Hard Rock Show Theater – Psychedelic Furs

On paper the double bill of The Furs with The Lemonheads sounded like a great idea even if their musical styles and demographic had no cross over appeal. Evan Dando in various interviews has been quoted as saying that The Furs are one of his all time favorite bands. A lot of the themes from Talk Talk Talk were used on the Lemonheads debut Hate Your Friends. The booking didn’t make financial sense to bring an audience through the doors but it was Evan Dando’s wet dream.
Compared to the solo show at the Commodore, I was just thankful that he could keep his head up and didn’t fall asleep mid way through. He’s been voted as the musician with the most beautiful features in the 90’s yet his long hair covering his eyes and lumberjack beard made him look like a lost Wookie in the woods and less of a rock star.
The songs were there and perfectly played as I had remembered them, however, Evan had no stage charisma (never did) and he looked just as bored as the audience. He didn’t sell his catalogue the way he should’ve. This is why they continued to make albums and tour but they never become one of the renowned alternative bands of that decade. Evan has always been his own worst career enemy.
The Psychedelic Furs on the other hand were a complete 180. Richard Butler, like the music, has aged gracefully. The way he smiled, danced on staged. The way he presented himself was liking looking at a splitting image of David Bowie Tin Machine Era. His energy is still there (out moves a lot of the younger toe gazer hipsters). He suavely swayed, dipped his hands in the air and hip swayed to his own beat of art house Brit pop of the early 80’s. He bounced on stage in between songs as though he was in his own imaginary bouncy castle.
The band, half of them consisting of members that looked a few years shy of missing the original incarnation of the band, were really into the show. Richard looked as though he was genuinely enjoying every moment of the tour’s opener. There was a sense of aura that wasn’t faked. Oddly he didn’t break a sweat which added to the mysteriousness.
The audience consisted mostly of 80’s curiosities and an older pitchfork music geek crowd. As a music fan it was cool to see sax player Mars Williams (formerly of the Waitresses) and keyboardist Amanda Kramer (of Information Society). Both bands have at one point been on my 80’s bucket list. Both bands are inactive, however, seeing both key players from each band sharing the same stage as Butler would even make Alan Cross cream his pants.
The mix was a little odd for the first three songs, however, rectified. The annoying thing is that President Gas was one of the first three songs.
Their musical formula was always geared toward a more elite art pop 80’s crowd and less on the flash dance genre of the decade. The atmospheric dominance of saxophone that shades so many of their songs in combination with the rustic unpretentious vocal styles of Richard are the melodic back bones of the songs. His vocal style is both husky and feminine.
Heavy portions of the show were dedicated to deep album cuts, however, those who came all the way to Coquitlam to reminisce in their soundtrack moments were quieted near the end with Heaven and Pretty In Pink. Unlike most bands who get annoyed over their top 40 singles, Richard performed the songs with the same energy and joy as the day the song was released.
The guy I am dating, my good friend Steve and myself were hugged at the lip of the stage and were graced by various up close visits as Richard emotionally sang the lyrics. The advantage of being 4’8″ is that I wasn’t tea bagged as much as Steve by the guitarist. There were moments in which it felt like an SNL skit in the making.
The set list compared to the show with Devo at the brewery was catered more toward fans with deep album cuts. They performed for 90 minutes which gave them an allowance for a better set list variation.
The show felt like a 90 minute John Hughes movie… with all the good parts.