The gothfather cometh

I'm a lot more blasé than I used to be about live shows. I'm no longer the wide-eyed music virgin I was in high school. Just because someone I kind of like comes to town doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to disrupt my busy schedule to go see them. However, this past weekend someone came to town with that rare, time-stopping, drop-your-shit, influence.

For the past few years, ever since I've really picked up post-punk and goth music, I've always had a top three. Joy Division, Gang of Four, and Bauhaus. Joy Division is defunct now for obvious reasons, GoF always seems to pass over Houston, and Bauhaus broke up again two years ago. I never thought I'd be able to see any member from any of them. Luckily, in a strangely unheralded way, Bauhaus front man Peter Murphy rolled into Numbers just in time for me to catch him.

Murphy started the show with his solo song "low room", launched into some new material of varying quality including "velocity bird", and even played a some Bauhaus ("Stigmata Martyr" and "Silent Hedges"). The man looked pretty good for his age. He was balding a bit and had a drawn-looking face but was immediately recognizable. He had boundless energy and never once lost his composure or voice. Murphy was so vivacious he even made out with a few young women!

The rest of the show was devoted to some well-executed solo numbers and even a cover of "hurt". The conclusion was my favorite part though. Murphy ended with "Too Much 21st Century" a Bauhaus song off the band's very last album, a time when they didn't tour too extensively. He killed it.