Peter Murphy at Mill City Nights, Minneapolis (12 April 2016)

Setlist

Cascade Secret All Night Long Marlene Dietrich’s Favourite Poem The Bewlay Brothers (David Bowie cover) A Strange Kind of Love The Rose Bauhaus set King Volcano Kingdom’s Coming Silent Hedges Never Fall Out Gaslit Lion — Encore — All We Ever Wanted Was Everything Hollow Hills Bauhaus songs Cuts You Up Your Face — Encore 2 — I’ll Fall With Your Knife

 

“The Godfather of Goth” Peter Murphy sold out his Mill City Nights show in a rare Minneapolis appearance as part of his “Stripped” tour.

Murphy semi-regularly play in major cities, such as New York and Los Angeles (such as seeing him at Halloween Ball 2012 and Miracula Halloween), but the English singer rarely extend his shows to Minneapolis. In fact, his last MN show was eight years ago (16 June 2008), according to thefader.com with opener Ali Eskandarian (who was murdered in 2013). Prior to 2008, Murphy headlined First Avenue for his Dust tour in 2002.

Although no opening acts were listed at the venue’s website, we’ve seen enough shows to know that DJ Jake Rudh was handling the music video choices, mostly of the 80’s era (with one exception: David Bowie’s last video “Lazarus” before his death).

The audience who came to the special seated show at Mill City Nights were all longtime, dedicated fans. This is important to note, because this was one of the most behaved, most respective crowd we’ve seen in a long time. Fans were clinging on to every lyric sung and watching intently to Murphy’s dramatic hand gestures…. despite the dimly lit show.

Joining Peter Murphy on stage for the “Stripped Tour” were two friends (both New Yorkers): Emilio China (from Zef Noise) and John Andrews (from Loudboy). The two had the impossible task of reproducing music and effects that a normal full band made from Murphy’s entire discography.

They did a good job, with sometime Murphy joining them on acoustic (on “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything”) or melodica (on “Hollow Hills”)… but you can tell that Murphy doesn’t feel that comfortable playing live. Sometime it seemed like he’s noodling and trying to find the right note.

 

As you can see from his setlist (which does not list encores), he had wedged in three Bauhaus songs in the middle of his set. Those songs were well-received… as for most of the well-known songs.

One of the interesting choice of songs was a cover of David Bowie’s “The Bewlay Brothers”, done early in the set. Right before the song played, Murphy introduced it as, “David Bowie died… but not really,” followed by a joking stab at Lady Gaga for her Bowie tribute. Murphy only wished Gaga would cover “a proper tune”. “The Bewlay Brothers” was the song that Murphy said he’s always wanted to play.

If you were wondering why Bowie meant so much to Murphy, you have to remember that the two were probably friends, at least like-minded colleagues, because the two appeared in The Hunger (the opening sequenced featured Bauhaus singing “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”). To tie it back to Gaga, she would later appear in American Horror Story, doing her version of The Hunger (but using as She Wants Revenge’s “Tear You Apart” as soundtrack).

Obviously his biggest hit song “Cuts You Up” was saved near the end of the encore. As soon as the violin notes were played, the entire audience basically went nuts. Murphy could have ended with that song and left everyone satiated, but the song was followed up with “Your Face”, a slower song to help bring the audience down.

The audience, still doing a standing ovation, would be rewarded with a second encore, this time for “I’ll Fall With Your Knife”.

If you attend a show and interested in a personal meet & greet, you can purchase it at the merch stand. The price also includes a unique, limited CD.

Peter Murphy’s “Stripped Tour” continues in London, Ontario, tonight.

Remaining shows:

04/16/16 Toronto, ON Mod Club 04/17/16 Lancaster, PA Chameleon 04/19/16 Boston, MA Royale Nightclub Boston 04/20/16 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts 04/21/16 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge 04/22/16 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge 04/23/16 Falls Church, VA State Theatre 04/25/16 Nashville, TN City Winery Nashville 04/26/16 New Orleans, LA House Of Blues 04/27/16 Dallas, TX Kessler Theater

04/28/16 Austin, TX The North Door 04/29/16 McAllen, TX Yerberia Cultura 04/30/16 San Antonio, TX The Korova 05/03/16 Phoenix, AZ The Crescent Ballroom 05/04/16 Los Angeles, CA The Regent Theater 05/05/16 Mexico City, Mexico Teatro Metropolitan 05/06/16 Guadalajara, Mexico C3 05/16/16 Lisbon, Portugal Aula Magna 05/17/16 Oporto, Portugal Casa da Musica 05/18/16 London O2 Academy Islington