Posted in Parties, Concert on July 7th, 2009 by admin
Greetings my dear Gothlings!
It has indeed been a while since my last Nocturnal Diary entry, but I reason that my experience at the Peter Murphy Concert last night duly deserves one!
Before I proceed to give you my insight, I wish to share with you my dear friend Earienne’s account of the first Peter Murphy concert night at Highline Ballroom…she was my guest of two compt’d tickets (Heehee, PERKS!…the tickets, I mean). She has a wonderful way with words. Read on:
I found myself in the fortuitous position of being graced with the chance to see Peter Murphy on stage tonight and I left feeling very grateful.
There are many reasons it is grand to be Goth, and Peter Murphy continues to be one of them. Tonight held many memorable moments including: the fantastic cover of We All Shine On was a sweet surprise; the gorgeous I’ll Fall with Your Knife; and Time Has Nothing To Do With It. Of course a snippet of Bela Lugosi’s Dead made its way into the playlist along with the popular Cuts You Up; and another great cover Ground Control to Major Tom.
Looking around the very mixed crowd at the Highline Ballroom gave evidence of the ability his music has to bring together seemingly incongruous company – I am ever astounded at the power music has to unify – even if it is momentary it is a worthwhile alignment (politics could use to take a page from the book of music in this regard).
I am a fan of the theatric, but also have a deep appreciation for the potency of simplicity – this concert is a great example – nothing between the musicians and the audience but a few well placed lighting instruments – and Murphy’s intense focus and poised presence. I am uplifted by the music and his energy and left the concert in a better place than I began. And isn’t that part of the essence of art? The ability it gives the viewer to transcend whatever burdens they have for a bit – a blessed respite to regain strength and get back to business perhaps even with a new perspective.
It is a special province of Gothic music to help ease a bruised heart – hearing another voice singing of familiar pain is like a temporary antidote to loneliness. May the poetry do the same for you while the music lifts you up. Many thanks to Peter and his fantastic band, enjoy the rest of the America that you have yet to see. –Earienne DeGrey
Wasn’t that special? Now my turn:
There is something about a voice. When it comes to certain distinct singing voices that helped shape and solidify the basis of the early Goth music sound it laid the groundwork for many Goth bands to come throughout the years…and Peter Murphy is in possession of one of those iconic voices. Even though, admittedly, years and a slight shift in musical genre separates him from the Bauhaus days, Peter Murphy and his band mates, now on a major American tour, perform a concert that exceeds the extraordinary, whilst remaining truly simple in form.
Last night was the first of a two night run stop on the tour at Highline Ballroom. Rather oddly, the opening band, Modwheelmood, is a very “alternative” band that will transport you back to college in the 1990’s…even if you didn’t attend college in the 1990’s! In-between sets, if one should take a deliberate glace across the audience crowd, one will be quite amazed at the diversity of people amassed as Peter Murphy fans. You have the young and the old, nostalgics, hipsters, rockers, ex-Goths, closeted Goths, actual Goths (although an alarming few of them at last night’s concert…yeah…Monday…I know), and even some that looked as though they walked in through the wrong door (you know who you are!), and they all were there for the same unifying reason Earienne wrote about. But here is the rub: the apparent diversity of Peter Murphy’s fan-base is in direct correlation to his musical range. In simpler terms: there is something there for every one! Murphy, in an approximate 2 hour set creates a musical blanket that spans from 1970, with a kick-ass cover of John Lennon’s We All Shine On, to his newer, more “rock” intensive songs of today, without forgetting the Goth roots. And that brings us back to his voice. No matter what “type” of song he belts out with the energy of a teenager, you will always catch that sorrowful, bass-heavy, lamenting Goth voice that is hardwired into your brain. And as the concert progresses, the songs just get better and better, topping the last, until the crowd is literally begging for an encore. The best part for me was being able to pick out the ex and current Goths in the crowd out of the rest of the more mundane crowd because as the more recognizable Gothy songs such as Cuts You Up & She’s In Parties are being played the mundane crowd is doing their usual rapid bopping up and down, while the Goth silhouettes are transfixed into “the slow shoulder sway!”
If you get the fortunate chance to catch the next concert tonight (all the info is…of course…on NewGothCity.com), DO IT!!! I know for some a $35.00 ticket price is a bit much right now…but you have to trust me on this…if you ever claimed to even like Bauhaus, you’re gonna LOVE this man’s live performance with all of your blackend heart. YOU GO NAO!!!
See you in the Dark!
Sir William Welles