Thursday, November 24, 2005  

Bauhaus
Strathmore, Bethesda, MD
Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Washington Post, Thursday, November 24, 2005; Page C04

Bauhaus vocalist Peter Murphy contracted pneumonia in 1983, limiting his contributions to the band's final studio album, "Burning From the Inside."

It looked like he might have had pneumonia again when the re-reunited Bauhaus (the group also toured in 1998) played Strathmore on Tuesday.

The 48-year-old lead singer can be riveting; in his younger days Murphy channeled the manic stage presence of Iggy Pop. But Murphy stood almost motionless throughout the band's 19-song set, from the plodding opener, "Burning From the Inside," to the first encore, "Bela Lugosi's Dead." The latter is one of the band's greatest songs, but a ready-to-leave Murphy performed it in what looked to be a dressy winter-coat-and-scarf combo.

Murphy's amazing baritone voice sounded fine, but his delivery was perfunctory at best, especially on two pieces that can showcase his intensity: the creepy Latin section of "Stigmata Martyr" and T. Rex's stomping "Telegram Sam." At least the rest of Bauhaus (guitarist Daniel Ash, bassist David J, drummer Kevin Haskins ) seemed to be fine, and the extremely loud band rocked the not-quite-full house -- even if the house is a beautiful classical music venue that can separate and project amplified instruments in awkward ways. (The bass was overwhelming.)

Bauhaus is cited as the progenitor of goth-rock, so it is often lumped in with such insignificant, pasty-pasted wretches as Fields of the Nephilim. But Bauhaus successfully mixed glam-rock and reggae, punk and the avant-garde in ways that have rarely been duplicated. The set list bore out this eclecticism, from the dub-steeped "She's in Parties" and the Chic-like funker "Kick in the Eye" to the new-wavy "Terror Couple Kill Colonel" and the final song of the second encore, David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust." By this time, Murphy had dropped the winter coat in favor of just the scarf, but his face was saying good night well before the song ended. --Christopher Porter

Posted by CP | Link |

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