Ok so, a few weeks ago I heard that Peter Murphy was doing a show at the Paradise in Boston. Despite the fact that Bauhaus is my favorite band uh of all time and has been forever (well, besides Elliott Smith I guess, but he’s not really a band), I wasn’t going to go, because I didn’t know anyone else who was going.
Then for some reason I decided to look at the ticket prices anyways. As I was glancing around the ticketmaster page, I first noticed that he was performing only Bauhaus material. I didn’t get to see Bauhaus during their last reunion tour, so I was already feeling like I HAD to go once I saw that. But THEN, realized there were “VIP” tickets for sale, and that they were only $40- or 50 something dollars (I forget). I thought that was, for once, a reasonable price (usually VIP tickets are in the $200-300 range so I never even consider the possibility of buying them) so I was all like, “what’s included with the price of the VIP ticket?”
When I saw that the VIP ticket included a meet and greet with Peter Murphy after the show , I almost didn’t believe. I’d dreamed for years and years about meeting him. I knew then that there was no way I couldn’t go.
I knew it was going to be a magical evening as soon as I pulled up to the Paradise Rock Club, because 1) I got lost on the way there and the GPS app on my phone saved me (the app is called Waze, it’s free!), and 2) I found a perfect parking spot on the corner of a street that didn’t even require parallel parking skills to secure! If you’ve parked anywhere in Boston you KNOW how incredible that is.
I hadn’t been to the Paradise Rock Club since I saw Silverchair there in 2007. Although I didn’t get anything to drink, the bar was the perfect place to hang out while I was waiting for the opening acts to be finished.
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, he came on stage with his band. He started off with “King Volcano” and then followed that with “Kingdom’s Coming”. I don’t really remember that part of the show because I was too busy freaking out. But BUT after that, the bassline for Double Dare started and I LOVE that song so the rest of the room disappeared from that point on. In my opinion, this was the best part of the whole show. He sounded incredible, the band was great too.
He followed that up with “In the Flat Field” and “God in an Alcove” – two more of my favorites. One thing I really loved was how he moved on stage. He was dancing and getting into the groove and it was awesome and inspirational.
His band then played “Boys”, “Silent Hedges”, and “Kick in the Eye” (all fantastic). For “The Three Shadows” part 1 and 2, Peter got an acoustic guitar and accompanied himself and sounded totally beautiful. After that, he and his band played “She’s In Parties”, which also melted my face off. I freaking love that song, and the video is great too if you haven’t already seen it. They closed with “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything” and a Dead Can Dance cover.
There were two encores – the best part was during the first one when they played “Dark Entries” and “Ziggy Stardust”. I realize this is a controversial statement, but I always preferred the Bauhaus version of Ziggy Stardust over the original. In fact, our family’s dog is named Ziggy in honor of that song.
Ziggy
I was slightly disappointed I didn’t get to hear my favorite Bauhaus song, “Hollow Hills”, but its kind of slow and dirge-y so I wasn’t surprised they didn’t play it. 
After some puttering around, I found where the meet and greet was and got in line. Peter’s lovely assistant Wendy came out first to brief us all on meeting him. She said we’d get a photo and he’d sign 2 things. She also told us “don’t ask if you can sit on his lap” (lol). Luckily I was near the front of the line, so I didn’t have to wait long to see him.
So finally he came out and the meet and greet process began. When I met him, the first thing he said was “Hello, beautiful”, which of course rendered me basically speechless for the remainder of our meeting. That was fine, though, because he eloquently, beautifully, did all the talking. He asked me where I was from, and I said “Boston” (der), then he said he meant what was my ethnic background and I told him and we talked about his band for a minute and he signed the poster and also this bootleg Bauhaus tote bag I got off of eBay a zillion years ago.
After that, I told him I loved him (yeah seriously) and he said “I love you too”.
Then I went to the merch booth and got a free Tshirt. As an added bonus, my car did not get towed!
It sounds silly, but years and years ago I used to daydream about what it would be like to meet Peter Murphy, and I always just assumed it was impossible, like he was some far away inaccessible person. After Bauhaus called it quits (again), I thought I had missed my last chance to hear their music live. I never ever would have guessed that I’d be seeing him perform their music live AND get to meet him after the show. It’s nice to be reminded that dreams do come true.
With love and light,
adorpheus
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) ate my ice cream so I put my name on it:
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