Dumbek's Random Stuff

It always makes me happy when bands from my youth return and come through with a great show. I caught Bauhaus last night at Strathmore and they were terrific. About an hour and a half of non-stop classics. The band sounded great and Peter's voice was as solid as ever.

I was a bit surprised that Peter wasn't very animated though. I've never seen them before, but all the clips I've seen generally have Peter contorting himself and running around a bit. None of that last night. Still - he had no problem belting out the songs. That's the important part. Daniel Ash was all over the place, keeping things visually, as well as sonically, interesting. The lighting was pretty simple. Mostly just stark, blinding white/strobe-lights, a couple of effects and a splash of color here and there. Not even a smoke machine, which I would have bet the farm they were gonna use at some point.

The songs were just killer. "She's In Parties" was nothing short of amazing. I was a bit concerned when they came back for the encore. They came out, played "Bela Lugosi's Dead," then immediately left again. Great tune, but there was so much left they hadn't played, I was ready to be disappointed with a one song encore. But the crowd didn't let up and they returned. The last encore of "Slice of Life", "Telegram Sam" and "Ziggy Stardust" was worth the price of admission. Wow.

The crowd wasn't nearly as goth-like as I had expected. It was an older crowd and I guess most of them are past the dress-up-like-you're-dead thing. Still - black was the dominant color of the evening. It was pretty easy to spot me in my bright yellow hoodie.

Strathmore was really nice, but almost a bit too nice. It's very sterile. I felt like I was attending a conference more than a concert. No warmth at all. Nice place to see a show though. And the fact that I was home in under 15 minutes was quite a treat. I could get used to that.

Rumor has it Bauhaus is going to put out a record of new material. I'm all over that. As it stands, I need to beef-up my Bauhaus collection. Crackle is missing too many essential tracks. There are so many songs that I had completely forgotten about until last night.

Now if they'd just release the old Bubblemen EP on something other than that damn Love and Rockets DVD.