We wrapped up our vacation last night by going to see Peter Murphy play at the Rickshaw Theatre.
Given that we were still tired after our late arrival home and weren’t planning on hanging out at the front of the stage we aimed to arrive after the doors opened. It was a good job we did because for some reason the sound check had been delayed and even though we got there fifteen minutes after the club was scheduled to open, the doors were still firmly locked.
There wasn’t a big queue though and despite our tardiness we managed to get a prime location. The Richshaw has a dance floor plus cinema style seating and we were dead centre of the fourth row.
The delayed sound check was obviously causing problems and the support band, Ringo Deathstarr, suffered from a pretty poor mix but still we weren’t overly impressed. That said, at least one person bought their CD and there were some flashes of goodness so I’ll probably check them out on iTunes anyway.
It took a while to get the sound ready for Peter Murphy’s set and as I sat there, sucking on a Werther’s Original, earplugs in my pocket, wondering how late the gig would finish and whether the $35 I’d spent on a t-shirt was really worth it, I began to wonder if I was getting too old for this sort of thing.
And then the music started and I forgot all about that nonsense.
I imagine it’s pretty tough to be a solo artist who has a history with a big band (in Peter Murphy’s case, goth rockers Bauhaus). You’re trying to play your solo stuff while all your fans are hoping (secretly or otherwise) that you’ll play something by your old band. To make things even tougher, Peter Murphy also had a brand new album to promote – which means playing songs half the audience have never heard.
It took a few minutes to get the last few kinks out of the sound and the crowd wasn’t great – the biggest cheer came for the lone Bauhaus song – She’s in Parties. But we weren’t there for Bauhaus, we were there for Peter Murphy and he didn’t disappoint. He played a selection of tracks from the new album, Lion, and some classics. Not my favourite, Marlene Dietrich’s Favorite Poem, but he did play Strange Kind of Love which is the next best thing.