Peter Murphy solo: Search & Destroy

Would suggest people consider next Monday's show -- that's going to be a Stripped night, based on the tour from a couple of years ago with a more acoustic/quieter take on things, but it's apparently going to be combined with a set of full-band choices from across all the albums, so it might be the best one-stop-shopping night of the tour specifically focused on his own work.

last night was great! great trio band. kind of wish they'd had a fourth person so they could have relied less on some backing tracks (the biggest thing being the violin in cuts you up; you'e got a bassist who is also a great violinist who did an amazing bit on Strange Kind of Love, but he couldn't play that on Cuts because he was busy playing bass) but otherwise I had zero issues. Murphy's voice top notch. His #meetoo joke didn't go over very well though but whenever he started talking too much the band just kicked off a song to shut him up.

Hahah that sounds about right. Had to miss Thursday/Friday shows due to my surgery but last night I started up again -- this turned out to be an amusing slumgullion of a set, less a greatest hits set and more of a 'we have a general setlist but let's see what happens' night. Definitely in raconteur mode at times and they ended up dropping a few songs, but I got "Subway Song" -- which since I had to miss Cascade was welcome, though I did wish they had snuck in "Gliding Like a Whale" and "Wild Birds" as well -- and, very happily, "The Prince and Old Lady Shade," which is my standout from Ninth, and since I'm not seeing that set, that worked. In terms of stories there was definitely some waspishness at points -- he was especially dismissive of an unnamed singer/group who charged hundreds of dollars for tickets but ended up miming everything -- but then he had a great one about Chris Martin and Coldplay when they and Bauhaus did Coachella and Bauhaus by all accounts absolutely owned that evening. Murphy had plenty of praise for Martin, said he was a great guy and that his band did NOT mime, but also mentioned that apparently Martin was surprised to discover that Bauhaus were not, in fact, German.

Anyway, the band right now, however relatively jury-rigged -- Thwaite just came back on board three weeks ago, the bassist/violinist returned just for this set of shows since Murphy's otherwise been working with David J -- has ended up working well together, and whenever Peter leaves first at the end of the set/encore, their instrumental song closeouts show that they really do click together.

Really looking forward to the Dust show tonight -- that album's still very special for me, and I'll be extremely interested to see how this band translates it, though with the violinist on stage that'll take care of part of it right there. I heard from a close friend that Peter's been in such a generally more relaxed and good mood these past few shows because his kids are in town visiting him, and he hadn't seen them for some months due to the tour, so I think just being in one place for a while in combination with that makes things more of a treat for him. Tonight's also the last night he'll be doing straight up solo stuff, since it's just the Bauhaus and Bowie nights that are left, and I suspect this whole run of concentrating on his own work for the past two weeks (cue piano part) probably has been very satisfying in that regard.

in case anyone is going on Saturday and would prefer to go tonight, I have 2 tickets I would love to swap.

well, went last night. His voice is really getting ragged but he deserves commendation for pushing through these; he's sounding pretty great while singing but speaking his voice is really giving out. I hope he makes it through the next week! I could have done with a longer set but the amazing moments last night: the guy who I guess opened the night before (I heard he was a tuvan throat singer) coming out in full regalia to play guitar on All We Ever Wanted Was Everything; David J's thundering and amazing bass; and Peter's obvious affection for David and these shows and the crowd, really made this something special. Sure I wish Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins were there too but in some ways this was more enjoyable than the full Bauhaus show I saw in 2005 or 2006.

Noted! Will be seeing them do that set tonight — yeah hope his voice lasts through next week, I really want that Dust show.

oh wow, did Soriah open for him?

Yup, opened at a couple of shows. If I had stuck around Tuesday night I would have seen the opening set but since he had to postpone the Dust set, striking as it sounded I just needed to go home and rest (given that I was, you know, just four days out from surgery and all).

Peter Murphy: Destroyed

http://i67.tinypic.com/10yoxf6.jpg

Last week he definitely was reaching the end of this cycle -- looking like that and the voice was often rougher. But both the Dust set and the Bowie tribute on the final night were often stellar. The whole run was good fun, of the seven shows I saw.

i just saw him a second time in a month this week. posted about it in the Bauhaus artist poll. anyways, he has run out of steam the first show was unforgettable thou.

Peter Murphy postpones NYC residency after suffering a heart attack

just heard about this, get well Mr. Murphy!