Fangbase - Reviews

The Black Cat, Washington DC

21st October 2001

The Damned at the Black Cat - Thanks to Steve Seitz

Another glorious night of The Damned live...what better way than to spend a Sunday evening I ask? "Its Sunday isn't it? Why aren't you geezers all in church" crossed my mind on the way there.

The new Black Cat was actually very nice...and thankfully bigger. But that really couldn't make up for the half assed crowd! Guess that's why we didn't get another encore like those wonderfully Philly fans got...that's it I'm packing up and moving to Philadelphia where they know how to rev it up for The Damned ;) Took this crowd a bit to get going but once things heated up it got going. There was also one of those $%*#!ing barriers between the crowd and stage which kinda cut down on the fun in my opinion. First Damned gig I've been to where they had one of those damn things. (Damnit Dante...toss that thing and get a stage that doesn't look frighteningly similiar to 50 folding card tables stuck together man heheh)

First opening band The Briefs were just absolutely brilliant!!! Anyone who is going to be seeing them open on the any of the upcoming shows is in for a real treat. Their lead guitarist kinda even looks like Captain circa Music For Pleasure. Slim cut thrift shop suits with highwater pants, ugly ties, and wraparound shades with tons of energy and catchy songs that you'd have to f'ing dead to not enjoy and wanna pogo about to. As they ended their set they announced "Up next are Swingin' Utters and then...STRYPER!" Haha. During The Damned's set The Brief's bass player was running around down front snapping off Polariods of Captain and I believe writing funny comments on them before taping them to the monitors in front of Captain who would laugh, rip them off, and then toss them back at him.

 

Captain belts one out! Thanks to Rich
Second up were Swingin' Utters. They started off with some "technical difficulties"....broken amp head, bad patch chord, flakey input jack on a guitar. I'm not sure if they were just annoyed with the problems they had in the first song or what but they just didn't live up to all the hype I'd gotten about them and about how "fun" they were to see live. Fun??? They seemed like decent guys but...

 

 

 

 

Despite the tepid audience (and the butt%#$ who kept asking "Where's Rat?" over and over again) The Damned really did give it their all and absolutely rocked. Dave stepped up and announced "Welcome to the chaos which is The Damned!" and the intro to Democracy started. Patricia, who's always been somewhat stationary was immediately slinking and pouncing about the stage from the first notes of Democracy whipping that lovely black hair all about. Pinch was absolutely tearing the drums up. Hitting them so hard that after the first number they evidently had to turn the drum mics down.

 

 

 

 

Identical set as the night before except for the absence of another encorewith a suprise "not on the set list" song as they gave us in Philly. C'mon you eggheaded DC punks....if you want more from The Damned you gotta show 'em you want more. Many of them didn't get moving until New Rose was played, about 3 or 4 songs in. They definitely seemed to be more expecting to see another "greatest hits" type set. Dave and Captain both frequently announced "This is a NEW song, from the NEW album" The entire set was pretty damn blazing to say the least....too bad the audience participation wasn't as firey. Eloise was even faster and rocking then the night before which ended with Dave saying in a rather squeaky high pitched voice "Oh please don't go away!" which seemed to entertain Pinch quite a bit. They even got pretty heavy with the end of 13th Floor Vendetta which I might add sounds incredible live. Captain's guitar work which is quite a bit more than on the studio version is excellent. Thrill Kill again was definitely one of the highlights of the set, the intrumental sections with Capt's noise/wah effects on the guitar and Monty's keyboards created a totally beautiful wall of sound. A disco ball was brought out on stage for....well...Disco Man....which was promptely abused by both Dave and Captain by being swung around and ridden like a horse by Sensible in his pink tutu. Smash It Up and Love Song really got everyone hopping nuts and singer...er screaming along. Quite a few attemps from audience members to get over the barrier which brought out the bouncers for the first time during the show who were also shouting along with big smiles on even while shoving people back into the crowd and snuffing out mad dashes at stage diving attempts by a few.

The energy from The Damned was absolutely through the roof, and they gave it their absolute best despite what I saw as a rather lame audience with the exception of the first few rows. I'm hoarse, sore in the ribs and back, and hungover...the way a good Damned fan should be the day after a gig....wot about the rest of you DC lot?

Also, some words for those out there dissing Pinch....unless you've seen the man do his thing live keep yer bleendin' pie holes shut. He absolutely bashes the drum kit and is so loud I do believe he could almost get away without drum mics. Captain said as well that he was absolutely the loudest, most hard hitting drummer he'd ever played with and he's had to turn his guitar up louder because of it. Not to mention he's got to be one of the most personable decent guys you could ever meet.

Pinch and Dave - Thanks to Rich

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOTS of pics from the DC and Philly gigs to follow shortly....still recovering here.

Steve Seitz
www.oocities.org/thelimitclub

Thanks to Steve Seitz for top photo! More on his Limit Club site!

~also~

Thanks to Rich for the other photos! Find more at his site!