Diamond Bodine-Fischer[For more photos of the show, see Timothy Norris' slideshow “Peter Murphy@The Mayan”.]
Who: Peter Murphy
Where: The Mayan
When: 3/15/2011
Words like “killer”, “awesome”, and “epic” are often used to describe a show, words like “exquisite”, “beautiful”, and “breathtaking”, not so much. However, those are just a few of the words that come to mind when describing what Peter Murphy did at The Mayan.
Once again, Peter Murphy shames everyone else:
Coming onto stage with an air of royalty, his purple Mardi Gras beads shimmer in the stage lights. Strutting into “Raw Power” early in the set and slipping effortlessly into “Subway” moments later.
His entire band, flawless, keeping in sync in every way, like a group of jazz players that have been together for decades, the group put on a show worthy of the Hollywood Bowl at Downtown's Mayan. It was, as he always is, perfection incarnate.
We last saw his guitarist Mark Thwaite surprise fans when he jumped on stage with Imperative Reaction at Das Bunker. We thought we remembered then how tight of a player he was, but tonight he proved our high estimates still fall short.
Peter Murphy was playful, charming and graceful enough to make a girl swoon:
Swoooooon: Peter Murphy; Credit: Timothy Norris
The “Strange Kind of Love”/”Bela Lugosi Is Dead” mash-up was epic but the best part of the show may have been “She's In Parties” under the purple light, matching his purple necklace and the purple after party wristbands.
The crowd downstairs was disturbingly loud, names of restauranteurs and fashion designers often overpowered the band as the worst kind of concertgoer strained to cement their importance in the eyes of all around them. We take solace in the truth that these types only ever hear their own ramblings, so in effect, they all went unheard.
At last, after an intense search, the best seats in the house were found. The bleacher seating at the top of the balcony area. Fans reclined, quietly singing along to every word as a few did the gothic two-step in the corner. It was a kind of like a high school parking lot-in a wonderfully sentimental way.
In the end, nobody with any kind of sense was left unsatisfied.
BONUS: This is the Set List the band had prepared. It's a very loose representation of what they actually played onstage:
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.