OFF: Halloween with the Damned (was: HW: Lemmy)

[Doug Pearson]

On Sun, 3 Nov 2002 01:45:51 +0000, Nick Medford <nick at HERMIT0.DEMON.CO.UK>
wrote:
>In message <200211020123.UAA17872 at listserv.spc.edu>, Doug
>Pearson <jasret at MINDSPRING.COM> writes
>>    -Doug (who saw Lemmy's once-off bandmates, the Damned, last night)
>
>Doug- any chance of a review?

Of course!

Hallowe'en in San Francisco ... too many choices of fun things to do!  The
Cramps at the Fillmore?  The Residents at the Warfield?  The Strokes at the
B--l G----m auditorum ... (I don't think so)?  We opted for a smaller-scale
event: Throwrag, the Dwarves, and the Damned at the Great American Music
Hall, one of the finest venues in the world IMHO.  I was outside for
Throwrag's set, waiting for my friends with the tickets to show up (it was
a sold-out show).  I could tell that they played a bunch of covers (hey,
it's Halloween!), including a rendition of "Please Don't Touch" obviously
learned from the Motor/School version.  While waiting outside, I got to
watch the costumed crowd file in, and there were some great ones!  This
being the Damned, there were obviously lots of goth-looking types with
white faces and gaudy (or gauze-y) black outfits, as well as 77-styled
punks in mohawks and/or bondage gear, with a few young ladies looking very
much like Siouxie Sioux of that year.  Lots of great gore makeup and skull
faces, a few dead celebrities, both female and male Brides of Frankenstein,
even a guy dressed as the Captain himself (tartan golf hat, Damned t-shirt,
new-wave sunglasses, dog collar, and a tutu over his pants).  One of my
favorites was two females (one a two-feet-shorter ringer for Joey) with
halo/angel wings dressed as Ramones (although I'd contend that the one who
was supposed to be DeeDee should've had horns & a tail, not wings ... and
maybe a syringe hanging out of her arm!).

We got inside just in time to grab a pint and check out the Dwarves set.  I
hadn't seen them in over 10 years, probably, during their 'Blood Guts and
Pussy' (an album featuring one of the most politically-incorrect-ever
sleeves) era, and only singer Blag whatshisname and undead (the band was
dropped from Sub Pop after sending out a hoax press release stating that
he'd been stabbed to death in Philadelphia) guitarist He-Who-Cannot-Be-
Named remained from then.  Back then, Dwarves sets generally consisted of
about 8 loud/fast/in-yr-face punk/hc rock songs over the course of 15
minutes, culminating with violence against the band, the audience, and/or
the equipment.  They've clearly mellowed a bit with old age, as they played
a normal-length set at slower tempos, but the crudeness and aggression were
still there.  Decent enough, but I didn't feel like I'd missed anything
over those 10 years.

It had probably also been 10 years since I'd seen the Damned, back when
they did a couple of reunion tours in the early 90's ('Final Damnation'
era) that focused mostly on their punk-oriented material (one tour with
Brian James in tow w/Sensible on bass IIRC, and a second with the Captain
on guitar), with most of the sets taken from the first three albums.  This
time around, with the new album 'Grave Disorder', and Patricia
Bag/Ramirez/Morrison on bass plus a keyboard player, the focus was much
more on their goth, rather than punk, songs.  So we got several from the
new album (which I haven't heard yet), and classics from the 'Black
Album'/'Strawberries'/'Phantasmagoria' period like "Plan 9 Channel
7", "Curtain Call" (the first encore), "Eloise", etc.  They didn't entirely
neglect their punk roots - I don't think they're allowed to play a set that
doesn't include "New Rose" and "Neat Neat Neat"; the usual suspects
from 'Machine Gun Ettiquite' (THE classic Damned album, along with the
first, IMHO) - "Love Song", "I Just Can't Be Happy Today", "Smash It
Up", "Wait For The Blackout", etc. - also turned up.  Major kudos to the
band for their energy level - *everyone* was totally rocking out - Pat
while wearing a Nun's habit (although the bits of "L.A. Woman" they
performed made me realize that all 3 major bands she's been in have been
fronted by guys - Jeffrey Lee Pierce [RIP], Eldritch, Vanian - who all
think they're the second coming of Jim Morrison), the keyboard player
(looking rather like Capt. Bl at ck in his stovepipe hat!) was jumping up and
down the entire time (and getting out some spacey sounds on his Novation
virtual analog - probably a Supernova), Vanian started the set wearing some
sort of troll mask, which he later doffed when making a grand re-entry from
the balcony above the stage, and ... I don't even remember what the Captain
was wearing, believe it or not!  At least he kept his clothes on ...

Really, really fun show.  Even though I'm more into the Damned's punk
material than their goth stuff, I still though they were great.  And I am
soooooo f*cking lucky to live in a town where I got to see the Damned AND
Devo (a free outdoor lunchtime show, no less) in the same week (and some
new-wave-of-new-wave from the Epoxies [a name to watch ... you heard it
here first] on saturday night, to balance the old-wave-of-new-wave from
Devo).  Just like it's 1977 all over again.

That good enough for ya?  Smash it up!

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com