Review: The Damned at Astor Theatre

The Damned at Astor Theatre
w/ Nick Sheppard and the Yung Pomeranians
Tuesday, March 26, 2024

“Hello, we’re The Damned. We’re old, but we can still fucking rock!”

Captain Sensible had the Astor Theatre grinning from the outset with this and several other one-liners on Tuesday. He commented that New Rose was “the song the Sex Pistols wished they wrote,” given it was the first ever UK punk single when released in 1976, and the legendary old punks made good on their reputation, with some circle pit-worthy rock in a blistering second half.

They certainly brought the circus to town. There were invisible men, Dr. Jekylls and Mr. Hydes, a clown, a psychiatric nurse, and a nutter keyboardist (the last three all the same person: Monty Oxymoron). He certainly put the moron in Oxymoron, baiting the crowd with foolish dancing and an extroverted court jester persona that tended to distract rather than amuse. His antics were divisive and annoying, but then isn’t the best punk rock?

He was the antithesis of introverted, charismatic frontman Dave Vanian. Vanian emerged in a suit, sunglasses and black gloves as the smooth-moving crooner who led the band through their 80s goth-rock peak with singles such as Shadow of Love and Eloise. Played back-to-back, these songs illustrated what’s so unique about The Damned: a mesh of rockabilly, goth and (post-)punk influences.

While the set’s first half provided highlights such as Melody Lee, The Generals and Plan 9 Channel 7, there were moments where it started to drag, and more of their early mosh material would’ve been welcome. But from Noise Noise Noise and Love Song onwards, the energy lifted noticeably, the latter proving a raucous singalong.

Second Time Around and Neat Neat Neat continued the punk rock section of the set before the elongated intro to Smash It Up truly got things rowdy. Closing the main set, the tune that revived the band’s fortunes following the departure of founding guitarist and songwriter Brian James is a punk staple.

(To his credit, Sensible had earlier dedicated Fan Club to James, saying “without him, none of us would be here tonight.")

The sound and production were a letdown for a band of this stature, with seemingly no care put into the lighting design and a constant buzz and hiss that wasn’t addressed coming from the stage for nearly the entire show. Relying on the fact that all are excellent musicians (even Monty), the Captain’s guitar solos and Rat Scabies’ blistering drumming were the main things worth fixating on when Vanian wasn’t on the mic.

The Damned weren’t the only punk royalty on the bill, with one-time Clash guitarist Nick Sheppard and the Yung Pomeranians also dishing up rocking good times to kick off proceedings. His well-loved Telecaster looked like it had done the miles, and a cover of I Fought the Law was a nice touch alongside lesser-known tunes like What a Wanker.

It all went on a bit for a punk rock show as we neared the two-hour mark (the second encore was just a victory lap and a couple of the 80s songs could have been culled), but this was billed as The Damned’s final Curtain Call, so the song of the same name was a fitting encore opener—we were just thankful they didn’t opt for the full 17-minute version from The Black Album.

Followed by New Rose, the song that started it all, it was a moment that felt like the obvious finale, and the song was as good live as you ever could’ve hoped for. A night of (mostly) ups with just a couple of lulls in momentum, The Damned lived up to their reputation as punk rock outsiders who could never quite be contained by genre.

HARVEY RAE

Photos by Adrian Thomson