16 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 9, 1998
Gothic
Ba Maus
rocks on
By Stephen Gertz
Daily Arts Writer
Halloween arrived in Detroit exactly
two months early this year as gothic-
rock's original architects Bauhaus
brought their appropriately titled
Resurrection tour to the State Theater in
Detroit.
With reunion tours being all the rage csstesy oRCA
in the late '90s, The '80s rock group Bauhaus reunited for their Resurrection tour at the State
everyone from Theater in Detroit this past week.
'70s titans like
Kiss and The tour, Bauhaus is currently making its precision and, through sheer energy and
BauhauS Eagles to unlikely first string of live appearances in 15 skill,. kept things frm sounding oerly
counter-culture years. nostalgic.
State Theater vets like The Sex Not surprisingly, then, the State After an hour or so, Murphy and the
Aug. 31,1998 Pistols and Theater was packed to capacity on Aug. gang left the stage only to come back tr
Culture Club have 31, 1998. Awash with attendees donning to greet the raving audience with the
been jumping to black leather, Doc Martins, fishnet inevitable hits.
cash in on the stockings and white pancake makeup, "Kick in the Eye"came first,parading
trend. It is hardly complete with red velvet curtains and through the speakers with its bouncing
surprising, then, eerie Victorian chamber music. It was bassline and early '80s techno-funk beat
that Bauhaus almost a scene from Ann Rice's vampire Next on the agenda was a cover of
should join the chronicle. "Ziggy Stardust' which gave Murphy
club. Amid the inevitable billowing the perfect opportunity to indulge his
In the early '80s, Bauhaus combined clouds of fog machine extract and Bowie obsession by playing out the title
the energy of punk with the chilling seizure -inducing strobes, the band role.
new-wave melodies of Joy Division and roared onto the stage with "Double Leaving the stage for a second time,
the glam-rock theatrics of David Dare," one of its loudest and most sin- everyone in the crowd knew that they
Bowie, decorated with horror show ister songs. had to come back to plat their signature
lyrics and, along the way, became one Murphy was not even on stage dur- tune, "Bela Lugosi's Dead."
of the era's most influential bands. ing this number, but made his appear- And play it they did - in full theater
Alongside Siouxie and the Banshees ance via a television monitor mounted style. Daniel Ash waltzed on stage sport-
and the Cure, Bauhaus were heroes to on the middle of the stage. How post- ing an Abe Lincoln style black tophat
black-clad sulking teenagers world- modern! while Murphy was decked out in a fill-
wide. Much to the excitement of the crowd, length velvet cape, thus completing his
But by 1984 the group had splintered. Murphy leaped onstage, joining in for vampire costume.
Singer Peter Murphy carried the dark the next song, the brilliantly anthemic Topping the show off at an hour and
torch into a series of mediocre solo "In The Flat Field." With his tall, painful- a half, Bauhaus had been able to
records that, at best, weakly imitated ly thin and pale frame dressed up in the squeeze most of the vital moments of
Bauhaus' style. The rest of the gang, gui- 19th Century garb - black of course - their back catalog into the show. But
tarist Daniel Ash, bassist David J and he resembled some sort of bizarre cross with tickets at $30 a pop and no open-
drummer Kevin Haskins soared to between David Bowie and Count ing act, fans were left craving a bit
greater creative heights as the dance-ori- Dracula. more, especially since this was a band
ented Tones on Tale and later on, as the In true reunion tour fashion, the rest of that many of them had been waiting
splendid Love and Rockets. the show continued song for song like a many years to see.
Recently, though, Murphy and the best-of collection. The band churned out The songs were played well though,
others have apparently mended the dif- favorites such as the haunting ballad and it was a treat to see such an influen-
ferences that caused the breakup and "Hollow Hills,' the psychedelic "She's tial band regroup for a stroll down mem-
prevented any sort of reunion prior to in Parties," and the new-wavish "Terror ory lane. Now if we could only have The
now. Regrouping for the Resurrection Couple Kill Colonel" with surprising Smiths ...
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music festivals, the Vans Warped Tour. The tour has been
Rancid participated In one of the simmer's most popularim
citied for limiting performance tie of its headliners.
Tours comproAislse music -
quality for themes and money
By Curtis Zimmermann were too short, approximately 50 minutes each making it
Daily Arts Writer less like a stadium concert and more like a band show-
There was one thing that seemed to lominate the 1998 case.
summer concert season: festivals witi a message. The Ironically, the major contradiction of Lilith Fair was
powers that be, a.k.a. record companes, managers and that there were almost twice as many male musicia4
promoters, seemed to think that puttirg tons of the same the bands as females. While the festival has done a lot for
types of artists on a bill would increate the draw with a women artists, the lack of female road musicians sup-
lot less risk. ports the idea that the industry is still prone to choose
Unfortunately, for the most part tleir planning was males over females when it comes to the music's back
right. It seemed like these festivals were focused less on bone - a problem that doesn't look like it will be soon
music and more on profit margins forring fans to hear eradicated.
there favorite artists play shorter sets, while being blitzed While the Lilith Fair seemed to be more about music,
by a plethora of corporate sponsorship. the Vans Warped Tour seemed to be all about cash. The
The Lilith Fair and the Warped amount of corporate sponsors was overwhelming. No
Tour were both aimed at certain matter how hard one tried between one couldn't get away
market derographics: Lilith Fair from the free tapes, copies of Rolling Stone and blow
targeted 18-30 year-old females, "BASEket Balls."
while Warped was aimed at both The fan base at these shows was a mix of people from
Warped Tour sexes between ages 12-21. Both skaters and frat boys to fans of each genre such as punks,
and ilith succeeded in appealing to these hard-core kids, rudies, skins and swingers. The major
Fair audiences, with a few extras on the fashion statement seemed to be mohawks, piercing and
side such at parents at the Warped shaved heads as well as chains, bondage pants and black
Tour or tie occasional unwilling T-shirts.
boyfriend al Lilith. Musically, this festival seemed to completely hurt the
Both shos had certain themes bands. The headliners such as Bad Religion, The
in which they used catch phrases Specials and Rancid, all who have loyal followings and
such as a "celebration of women a significant catalog of music, played only 30-min4
in music" and "Screw the sets - ridiculously short. It seemed almost like a step
System." Wiat the two shows down for groups who by themselves could fill large
also had in common was that the events contradicted concert halls.
these ideals. The only advantage seemed to be for the lesser known
From the minute one entered the ilith Fair gates, it groups on both the main and second stages who the)
was obvious that what the appeal was tresses and neck- were given equal time along side the headliners.
laces on sale everywhere, as well as free Biore pore The biggest contradiction of the day was the fact Iha
strips. Then, if one waited in line for theLevi's tent, one many of the bands on the tour preached a gospel of dei
could get a poster of Sarah McLachlan koking far from ance, non-conformity and rebelling against the systm
her best. Furthermore, the major fashion sttement in the With the corporate control of the music festival ntuclth{
crowd seemed to be the Sarah hairdo compote with mul- this integrity was lost.
tiple bobby pins. The implications of these festivals, as well as all otl
The music itself at the Lilith fair was fabtlously exe- of modern music, could be leading down a spiri7
cuted by the three headliners, which varied frrm show to mediocrity. Instead of giving bands a chance t t p
show. The Indigo Girls, Natalie Merchant, and themselves in live shows, they are forced to give stto
McLachlan, for instance, all gave solid sets in tie short less spontaneous sets. As a result, fans are forced to
time allotted. The only complaint that many concertgoers cede more money for less music - a major contradt
had about the music itself was that the headliners sets indeed.
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