Slims
is a very friendly, smallish venue (just over 500 capacity) a short
bus ride from San Francisco city centre housed in what looked like
a former warehouse - it's part owned by Boz Scaggs. There was no publicity
at all in San Francisco for this gig as far as I could see and there
wasn't a single poster outside Slim's - as it turned out it didn't
matter because by the time The Damned on the place was heaving.
First support band were The Adored again - perfectly acceptable
and next were the excellent Epoxies. I thought their singer
reminded me of someone - it was Siouxsie of the Banshees (but with
talent). Their set was highly entertaining - fizzing with energy,
great songs, a mad keyboard player and green lasers shining from both
guitars. I was even moved to buy a copy of their CD - they're on iTunes
too, I believe. Their drummer used to be Captain's guitar tech you
know. Much to their amusement, the "E" on the illuminated
backdrop had gone out so it read "Poxies".
Time
must have been a bit short because old Mimi Doodah didn't appear before
The Epoxies although she did (briefly) appear before The Damned,
showering glitter and clothes all over the shop. A quick twirl of
the tassells and off she went and on came The Damned (to be precise,
Pinch only. The others were off-stage as Blackout started)
and the place went mad. Next up was a storming New Rose which
was greeted with a huge roar from the crowd. Despite a large sign
warning moshers they'd be ejected, people were whizzing round in all
directions (including a perfectly sensible American bloke in his late
forties who'd been standing chatting to me as we waited for the show
to start - he shot off into the moshers like a scalded demented cat).
They had bouncers actually standing in the crowd here keeping the
livelier element away from us of a more sedate nature. Neat Neat
Neat was rather riotous too.
There wasn't room on the small stage for all the corpses etc., but
there was the odd skull and gravestone lounging about the place.
The backdrop was used once again to show old black and white horror
movies clip and Pinch enquired if Boris Karloff was on screen before
Dr Jekyll started. "No" said Dave, "there's
a man with three eyes on at the moment". There was too (looking
a bit like Arthur Askey). Pinch decided to wait for Karloff to appear
as "it wouldn't be professional". "Are we
going professional then?" asked Mr. V. As short pause ensued
while the whole band watched the screen "I'm enjoying watching
this, are you?" asked Captain.
Talking of Captain, he was in fine form, ending up on his back on
the stage during a rollicking Jet Boy Jet Girl. He staggered
to his feet clutching his back, hobbled across to his speaker cabinet
and theatrically mimed his way through a reviving swig of beer and
was miraculously "cured". The tinker - I really thought
he'd hurt himself. We were also treated to an excellent Frisco
Man (Disco Man re-lyriced in honour of the location which featured
Pinch doing an impromptu Stayin' Alive at the end, complete
with disco beat). Alone Again was introduced by Dave with a
poigant tribute to the late Arthur Lee.
Captain even got a plug in for the Blah! Party (the crowd seemed to
know what he was on about) - "it comes to something when a
punk rock guitarist has to stand against the polictians".
Him and Pinch then lauched into an anti-Bush rant.
Something felt different about this gig and Captain explained all
before Ignite - being California this was a non-smoking venue.
What a pleasant change it made not to be reeking of smoke afterwards.
This one was an excellent gig; great performances (Captain's guitar
been particularly good, enthusiastic crowd although someone did shout
"play something Punk" at one point - just like in the UK
they have people stuck firmly in 1977 timewarps in the US too, perfect
sound and some great banter. Dave leaned off stage to have a word
with a bloke who was wearing a white T shirt with "Damned Disciple"
scrawled across it in black marker pen. As DV pointed out, the gentleman
in question also appeared to be wearing a pair of underpants on his
head. "And what have you come as, Sir?" asked Dave
"I'm a Disciple" came the muttered reply. "That
was a bit lame" said an amused Pinch, "you could
have said anything and all you could say was 'I'm a disciple'".
Captain told him not to mock the afflicted.
Captain even managed a bash on the keyboards for a quick go on the
keyboards for a stab at Golden Brown featuring the immortal
lyric "I'm in The Strugglers baby yeah".
US gigs don't half finish late - this one clattered to a close at
just before 1230 (with my brain telling me it was 630am at home) and
I wandered off into the night to find a bus back to the hotel.
Full set list - I'd arranged with Dog From Blackburn to send him a
text, but little does he know it was a bit dark in Slim's so I couldn't
see to write properly, I then forgot to write them down at all, got
all flustered and then lost my bit of paper. Luckily the set was virtually
the same as the Las Vegas one so I sneakily committed it to memory:
Wait For The Blackout
New Rose
History Of The World
Perfect Sunday
Absinthe
Democracy?
Neat Neat Neat
Alone Again
Dr Jekyll
Eloise
Little Miss Disaster
13th Floor Vendetta
Iginte (extended version)
Plan 9
Generals
Jet Boy Jet Girl
Frisco Man
Love Song
Smash It Up (featuring an amazinlgy long shout of Smash It Up
from Dave).
Encores:
Antipope (extended version),
Nasty
Looking At You.
Froggy
