Visual Ebb
Nitzer Ebb did create videos for many of their songs, although they’ll openly admit these were contractual obligations – ironic when you consider Doug’s later career in film. The early clips were little more than the boys dancing and hitting stuff in various urban/industrial settings. The budget seemed to go up as the quality of the songs declined, and hence the strongest of these clips was the rain-lashed “I Give To You”, the last truly great tune of their original creative phase. The clips were generally released on VHS – hard to find now, even harder to play, but as usual, YouTube has them preserved until the next rights dispute or act of zealous copyright enforcement.
There has been one visual release this millennium. Live at the Markthalle was released on DVD in 2012, with a double LP to capture the audio side at least on an old-school format. It’s from the later stage of their comeback, and hence remains the only Ebb release to combine Industrial Complex songs with the established classics. Indeed, in terms of setlist alone, it’s one of the strongest collections of songs they’ve issued. Unfortunately, neither the lighting nor the camera work are exceptionally good, and hence it’s still no substitute for the real thing.
