After being gone for more than a decade, Ice-T & Body Count returned with a vengeance. In looking at the band's tour schedule, the Knitting Factory show appears to have been the only US date and the band is now on a brief tour of Europe. I had a chance to speak with one of the Body Count crew after the show and he mentioned that because of Ice's Law & Order committments, the tour had to be kept short.

I last saw Body Count when they played the old 9:30 Club in DC in 1994. Ice continues to be one of the most compelling frontmen to rock the mic and Ernie C. is an amazing guitarist. Ernie is the only holdover fron the original Body Count as a number of former band mambers have passed on. The current band consists of Ice-T, Ernie C., drummer OT, bassist Vincent Price and rhythm guitarist Bendrix. The only thing that has really changed in the 12 years since I saw the band is the crowd. Twelve years ago, the DC show drew a hardcore-rap crowd and the opening band was Ice's "homeboys from South Central". As Ice has gotten a bit more mainstream acceptance, he seems to be drawing from a wider audience segment. While on one hand, the element of danger added to the show 12 years ago, Body Count is still a top-notch live act that kept the crowd moving the whole night.

The set ranged from crowd favorites like KKK Bitch , Cop Killer and There Goes the Neighborhood to new material from Body Count's new CD that was well received. Body Count left the stage after playing a killer version of Hey Joe as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Body Count recently signed with Escapi Music and their new CD Murder 4 Hire was released in the US on August 1st. I liked what I heard of the new material and will have to pick up the new CD sometime in the near-term future.

I have a couple additional pictures of Body Count, along with pictures of the opening acts Mahavatar and Dirty Rig posted to Flickr.

There is a really amusing interview with Ice-T on Conan O'Brien posted on YouTube. Who knew that Tupperware was O.G.?