A band like Bauhaus promises to provide a visual as well as musical feast, especially when it heralds in the Halloween weekend You never know what you’re going to get, and maybe you’ll not be too sure of what you will have seen.
It certainly was an interesting mix of people; those who had long ago given up the ghost of being goth, and those still in the first heady rush of it. A rather convivial crowd all in all – none of the usual heavy posturing I used to see at some of the old clubs.
What I did feel mostly when I first walked in was a sense of almost familial respect and belonging from a crowd whose delight in Bauhaus’ getting back together can only be summed up as a shared sense of curiosity and excitement. We are all fans of a long-passed phenomenon, whose spectre has been kept alive by some twist of fate and word of mouth.
Other than that last 1998 “reunion” and the tester dates here and there, as of 1983 Bauhaus has been a band best enjoyed only via cd and dvd. Not that I had expected the original fans to be dead or anything Interestingly enough, I met fans who ranged from the old guard, the die-hard, to the newly curious, just having seen the band for the first time at Coachella.
However, once the music started, these musings ceased to exist for me and Bauhaus instantly enthralled everyone with a dramatic entrance and amped-up (LA Times 10.27.05, What, are you scared of a lil’ old ’70s amp?) versions of their songs. Songs so close to what the cd’s sound like that I can not help but remark upon what strikes me as an incredible fact: a band that I assumed was heavily produced in the studio, is actually a live band to begin with!
Peter Murphy, while a little less limber than the young man he used to be, is still a mesmerizing presence. Daniel Ash, with aged art school panache, played incredibly. David J, always stoic and solid and Kevin Haskins on drums all not playing caricatures of themselves, but modestly updated versions of what once had been. Aged, yet gracefully.
Their set list was a collection of the most popular intermingled with some more obscure songs But please remember, it’s not like any song really got any airplay except for “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” and maybe “She’s in Parties”. The more rousing “In the Flatfields”, “Passion of Lovers”, and always disturbingly erotic “Rose Garden Funeral of Sores” were couched between the atmospheric and poignant “Silent Hedges” and “Hollow Hills”.
And you have to love a band whose encores move from Ziggy Stardust to Telegram Sam, Slice of Life to Dark Entries. After that the band left the stage again, probably to debate whether or not they should acquiesce to the money shot: Bela. Thankfully, the band returned for their last encore to perform the song that will always be considered by some to be their masterwork. I am not one of them and unfortunately, I did find out that some people do take the song to be as compelling and as sacrosanct as church.
So after what was an incredible trip down memory lane into what might be musical future, I am left wondering whether the band will actually get back together. They sound fantastic, the songs hold up, the fan base is getting fresher, but can they write new material? With each other? Regardless of what happens next for the personalities that are Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash, David J., and the ever-boyish Kevin Haskins, my recommendation is to go see them. They swung the heartache, just for our sake.
