On January 18, 2019 Portland was treated to a rare show with the return of Peter Murphy and fellow former band member David J from Bauhaus. The tour,  The Peter Murphy 40 Years of Bauhaus Ruby Celebration featuring David J, was on it’s second US date. I hadn’t seen Bauhaus live itself since 1996, and sadly missed the Coachella performance in 2008 where Peter sang upside down during the length of Bela Lugosi’s Dead.

The house was packed, with a very responsive audience. Unfortunately there were a few in the crowd that were a bit rough to push and shove, however most settled into dancing and sang along with the performance of the debut album by Bauhaus 40 years ago, In The Flat Field, in it’s entirety. Peter was constantly moving around the stage, still doing a small bit of Nijinsky posing and David J was killing the bass. Having been a Bauhaus fan from back in the day, it would have been great to hear Daniel Ash along with them, sadly he was not on this tour. But the rest of the band whipped up the crowd and most of the audience was singing along and taking over from Peter, at his encouragement, during the second half of the show where classics were played.

Music

Songs from In The Flat Field: “Double Dare”,”In the Flat Field” ,”A God in an Alcove”,”Dive”,”The Spy in the Cab”,”Small Talk Stinks”,”St. Vitus Dance”,”Stigmata Martyr”,”Nerves”

“Bela Lugosi’s Dead” with killer David J bass

“She’s in Parties” long stage dub version

“Kick in the Eye”

“Burning From The Inside”

“Silent Hedges”

“The Passion of Lovers”

“Severance” – Dead Can Dance Cover

“Dark Entries”

“Adrenaline”

Other songs have been played on the tour, however not for the Portland set. If you are seeing the tour in the coming weeks, or lucky enough to be in San Francisco where Murphy will be performing in depth at The Chapel over the course of two weeks in March, get your tickets now. Each performance will be a different theme. Check out his Tumbler page for more details. For a set list of possible music at your show:

Peter Murphy set lists by Tour

The Chapel Events list