Undead Undead Undead Undead!
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 8, 2005 9:55PM
Chicagoist remembers when The Sisters Of Mercy came through town in the early ‘90s and we were totally psyched. We weren’t exactly what you’d call Goth kids – we showed up to the show in shorts and a Keith Haring T-shirt since we reckoned it would get mighty warm in The Riv that night – and we weren’t exactly prepared for the massive amount of Goth kids in miles of lave and velvet that were waiting in line on either side of us. We couldn’t figure out the Goth uniform while in line and we really couldn’t figure it out when people started fainting left and right two songs into the set.
We’re offering this observation as a word of warning to anyone attending either tonight or tomorrow night’s Bauhaus shows at The Vic.
Bauhaus is one of those bands everybody knows even if everybody doesn’t know they know it. The group imploded four years into their career – splitting off into Tones on Tail and later Love And Rockets, as well as a solo career for frontman Peter Murphy -- and left behind a catalog that never had a chance to grow stale or bloated. The songs emerged from walls of feedback, deep-sapce fuzz bass and seismic drumming. Murphy’s dramatically dark baritone would color in the corners and occasionally rise to a shiver-inducing yowl. The group as a whole took their lead from David Bowie and Marc Bolan and then shoved the whole thing into a cavernous space deep inside man’s psyche.
Do us a favor though and don’t oversimplify the whole thing by calling them the godfathers of Goth since that’s just downright insulting.
While this is technically a reunion tour for Bauhaus it shouldn’t be grouped into the same category as all the other tours that recently hit the road in search of money and rejuvenated adoration at the expense of a songbook that was either dated or played out. Bauhaus never really had a chance to plateau and judging by early reports – such as when Murphy descended upside-down from the rafters to perform the epic “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – the group is still on top of their game.
Just remember to dress accordingly.