Guys in long, somber black dresses; guys in jeans with 3-inch stilettos. Zaftig gals poured into corsets. Corsets everywhere, especially the old-fashioned kind with eyelets and lacing. And the Peter Murphy wannabe or two, skulking around in black coat and matted-down hair, longing desperately for people to do a double take.
For a few scaaaary minutes, the back of the hall next to the sound stage - an area usually reserved for latecomers and deadbeats - was overrun by an impromptu gathering of "interpretive" dance types who improvved all over the place to Mr. Murphy's ominous, boo-ha-ha vocals. Luckily, they dispersed before it got out of hand.
Still, this crowd was wonderfully anything-goes: fringe dwellers, misfits and longtime music fans coming out of the woodwork to revisit their youth with Mr. Murphy, former frontman for the '80s Goth band Bauhaus and one of the icons of the genre.
As such, the show could have easily been a by-the-numbers recap of old Bauhaus tunes: collect the money, good night and thank-you. But Mr. Murphy is neither that sloppy nor callous. Not to mention, he has a greatest-hits CD just out on Beggars Banquet, Wild Birds, and a sizable catalog of solo material to play, having split from Bauhaus in '83.
For this tour, he assembled an amazing backup band of Los Angeles musicians: Jane's Addiction's ex-bass player Eric Avery and ex-keyboardist Doug D'Angelis, guitarist Peter DiStefano of Porno for Pyros and drummer Kevin Haskins of Love and Rockets (and, before that, Bauhaus).
Rather than a jaded walk-through, they performed with surprising freshness and vigor. (Mr. Avery, don't forget, was the one Jane who refused to join that J.A. reunion a few years ago.) They turned Murphy staples such as "Cuts You Up," "Deep Ocean, Vast Sea," "The Scarlet Thing in You" and his remake of Pere Ubu's "Final Solution" into opulent, nearly operatic pieces. The music sounded gorgeous, the lights were all the right shades of passionate purple and blood red, and Mr. Murphy - often swirling onstage in a quilted leather waistcoat - was at his over-the-top theatrical best.
There are pictures from this show @ bauhausmusik.com