The Damned - Edinburgh Picture House 07th Dec 13

[ceebs]

Last minute rush in deciding to get a ticket for this one, but it seemed the crowd of us going were not alone in this as when we got the tickets, the guy in Ripping Records said that every second ticket he`d sold that day was for The Damned. Looked like the place was going to be rammed!

Support tonight was Ruts DC, and although i have to say i only know them from Staring At The Rude Boys, In A Rut and Babylons Burning (all three were played tonight) im certainly going to look further into them. Gave a great performance tonight, with a truly epic bass drum sound - one of these ones that reverberates right through you and really suited the reggae feel of some of the songs.

The Damned came on just before 9 and started unexpectedly with Sanctum Sanctorum, which is one of favourite songs off of Phantasmagoria, and up to this point hadnt heard them played live so it was a real treat. The rest of the set was drawn mainly from Strawberries, Machine Gun Etiquette and The Black Album. The Stranglers could definitely do with taking a leaf out of their book as i`d say that The Damned got a great balance between familiar to everyone songs and some more obscure fan favourites. Its not many casual fans who would appreciate or know the opening three of The Black Album (Wait For The Blackout, Lively Art and Silly Kids Games) being played in sequence. We did of course get the crowd pleasers, with Neat Neat Neat, New Rose, Love Song and I Just Cant Be Happy Today being played and going down a storm. From up in the gods i could see the mosh pit getting really frantic during these ones, with a tug of war developing between the security staff and the crowd over some guy who had evidently been deemed to be "overly enthusiastic". The crowd won btw.

Can remember the rest of the set order (i blame old age) but we got Second Time Around, Sick Of Being Sick, Ignite, Jet Boy Jet Girl, Perfect Sunday, Generals, Stranger On The Town, Dont Cry Wolf and probably a few others i`ve forgotten!
Most touching though was prior to the last song, Smash It Up, being [played Pinch came to the front to acknowledge the sad passing of Gin Goblins singers Mikie Jacobs, who was a huge fan of the band and was usually to be found at their gigs every time they toured. Instead of the minutes silence we were encouraged to make 10 seconds of as much noise as we could. I know this gesture meant a lot to many people at the gig so hats off to the band for taking time to do it.

As ever a great night of music, roll on the next tour!

[Toiler On The Sea]

Another chance to see the Damned and I'm @ work!!!!

Plenty of positives on Facebook from folk I know who made it last night.

[Alexinblack]

Great review mate, glad it was a good gig.

[elvisintheclouds]

Thanks for the review

[ThruBeingCool]

Cheers for the review. The Damned just seem to be getting better. Don't they?