Speaking from “somewhere in the middle of Belgium at a friend’s house in the garden,” Front 242’s Jean-Luc De Meyer notes the myriad of clouds covering a background of blue sky and says “it’s nice” about sitting outdoors.
The pleasant tranquility of De Meyer’s current coordinates belies what the past year of coronavirus-related lockdowns did—as it did to countless other acts—to the noted Belgian electronic band’s touring schedule.
Front 242 was originally scheduled to play Orpheum in Tampa’s Ybor City on Sept. 29, 2020 before coronavirus cancellations set in nationwide. The hope is that on this go-round, the band will be able to perform its EBM, industrial and angst-filled hits on the Orpheum stage Sept. 19, if the pandemic cooperates.
Front 242
Sunday, Sept. 19, 7 p.m. $27-$55.
Orpheum, 1915 E 7th Ave., Ybor City
theorpheum.com
“It feels a bit strange. When the lockdown took place, suddenly there was no real direction to the world anymore,” says De Meyer, whose guttural singing style has become part of the F242’s trademark sound, developing with their style in the late 1980s.
During the fall of 2020, Belgium took drastic measures to control Covid, including shutting down bars and restaurants and imposing overnight curfews. De Meyer says despite the measures, the band has forged forward, writing, rehearsing and “doing everything to make it happen.”
“We lost our usual touch to the outside world. We’ve tried to get into the flow again, but there’s the menace of things possibly going backwards again,” he adds. “Because of the fear of the fourth wave…it’s very difficult for each of us to imagine that this tour will really take place.”
Formed in 1981 near Leuven in Aarschot, Belgium, F242 is moving along, bringing its “Black to Square One Tour” to the United States, along with a 40-year legacy of on-the-edge EBM and aggressive stage presence.
De Meyer, who left the group from 1994-1998 to do other projects, says along with Patrick Codenys, Richard “23” Jonckheere and Tim Kroker, F242 will meld all of the band’s classic hits with newer songs and some older tunes which have never been played live or haven’t been played in several decades.
Among that mix will be the crowd and club favorites “Quite Unusual” from 1987’s Official Version, “Headhunter” off 1988’s Front by Front and “Tragedy for You” from 1991’s Tyranny (For You). Along with those, the band will do some dustbin delectables such “Red Team” from Official Version and “Sacrifice” off of Tyranny (For You).
“It’s going to be completely different from what we did in the past; we have worked an entire year to develop a new show. It will look and sound totally different,” adds De Meyer, 64. “We’ll play some of the old songs and, well, we hope some of the audience will remember them, even if they weren’t really made to be played live. They’ll be good renditions of what’s on the records.”
Clarifying he’s speaking for himself and not the band, De Meyer says he still has fun and enjoys bringing F242’s musical aura of angst to audiences. He says the approximately 80-minute show features a live DJ and the band playing in front of their videos, except two or three songs where “the live show makes the difference.”
As for Front 242’s future, De Meyer says just getting to the musical present has amazed him. He adds even without F242, he and his bandmates have enough interests to live “full and interesting lives” in several career fields.
“Do I still like doing this, do I still feel it’s my right way of expressing what I want to express? As long as the answer is ‘Yes,’ then it’s OK. What’s interesting is we never envisioned a real career doing this and for 40 years, I’ve been thinking ‘This thing is going to be over in 6 months.’ And 39 ½ years later, it’s ‘Nope, not yet.’”
F242’s last album of original material, its eighth, was Pulse, released in 2003. It peaked in the U.S. at No. 20 in Billboard’s “Dance/Electronic Albums.”
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This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2021.