Legendary punk band proves it still rocks after 40 years
The Damned, going strong, hit S.F. for anniversary tour
Well, hot Damned. More than four decades into its career, The Damned is still going strong.
The legendary British punk-rock act — still led by founding members Dave Vanian (vocals) and Captain Sensible (guitar) — proved that again on April 11 by delivering a powerful show at the Fillmore in San Francisco.
The band hit town on its 40th anniversary tour, which marks — among other things — the 40th anniversary of its first tour of the U.S. That 1977 trek is widely considered to be the first time a British punk band toured America.
That’s just one of many reasons why The Damned is so historically significant.
Sure, the Sex Pistols got the ball rolling in the U.K., following the lead of the Ramones and others in the U.S. Yet, The Damned is credited as the first British punk band to release both a single (immortal “New Rose”) and an album (“Damned Damned Damned”).
That landmark debut came out at the start of 1977, helping to kick off what would turn out to be the single greatest year of punkrock recordings in history. Besides “Damned Damned Damned,” 1977 would bring “Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols,” The Clash’s self-titled debut, Wire’s “Pink Flag,” Television’s “Marque Moon,” Richard Hell & The Voidoids’ “Blank Generation” and the Ramones’ second (“Leave Home”) and third (“Rocket to Russia”) LPs, among others.
In other words, fans were witnessing indisputable punk-rock royalty as The Damned took the stage and began to kick out the jams in San Francisco. Yet, this show delivered more than just punk, as the band illustrated how it’s grown beyond the original sound of its early albums to embrace other styles, such as goth rock and new wave.
The five-piece act — which also currently includes keyboardist Monty Oxymoron, drummer Pinch and bassist Stu West — began with a succinct yet satisfying take on “Melody Lee” from the band’s third full-length, “Machine Gun Etiquette.” The Damned continued to spotlight that 1979 album throughout the night, as it included at least a half dozen other “Machine Gun” numbers in the 20-plus song set list. Otherwise, the list was pretty evenly split, with no more than three songs coming from any one album in the band’s catalog.
The Damned got a little political as it revisited the 1982 “Strawberries” album for the song “Generals,” as Vanian sang the chilling lines: “Only the wounded remain/The generals have all left the game/With no will to fight/They’ll fade with the light/There’s nobody left they can blame.”
Yet, leave it to Captain Sensible to come up with the perfect way to balance Vanian out.
“Let’s forget about all that doom and gloom,” Sensible said at the song’s conclusion. “Do we have a disco ball in the house?”
That’s one of the reasons Vanian and Sensible make such a dynamic duo. These two founding members are so intriguingly different from each other.
Vanian is all business, lurking about in the shadows and steadily crooning through such gems as “I Just Can’t Be Happy Today” and “Disco Man.” There’s a sense of menace and mystery to his vocals that really demands attention.
If Vanian’s the prince of darkness, as he’s been called, then Sensible has to be the clown prince. He seems to be having fun all the time onstage, as he plays practical jokes on the fans and otherwise goofs around nearly as much as he plays guitar.
The group brought the main set to a close with a double shot from the first album, roaring through the great “New Rose” — one of the best punk rock songs of all time — and “Neat Neat Neat.” Wow. Truly, anyone who considers himself or herself a punk rock fan should be required to see the band perform those two songs in concert at least once.
The Damned returned for a terrific four-song encore, which included powerful renditions of “Jet Boy, Jet Girl.” The highlight of the encore — and perhaps of the entire show — was to witness the incredibly influential punk band cover hometown heroes Jefferson Airplane’s transcendent “White Rabbit.”