i saw hugh cornwell at the brighton bar on a saturday night. i was able to do this because i work saturdays during the day and had enough time to drive to long branch to make it for the show. afterwards, at something like 2 or 3 in the morning, i drove back home and slept for a few hours before getting up and planning my sunday out.
you see, the damned were doing their 35 year anniversary tour, and weren't coming to philly (for shame you guys. FOR SHAME.) so i had to see them somewhere else. i decided on washington, dc for several reasons.
a) it was on a sunday and i don't work on sundays, yaaaaay
b) my friend i've known since pre-school lives there now and had been trying to get me to come visit and she is really fun and awesome and down for anything. so when i suggested seeing the damned together, she was totally willing even though she had never heard of them. i sure do love her.
c) dc is relatively easy to get to by public transportation. especially when your friend lives there and knows all the buses and things and the best way to get there.
so after a drive to the train station and the train to the bus and the bus to dc, i was finally there. i'm not sure how many hours it took but it seemed like a lot. she met me where the bus let off and went to her place, where she had dropped off some really fucking delicious vegan food she picked up earlier from some place i wish i knew the name of.
she lives within walking distance of the black cat, which is where the show was. i'm a little jealous. dc seems like a pretty cool place, but as you will see, i was not there for very long. so we walk to the black cat and pick up our tickets and head in and it is PACKED. we manage to get up to somewhere in the middle of the room. the legendary shack shakers are opening. i had heard of them before but never listened to them, at least not that i could remember. but oooh did they win me over. they were so much fun. lots of energy, fun songs, and weird stage antics. i mean, this was kind of a long time ago so my memory is a bit fuzzy but i seem to remember him shoving the microphone in his mouth. i could be wrong. anyway, it was fun.
so the damned finally come out. being their 35 year anniversary (which is, let's face it, a long ass time), they were doing damned damned damned and the black album all the way through. that seems to be a thing that bands do these days; play through full albums from start to finish at their shows. i'm not complaining, but i do find it interesting. it takes a little bit of the fun out of it, since if you know the albums, you already know the set list. they blew me away regardless. so captain sensible comes out and says something about putting us in a time machine and taking us back to 1977. it was SO COOL to see damned damned damned all the way through. SO COOL. remember when i copped out and said that whole album counted as my number five favorite damned song? well. yeah. so you can see why i was so happy.
then they left for a brief intermission, captain saying "see you in 1980!"
so then it was time for the black album. my goodness. it was intense. and fun. and everything you want in a show. for a bunch of old dudes, they really don't show their age.
after that part ended, they leave the stage again but, of course, come back for an encore. this is the fun part, because now what are they going to play? captain says they had a discussion backstage and are letting us, the crowd, choose the encore. he also says something about doing "copious amounts of drugs" whilst backstage. then "hahaha not really! we don't do that anymore. lemmy does though, if you can believe that." teehee. anyway, people start shouting things and i can't understand anything they're saying but we get to hear "love song," which captain introduces with "if you really listen to the lyrics, it's about trains. so, just for you, here's a train song." that made me smile so much. he's truly fabulous. and then it was "smash it up," naturally. i would love to hear them do "i think i'm wonderful" live sometime, but oh well. "smash it up" is a perfect end to the night. fuck i love that song. gah.
remember how i said the place was packed? holy shit, people, it was so awesome. if you remember from the last time i had seen them in philly, it was hardly even half way full in there. it made me really, really happy to see so many people there for them after that last time. either people are smarter in dc and know good music when it comes around, or people are just coming out to see them because you never know when it will be the last time you get to see bands like these. sad, but true.
after the show we walk back to my friend's place, look up my public transportation home, and go to sleep around midnight, only to wake up at 4am so i can catch a bus to another bus that will take me back to philly. at this point i am completely delirious but so happy about my 2 amazing nights in a row that i don't even care. my friend and i say goodbye and off i go on the bus that takes me to the greyhound bus that will take me back to the city of brotherly love (ha). i get off the bus in philly, run over to the train station and catch a train almost immediately that gets me to work on time. amazing. and then that night, i went out with my boss and our friend to maxwell's in hoboken, nj to see the crocodiles.
did i mention how tired i was?
the crocodiles get their own entry. because they're that good.
so the next time the damned tour you better get your ass out and see them, for fuck's sake. what are you waiting for?
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