Cabaret Voltaire, Albert Hall. 19th October 2026

The audience tonight definitely skews a touch older, but not as old as you might think for a band that’s been around nearly 50 years. There’s quite a mix of faces in Albert Hall and they’re all smiling. I’ll admit, there’s massive holes in my Cabaret Voltaire knowledge, so my intention is very much to pick a spot and lock in. That spot is near the front, about six bodies off the barrier, as they take to the darkened stage with very little fanfare. They’ve promised a career spanning set on this, their last time out on tour and they kick off with the distinctly Kraftwerkesque ‘24/24’. A big thumping beat setting heads nodding, as industrial synths crawl over the top, with processed live vocals. It all sounds clean and sharp, but it feels quite organic too. A bass guitar is welded on ‘Why Kill Time’, although it’s not quite clear in the mix what it’s doing, I appreciate the live effort though. There’s four of them up there, two original members, all largely wresting banks of electronics, but we get another guitar on ‘The Set-Up’ with its brooding gothy vibes, as distorted abstract video is protected over every surface behind them, like a purposely broken projection map, turning this gothic room into a pretty trippy space. ‘Kneel to the Boss’ feels quite warm and homely with its dub backbone. It’s really quite beautiful and only 20 minutes in, we’ve already torn through quite a range of sounds and tones. ‘Landslide’ has a doomy core, but the shrill guitar counters beautifully as the heads continue to bob. Make no mistake, the default setting is dark, which is likely why I’m here, for stuff like ‘Seconds Too Late’ with its stomping bass throb and echoey vocals. Speaking of vocals, there’s very little chatter, but ‘Tinsley Viaduct’ does get introduced as its industrial clang, pulses like cinema. Really I had little to no idea the breadth of what I’d experience tonight, it’s quite stunning. We get a sound bite, that I think is Ginsberg (although I might be wrong), before ‘Crackdown’ explodes all over it. The layers they build are fantastic, easy on record, but they strike the tone of recreating it live perfectly, it’s not too polished, you really feel like you’re in the room with them, it’s a shared experience. Granted there’s not too many chances to dance, but ‘Spies in the Wires’ will let you get your electro goth groove on and the lads around me fucking love it. It’s stuff like this and ‘Just Fascination’ that turned me on in the 90s, the perfect meld of dystopian europhia that will attract goth heads and electro freaks alike. The only issue is it’s too short, it’s abrupt end is a sucker-punch when you’re just beginning to float. We’re in the zone now though with ‘Yashar’. It feels like the start of what could be a beautiful build to the finale I’m hoping for. The industrial disco banger ‘Sex, Money, Freaks’ is next, it’s not your average floor filler, but those bobbing heads are now swaying in unison as everyone’s getting loose. There’s not been a single wrong step, every song slots in sublimely, with ‘Easy Life’ taking us to the hour mark, my only gripe is we’re now closer to the end than the start. I’m not sure you could make much of a case for Cabaret Voltaire having hits, but ‘Do Right’ is a massive one to take us into the the break, with those uninhibited amongst us now dancing like wonderfully lost souls. The encore picks up the pace with ‘Nag Nag Nag’ bringing out the punk vibes and some impressive trouser waft. ‘I Want You’ keeps the energy up as we switch back to industrial electro to set up the reason why I fell in love with this band to begin with. ‘Sensoria’ reminds me of both 90s goth clubs and a mix tape I was once given. This was the track squeezed onto the end of Side B, a place it’s important to end with a statement and boy this is. It’s as flawless live as I’d hoped for, the whole set is a bit of a revelation. Tonight is my first Cabaret Voltaire gig, I’m gutted it’s likely my last.