complex in Glendale.
A total experience
Just one look at a photograph of Krammpstein in action and it’s obvious that this isn’t a group that relies on music alone. Is part of the attraction due to the use of lighting, props, and costumes?
“Absolutely,” Reynard replies. “We try and put on a spectacle for people. I grew up listening to Black Sabbath and Ronnie James Dio and Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. When Rob Halford comes out on a Harley people go, ‘Oh, my god!’–that’s the part they’re gonna remember of the show.”
When I was in Green Jello I was lucky enough to meet the guys in Gwar; they were a big influence and they actually helped out with a lot of the Green Jello technology as to how to make our costumes and stuff. So I’ve always thought those guys were kind of a very special undertaking as well. It’s the music, sure, the music is great; but when you go to see a Gwar show you go to see a show.”
Sapphic Musk, a heavy metal group with a Nordic edge. Photo courtesy Sapphic Musk
Perhaps people who’ve seen Krammpstein are saying the same thing about them. Their shows’ special effects are customized by the group’s keyboardist, interfaced with laptops, and programmed to accompany every song.
“Our band has played a total of four shows at this point,” Reynard says, although one appearance was at the Whiskey on Sunset. “It’s a huge amount of effort, and I feel exceptionally lucky that my band members are actually along with this, because Lord knows we’re not making any money. It’s definitely (music) for a certain mindset, and a certain group of people who get the joke and who think it’s fun. The only reason we do it is because it’s really enjoyable and people seem to respond really well.”
Are there people in Torrance and the Beach Cities who are up for this? I’m betting there are, and that they’ll be crawling out of the woodwork.
Krammpstein, with Sapphic Musk (from Lezstonia), performs Saturday, Dec. 12, at Alpine Village, 833 Torrance Blvd., Torrance. Doors at 8, show at 9 p.m. Ages 18 plus. Tickets, $12 at BrownPaperTickets.com/event/2462508 or go to www.krampuslosangeles. Alpine Village: (323) 321-5660 or go to alpinevillagecenter.com.