LIVE REVIEW: THE DAMNED + THE DARTS @ THE TIVOLI 11/09/26
Words by Cecilia Pattison-Levi Photos Steph Ure
The lads who founded British punk brought their Final Damnation 50th Anniversary Tour to The Tivoli. It was a night of the mostly 50+ crowd acting like they were 15 years old again. The mosh went off, the shirts were off and an older gentleman at the end of the show, just wearing shorts, asked in broad Scots: “How di’ ya ken that love?” (Translation: What did you think of that?) Well, I thought it was an amazing performance: tight, energetic and a celebration of life.
But before all that, The Damned gave the Brisbane crowd at The Tivoli a treat, with a support band in the form of Seattle garage-punk four-piece The Darts. At the start of the gig, some guy behind me said “Are these like the 1980s band?” I responded with a definitive: “No. That’s “Darts” as in ‘The Boy From New York City’ and an age ago.” I got back an “Oh.”
The newer United States band The Darts are Nicole Laurenne, the front woman who commands the stage with her signature vocals and Farfisa organ. There is the snarling, sharp and skilful guitarist Rebecca Davidson. The heavy, pulsing bass of Lindsay Scarey and Rikki Watson’s sweet, rhythmic and swinging drum snaps and kicks.
The Darts delivered a high-voltage and sharply focused set that was full of ‘Apocalypse’, ‘Zombies On The Metro’, ‘Vampires In Love’, ‘Midnight Creep’ as the band delivered the ‘Get Spooky’ on stage. The all-female band were all about crowd engagement as they performed songs from their new album ‘Halloween Love Songs’ as the poor Farfisa organ was hauled around the stage to deliver the dark wave synths, with parts of it fell off with every move.
The Darts had loads of energy, great songs and ‘goth-horror-sexy-bat and prowling cat’ moves and a dance that we all learned. The look was black, leather and lace and ‘Devil Made Me Do It’ attitude as the self-confessed ‘Punk Rock Girls’ were performing chugging blues, punk and garage surf-rock melodies. The band’s new song ‘Hanging By A Thread’ was great.
And as The Darts got to the last five minutes of their allocated time, the band’s very engaging, charming and intelligent frontwoman, Nicole Laurenne, stated: “Five minutes. Then, we have two more songs. That’s great because our songs only go for 2 minutes 15”. It showed the band’s sense of humour as they closed out with the very funny ode to the bartender, ‘Pour Another’, and ‘My Heart Is A Grave Yard’. It was a real lot of fun!
Then, the stage was cleared with a flurry of movement. Bits of equipment were flying off. The drummer from The Darts, Rikki Watson, wins for the fastest drum kit pack up I have ever seen. The clean stage was needed as The Damned were up next. The stage was lit beautifully and the backdrop was a deep blue with The Damned emblazoned across the back and lit up on the drum kit.
The Damned (Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Paul Gray) and their hard-working synth player with added vocal support, Monty Oxymoron, moved around the stage and handled their instruments and vocals like men half their age. Like sure footed punk mountain goats, they kicked, posed and delivered the vigour that set the gig to “get up and go”. And they kicked off their set with ‘Street of Dreams’ from the glorious ‘Phantasmagoria’ album.
There was no sign of a band having slowed down over the last 50 years, even as the backdrop and video clips projected behind the band reminded us all of the fact that time had passed. And Captain Sensible’s statement: “If you’re not over 78 – you can fuck off!” I think there was some history between him and the very loud (another Scot) fan standing behind me who called all night for him to sing ‘Wot’ and ‘Happy Talk’. The rest of the band, especially Dave Vanian, was having none of it!
Tonight, was all about The Damned as they ‘Wake The Dead’ and delivered ‘The History Of The World’. The first set highlight was the performance of the wonderful ‘Stranger On The Town’, and the huge cover of the Love song ‘Alone Again Or’, and the blistering ‘Shadow Of Love’. It was a crowd pleaser, but the crowd were completely excited by ‘I Just Can't Be Happy Today’.
Then, Dave Vanian gave the stage and vocal duties over to Captain Sensible so he could perform ‘Life Goes On’ from the 1982 album ‘Strawberries’ as the strawberries danced on the backdrop. Then, Dave Vanian returned to deliver ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, ‘Is It a Dream’ and I the huge moment for fans of The Damned that had discovered the band in the mid-1980s: ‘Eloise’. It was a single release that the band put out in 1986 and it was a cover of a Barry Ryan song that had a new generation of fans (myself included discovering the band). It was followed by the Young Ones song ‘Nasty’ that a generation first saw on the ABC.
The nostalgia element of the The Damned’s performance was high. If I have one issue with the night, it was the sound. The Damned seemed to be beamed in from a neighbouring planet – the sound was hazy. I had to take out my loops to get to hear Dave Vanian’s vocals clearly. When, I did, his vocals were great as was his real London ‘spiv’ attire and attitude.
The rest of the instrumentation, especially Rat Scabies (Chris Millar) drumming, was superb. Captain Sensible was all over his brief on the melodic guitar riffs and played his guitar with a can of soft drink. Paul Gray’s bass thrummed and the soundwaves crashed through the fans at the barrier. I have to say Monty Oxymoron was just terrific on the synths and with his backing vocals.
The band seemed to be having fun together as ‘Ignite’, the sardonic ‘Love Song’, the slightly ironic and humorous ‘Second Time Around’ and ‘Neat Neat Neat’ were delivered very quickly. The Damned didn’t engage in much chat. Captain Sensible was the ‘most chatty’ in his standard red and white hooped jumper, red beret and white framed sunglasses, as Dave Vanian rolled his eyes, as possible defamation inducing statements about various subjects, from conspiracy theories, not reading, Paul Weller and the Sex Pistols, were made, but he also said some nice comments about Marc Bolan and deceased band member Brian James.
50 years in and The Damned were performing better than ever as they delivered their punk classic, and first punk song recorded to vinyl: ‘New Rose’. Then, the Jefferson Airplane cover of ‘White Rabbit’ was delivered with that crossover between psychedelic punk-rock style. For at the core of The Damned, they are a band that pioneered punk out of late 1960’s psychedelic rock. It was a massive moment. Then, the band left the stage, before returning for one final, enormous final song as ‘Smash It Up’ was played and the crowd went off!
There was even a crowd surfer who come over twice. Why? He had been in trouble with security earlier in the night for being a dick…but those of us down the front were not going to let some young jerk ruin what was an awesome night.
The Damned’s ‘Final Damnation’ gave no sign of a band heading off into retirement or slowing down as they looked like they were genuinely loving being on stage. The band’s performance was full of mischief and passion with unimpeachable musicianship on display. It was a wonderful night and it took ages to move out of the venue as people didn’t want to go home … there were a lot of tired and emotional bodies staggering around Costin Street.
