Don't need a cure, need a final solution

[cyrano]

First off, this concert is dedicated to my homey, Ellie D, who is in our hearts and our thoughts. Peace out!

So the line up is Peaches, BauHaus and Nine Inch Nails at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. I get there around five-fifteen because I haven't been to the venue in forever and I don't know how long anything is going to take. I go to will call, thanks to the genius of my friend Raven, and get my ticket. I don't end up standing on queue too long before the line starts moving and we shuffle in.
Now, a brief aside. A couple of weeks ago, I called the Shoreline and said "Hey I'm going to the NIN concert and want to know what I can and can't bring." The helpful young fellow said he'd be glad to help me. Parasols/umbrellas, he said, were right out due to visibility issues. I could understand that. Water bottles, so long as they weren't glass or metal, were fine.
Apparently something changed between these two points because water bottles tonight were verboten. But once I'd tossed mine out, they'd be happy to sell me another bottle for only $5. And I told them I'd only buy it if I got to choose where I put it.
So I perched at the top of the hill, commanding a view of the entire arena, until Angie and Raven call me and I can locate them.
Another aside--renting a chair when you have a lawn seat? TOTALLY worth the $5.

Peaches makes me feel like Top of the Pops never got cancelled, but they might have been bought out by HBO. She had wild vivid eye makeup, wild full hair, a leather one-piece, and good lord I haven't seen a keytar in *years*! She climbed on the speakers, she made security walk her along the rail that keeps the audience from wandering onto the stage, she went up and down the aisles--anywhere but behind the microphone. It was like when my little brother missed his ritalin dose. However, he didn't have a pretty pink underwear set, which Peaches did. By the end of her set, she'd stripped down to her underwear and was racing up and down the aisles with a microphone and a little capelet that said 'XXX'. She was having a lot of fun on this tour. Which was a trend--this whole group seemed to be enjoying this tour. Maybe it's because tonight was closing night, I don't know.

BauHaus. I'm going to say something that may cause vitriolic flamewars and some unfriendings. I like Peter Murphy's solo work better than Love and Rockets. Better than Daniel Ash's solo work, better than Tones on Tail, and *better than BauHaus*. So I was disappointed when the line up changed from Peter Murphy to BauHaus. But they were still a lot of fun. Peter came out wearing this silver cowboy hat that even *he* couldn't make look classy. Luckily, he took it off about the same time that Daniel Ash took off his rockstar white fur-trimmed vest and big white-frame sunglasses. Unfortunately, the vest was apparently the only thing holding the boy up because he did one walk about in the VIP section and then spent the rest of their performance lying on his back playing the guitar.
Peter was wearing this black western shirt with roses embroidered on it, like he'd heard that Johnny Cash had passed on and there might be an opening for Man in Black and he was ready to apply. But *DAMN* it was good to see those two on stage together again--they may have been putting on a show (and they were--they strutted and wriggled and did all those things like they were still 25) but it really looked like they were getting along again. And, with that line from the Stranglers (Peaches, you can find it on the Metroland soundtrack) they brought back our girl from the opening act. I confess to not remembering the song now, but it was energetic and everybody had a good time. She even lay on the stage with Daniel for a while, so he didn't get lonely. And then they did Bela Lugosi and the crowd went batshit insane and Peter lurked around the stage in his huge jacket/cape and chanted "Eat clams" (not really) and draped his cape over Daniel's head, just two boys playing silly buggers and having a good time.

I was surprized that I didn't recognize about half of NIN's performance, despite only owning the first and then the most recent CDs. The stage setting was really... I liked it, and I imagine it was very symbolic. There were about six hanging segments of bars across the stage, and they'd go up and down all night. Sometimes Trent was performing in the cage, and in fact his first number he was reaching out through the bars. More asiding--he has short hair! And he's all buff! I didn't recognize him. He looked like that hot guy on The Pretender, or Henry Rollins. We were near enough to the front that a mosh pit started to form up.

Now, I don't have anything against moshers personally. In fact, I generally like them better than the concert karaoke kids who want to make sure you know that they've memorized every song in the artist's catalogue. But if you're there to run into people, then why can't you do it in the back of the house? Or in the parking lot? This was an unusual mosh pit for me--I'm used to tightly packed mosh pits that do a lot of pogoing into each other with arms flailing. This was more like frolicking and grabbing. Don't get me wrong--there were some first class frolickers in this group. And there were some non-males too. But, again, if you want to grab somebody, and they're into being grabbed, just go for it. Don't get the rest of us involved in your sexual orientation exploration. The young ladies I was with, I was torn between getting up and defending them from the writhing sweaty mass of bodies (despite Angie's need for a writhing sweaty body of her own) and saying 'They are big girls and do not need a man to defend them. If they do then they will say Chuck, you big man, would you please deal with this situation?' Apparently it all turned out for the best, though. There in my little chair with a blanket draped over my legs to keep my knees warm, I apparently looked like their invalid grandfather and so there were people in the crowd defending the old man and his two beautiful granddaughters from flying moshers.

So yeah, Trent rocked and I mostly didn't mean it when we all shouted "I Hate Everyone". Lea and Larissa were probably disappointed that he didn't get to Rage Out, but I'm good with that. I was surprized that 'Hurt' was a show stopper. And then Peter Murphy came out and they did Trent's mostly-cover of Dead Souls, and it was PM and TR doing Joy Division and that was cool, and then they did Final Solution and I said fuckin' A yeah Peter Murphy. And he wrapped up with Hand That Feeds and we all rocked with him.

Now. I have no interest in fighting the 23498723947329 people who are simultaneously trying to get onto Shoreline so I hang out for a while and then I meet this guy named Ian and we talked about the show and about music and all sorts of crap until the cops threw us out.

I think that's everything.

Comments

[windrose.livejournal.com]

I saw Peter's first three solo tours, and he is a fucking amazing performer. L&R will still be my darlings because they got me through a very rough time in my life (not to mention that Kevin Haskins always bought me drinks after the shows) but Peter puts on a better concert by far.* Alas, I have never gotten to see Bauhaus, though the Old Bat in me is determined to do so at least once.

Daniel Ash is hot. And it amuses me that he's still wearing white onstage after all these years. Also, I'm old enough to remember when he started doing that.

*Except for the Bubblemen. NOTHING will ever beat the L&R Bubblemen.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Raven and I commented that Daniel looks like he's been keeping himself in a hyperbaric chamber, and still looks '80s, but poor Peter is definitely showing his age. If he weren't touring and releasing albums and what not I'd make a Dorian Gray reference.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Wow - you got the good show. Houston's pales in comparison to that description, and now I'm sure I'll hear no end of it from Shawni & X too.

I don't think the bill was ever for just Peter Murphy, though. AFAIK, NIN was touring solo and decided to go 'round again with Bauhaus.