Sep
04
2010

Gentlemen Afterdark @ Hotel Congress

PhotosSaturday, September 4, 2010 - 09:47:45 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
We wandered down to the Hotel Congress around 9.

Definitely a cool atmosphere going on down there, which I guess isn't that hard with how cool that place is. It wasn't long after walking in did we notice we weren't the only ones that had come down from Tempe, spotting both PC and Andy. Which kinda made the stalking joke from last night even funnier. Chatted to them about what a great show last night was, and how much we were looking forward to tonight's show.

It appeared that Gentlemen were actually going on at 10:30, instead of 11:30, which made going down there earlier seem like a good thing. I stopped in the foyer to pick up a new baseball cap, and then headed into Club Congress in hopes of catching Creosote. As they were setting up and started playing, I was a little confused, as it wasn't what I was expecting. As it turns out, things were way off schedule, and we actually saw. Low Max. Had no idea about them, but pretty cool to watch.

Afterwards we milled around outside by the outdoor stage. A lot of waiting was involved. Testament to how behind schedule everything was running, the Gentlemen setup didn't start til around 11:30pm. And they didn't go on stage until after midnight. It certainly was not their fault, but seemed to give some authenticity to the Gentlemen Afterdark show - I'm sure this happened a lot in their hey day. [wink] There was a merch table set up, and they were selling a 16 song mixed CD, which was brilliant given my Facebook status the other day.

Fuck. The 2 hour drive to Tucson and all that waiting around was so worth it. It was clear that it was about 2.5 seconds after Brian Smith took the stage. Of course, in true rock star fashion, he was the last one on stage, up there at very last minute. There was little question months ago that we were going to come to the show, but if there ever had been, it would have been shattered the moment Brian took the stage. The opportunity to see Brian perform, let alone with Gentlemen Afterdark was really something.

Photobox ImageThe band was fully decked out with guitar, synth and violin, with Stuart having flown in from the UK for the show. Brian looked great, arguably looking more reminiscent of Robert Smith than ever. Not sure whether he'd take that as a compliment, but I mean it as one. Speaking of which, the fact that the pre show mix, in addition to their songs also included In Between Days was pretty sweet. Ahhh, the 80's, I miss you so.

Things kicked off with Darkrooms, and there was no shortage of Brian posturing, and...well, just still being an all round rock star. The other thing that was immediately obvious, is how happy everyone looked to be there playing.

Photobox ImageThroughout the show, there was a good deal of abuse directed to the sound guy (probably with love, I think it was Bruce from the Rubies) coming from Robin. There was definitely something about this that was great. I'm sure this sort of thing happened a lot in 1984 and added some sense of authenticity to the show if you ask me. [smile]

The excitement with getting to see Brian perform, and the seeing band in general was pretty high as it was. But it turned to pure elation three songs in, when Brian gave a shout out to Hopkins, and the band launched into a rendition of his Sometimes. Wow. I was already completely psyched to be there and get to see them play, but this was something else all together! Despite Brian's intro to the song being quite long, it was all lot to take in when they started playing.

Following that they broke into a mixture of more familiar Gentlemen Afterdark songs and a handful of Pills tracks. All of them fantastic. They brought up Billy Sedmyer up for Hollywood Doll, with the crowd loved. The show closed out with Holiday, which sounded awesome. It did seem like they had another song in them, but Dave Slutes was a man on a mission to keep the night rolling.

Man, what can I say? It was a glorious 45 minutes or so. Brian looked great, and was every bit the rock star I'd imagined. The songs all sounded great, and hold up fine after almost 30 years. It was one of those shows that the moment it's over, you want it to happen all over again. The upside is that although it wasn't going to happen right then, it is going to tomorrow night. There's absolutely no doubt we're going to the Sail Inn show now.

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