Concert Review: Bauhaus Live(s) - Page 2

Before we left for the show, my boyfriend and I shuddered: would we be the oldest people at the show? Thankfully, no. Usually, when you go see a band that you've loved for more than half your life, you end up surrounded by 18-year-olds yelling for the only song they know. I pictured Phantasy [local gothy club] refugees with dyed black hair screaming for "Bela Lugosi's Dead" until I ended up decking one or more of them. But not last night.

The band hammered their way through every back catalog-highlight you'd hope to hear them play (see set list below). Peter Murphy's elegant voice, a voice that could read the telephone book and make it sound interesting, was in fine form.

(If this is to be believed, when Daniel encountered Peter five years after they'd first met, he suggested forming a band. "Rigging up a makeshift rehearsal space, Daniel played an Echo 12 - bar blues, while Murphy sang a series of newspaper articles." My point, she is proven. Hand that man a telephone book and you've got a box set in the making).

Daniel Ash, wearing a sleeveless shirt that only served to emphasize his beautifully toned...ummm, guitar. Yes, guitar...well, let's just say that my previous statements about aging well are only too true with Daniel Ash. Even his hair, although slightly lower than, say, Love and Rockets-era Ash, remains seriously rockstar. His playing has improved with time while retaining its rougher stylistic edges. No overly-slick production here. Same goes with David J and Kevin Haskins: by providing an absolutely solid rhythmic canvas on which Peter Murphy could paint his magnificent vocals, every song was captivating, not even a "merely average" one in the set and its two encores.

And what encores they were! Although not sung upside down like a bat, a la Coachella, Murphy managed to make even Bela extraordinary. I have heard "Bela Lugosi's Dead" more times than I can count, and yet I was absolutely transfixed...as if it were an entirely new song they were just introducing to the crowd. That takes serious skill. Murphy has been accused of prima-donna-dom, but the man's earned it. He's got the chops to back it up; they all do. If you read reviews of their live discs, such as Press Eject And Give Me The Tape, it's always noted how astonishingly close Bauhaus live versions are to their studio-born brethren...without backing tapes or the other standbys so commonly used today (Do I even have to invoke Jessica Simpson here? Or Milli Vanilli? You've heard it all before).

Article Author: Shannon Okey

Shannon Okey write books for several publishers and has her own publishing company, anezka media. She's been a Blogcritic since the very beginning.

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