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Bauhaus reunion tour worth the wait
Venue/Date:
Warfield Theatre (San Francisco, CA)
Concert Date: October 25th, 2005
Reviewer: admin
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Opening Song
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Set List
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Band Connection
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The Finish/Encore
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9.52
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Event Date
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Tue Oct 25, 2005
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Source
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San Francisco Chronicle
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Concert Review Preview
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Get out the black nail polish. The godfathers of Goth are here for
Halloween and very undead.
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Critic at Large
If you hold a reunion, they will come. "They," in the case if Tuesday's
Bauhaus concert, included three generations of Goths: former Goths, Goths
and a smattering of toddling Goths-to-be. What began as an extension of
(and reaction to) the '70s punk aesthetic has turned out to be one of the
most enduring, and certainly best-dressed, subcultures of the music world,
and the regrouping of one of its founding bands was a fine place to
celebrate that fact. It was a dark and somewhat somber celebration, but
then, black is always the new black.
The history goes like so: Once upon a time, in the post-punk environs of
Northampton, England, a group of disenchanted art students with an
obsession for glam rock began releasing albums that sounded like David
Bowie on a death trip. They called their band Bauhaus. Together with the
Cure and Joy Division, Bauhaus -- vocalist Peter Murphy, guitarist Daniel
Ash, bassist David Jay and drummer Kevin Haskins -- replaced punk rage
with existential melancholy. The era of Reagan and Thatcher began, and so
did Goth, because when life's that depressing, a kid has to do something.
Bauhaus broke up in 1983 after four albums. But Goth has rocked on and
thrived, providing fertile ground for this, the second Bauhaus reunion
tour to hit San Francisco in seven years. In addition to its two Warfield
shows, the band also plays the Fillmore on Monday. If you think there's a
better place to spend Halloween, you're probably wrong.
For all the enthusiasm, Tuesday's show began dubiously. The deadening
thump and plod of "Burning From the Inside" had all the vigor of a crypt
door slamming, but was followed by the more beguiling title song from
1980's "In the Flat Field" and then "A God in an Alcove," which let Murphy
indulge both his characteristic vocal warble and melodramatic stage
persona.
Blond, balding and almost upbeat, Murphy was in fine voice as he led
Bauhaus with the wan panache of an undead lounge singer. In a wise move,
he's toned down the operatic flailing of the 1998 reunion and replaced it
with a repertoire of fey wrist flicks more suitable to a gentleman in his
middle years. By contrast, Ash and Jay seem not to have aged at all;
perhaps Murphy serves as the band's collective Dorian Gray. He should get
a bonus.
The 90-minute set included a career's worth of material, with particular
emphasis on the group's first two albums. Among the highlights: the
prototypical anthem of doom "She's in Parties," featuring Murphy on
melodica; a ragged but glorious "Passion of Lovers"; Jay's funky bass
lines of "Kick in the Eye"; and Murphy inexplicably waving a big black
stick for the length of "Rosegarden Funeral of Sores," still one of the
band's most rocking numbers.
Guitarist Ash, who has enjoyed the most post-breakup success with his
bands Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets, took over vocals for "Slice of
Life" and delivered an outrageously over-the-top saxophone solo during "In
Fear of Fear." His sinewy guitar sounded impressively contemporary as it
wound its way around the kinetic tempo of "Terror Couple Kill Colonel."
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