Last Friday (11/11) I went to see Bauhaus at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Bauhaus were a band that I listened to in the mid eighties when I was a goth, and although they were never my favourite goth band, they were pretty much the archetypical goth band, so I thought that it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane.

It was actually fairly entertaining. Pete Murphy had a pretty good stage presence, although his voice wasn’t always as strong as it could have been, and although still suitably skinny and gaunt, with age he reminded me a bit of my Uncle Derek. The Nokia Theater was packed, as both nights were completely sold out.

After a suitably spooky intro, the band came out onto the dark stage and the excellent lightshow started. The sound quality was also very good. They played a bunch of old numbers, such as Hair of the Dog, Kick in the Eye, She’s in Parties, A God in an Alcove, Hollow Hills, In the Flat Field etc., some of which I hadn’t heard for twenty years. They played for about an hour, then went off stage until the crowd brought them back for the first encore. This included a version of Telegram Sam that wasn’t that great, and ended with Ziggy Stardust, after which they left the stage again.

But the house lights stayed down, and the crowd started demanding another encore, shouting “Bela! Bela! Bela!” until they came out one last time and played their biggest and best hit, Bela Lugosi’s Dead. This was a great track to end on, and I was surprised to notice/remember how much dub reggae influence was evident on the track.

Overall, it was an interesting gig.