Shock treatment
Horrormeister performs his film music to an adoring crowd.
John Carpenter
Aragon Ballroom, Chicago
The Kentucky-bred son of a music professor, John Carpenter made his name as a director of sci-fi and horror films – from 1974’s Darkstar to 2010’s The Ward – for which he composed and performed the scores. In the past few years, since releasing a pair of albums of original material and an anthology of his soundtracks, the erstwhile auteur has found a new career as a touring act, playing his film music to audiences of adoring fans. On this frigid autumnal evening, Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom is filled with several thousand devotees of the director. The crowd roars as 69-year-old Carpenter – dressed in black, silver pony tail dangling down his back, flashing double peace signs – arrives on stage. Fronting a five-piece band, he leans over a synthesizer and pushes into the first notes of the theme from Escape From New York. As a screen projects images from the post-apocalyptic adventure – flashing clips of Kurt Russell’s grizzled, eye-patched mug – Carpenter is off on an 80-minute journey through his visual and sonic history. “Good evening… we’re gonna play some songs from my movies,” he says by way of formal introduction, reaching back to his 1976 break-out Assault On Precinct 13 and working up its menacing dinosaur riffs and Tangerine Dream atmospherics. Carpenter’s compositions typically move between that brand of brawny synth rock and the more minimalist classicism of scores like those for Village Of The Damned and The Fog. The concert is more than Hollywood novelty however, with the main surprise coming in the form of Carpenter’s crack band, led by his son Cody on lead synth, and highlighted by the work of lanky guitarist Daniel Davies. The son of The Kinks’ Dave Davies (and Carpenter’s godson), he provides a visual and musical spark, peeling off a series of lacerating solos, matched by the intensity of a rhythm section made up of Los Angeles scene aces John Spiker on bass and Scott Seiver on drums. In between the familiar fare, Carpenter offers up several numbers off his recent Lost Themes LPs. “These are soundtracks to movies in your mind,” he notes. The standout is Vortex, a whirling dervish that even compels Carpenter to begin dancing behind his keyboard. The director is happy to ham it up, later donning the iconic Ray-Bans from his anti-Reagan consumerist nightmare They Live, while playing bluesy trills on its main theme, Coming To LA. Beyond his own work, Carpenter pays homage to his films’ outside composers, starting with Starman, “my one and only love story,” he notes. Penned by Jack Nitzsche, Starman Leaves proves a lush organ fanfare. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Ennio Morricone’s score for The Thing, with its sinister pulse and foreboding melody auguring doom. After a selection of songs from Carpenter’s cult flicks – the brawny ballast of Pork Chop Express from Big Trouble In Little China and the Latin-tinged bite of Vampires’ Santiago – he brings things to a climax with material from his horror classics, starting with the Halloween theme’s pizzicato plucked tension. “One thing I want to leave you with: please drive carefully going home,” says Carpenter before a finale of the killer car anthem from Christine. Carpenter and company take a collective Beatle bow before exiting quickly – but for the audience, the vivid sights and sounds of the evening are sure to linger.
“THE THING’S SINISTER PULSE AND FOREBODING MELODY AUGURING DOOM.”