if you have a chance to see bauhaus on this tour, don’t miss them. peter murphy and daniel ash have lost none of their onstage presence, they sound amazing, they do all the songs you want to hear.
amazing evening.
the nokia theatre, not so great. bad acoustics. plus there’s something odd about walking around with a cocktail in your hand listening to chamber music while awaiting the start of a bauhaus concert.
the crowd was very very odd.
you know, i hate to sound like one of those old geezers who bemoan, “back in the day, when i was your age, blah blah blah.”
but young people today have no idea how to enjoy themselves at a concert. they just stood there, they didn’t dance, and they were generally too detached to be believed.
and, worse, if you tried to dance, they complained that you were “moshing” and tried to get the bouncers to throw you out.
now, this didn’t happen to me. i’ve been to enough concerts in my life to know how to dance my ass off at a concert without irritating anyone. you have to dance vertically. and i don’t mean that you pogo unless of course it’s appropriate, which i can’t imagine it being anymore since it’s no longer 1977. but you can bounce, and shake your shoulders up and down, and keep your feet slightly spread and firmly planted, and voila, you are looking pretty cool and you are enjoying yourself.
of course i, at the faintly superannuated age of 42, was one of two people there that made any kind of movement other than to wave for security. i was way up front, though, about three people from the stage and in front of kirk who was probably dancing too, so there were probably people behind me dancing, although the few times i turned around i didn’t see anyone dancing.
and don’t tell me that they weren’t moving because it was bauhaus and they were trying to be goth and cool. bauhaus is a dance band, dammit. you dance to bauhaus. at least everyone i knew did.
back in the day.
the other guy i saw dancing was about my age or maybe a bit younger. but he danced horizontally instead of vertically, although pretty non-violently and innocently. he was just kind of swaying and gently bumping into people. the most inoffensive moves you can imagine. and he knew every word of every song, and had a marvelous time in spite of the idiots around him.
and do i mean idiots. if you are within five or ten feet of a stage at a concert, and you have deliberately placed yourself there, there’s a tacit understanding that just about anything short of sharp objects and weapons goes. and, to their credit, the nokia staff ignored the plaintive entreaties of those poor precious children who had been bumped into and damaged so.
good for the bouncers, for once.
so chalk one up for the old(er) guys, who had a great time. and kirk looked magnificent. he wore heels, a black and purple bustier, the short blonde wig from hedwig, and makeup that was kind of hedwig dressing as siouxsie for halloween. he is so sexy when he wears that fucking wig. it’s the most rock-and-roll looking wig you can imagine.
and after the show we got smashed at danny’s on 46th, where jerry was at the piano and daniel and stephen and some guy that kept telling us he was f. murray abraham’s lawyer were there, and kirk sang.
it was late in the evening, and he blew that room away. i love when i get to hear him sing.
overall, a fantastic night.