Music Reviews, Interviews, and more of the worlds top dark wave/post punk/goth/industrial
Author: Jeremy Hinks
An indie music journalist and concert photographer in Salt Lake City Utah. An avid DUNE fan, and love writing about music. An outspoken ally of the LGBTQ community, and an Anarchist, A thorn in the side "Behind the Zion Curtain". Host of the music journalism podcast "Sticky Jazz" with a fetish for computer hacking.
*Disclaimer, I am writing this piece about Morrissey’s music, not him as a person, or any of his recent statements.
I first heard Morrissey as a vocalist when someone handed me a cassette of *Meat Is Murder*, the legendary Smiths album with the song most of the world remembers them by.
We all know the story: the breakup, Morrissey going solo. That’s where we pick up here.
Morrissey’s next opus drops March 6, 2026. I was supposed to see him in Salt Lake a few months back, but he canceled due to a severe ear infection in both ears. I figured I’d hear some of these tracks that night, but hey—I got them now, and I have to tell you, this album is some of his finest work.
Back in ’98, I met The Smiths producer Grant Showbiz when he was working with Billy Bragg. Grant’s done amazing stuff over the years, and honestly, I thought Morrissey would have to land someone that good on his records. For the last several albums they have been produced by Joe Chiccarelli (the guy who’s worked with everyone from Frank Zappa to Alanis Morissette), and for whatever reason, the production really stands out—it’s elevated the whole thing above so much of his other solo output.
Starting with the album cover art: it looks like he’s caught by surprise, something rushing toward him backstage at a festival. Okay then.
Screenshot
Listening to his 14th solo album—the first since 2020 (though that year he did a one-off single with disco diva Thelma Houston, of whom he’s a big fan. She told me in an interview it was fun to do together, and he was incredibly respectful and professional. I think he went all starry-eyed working with her. Hell, I got star-struck just interviewing her).
“Your Right It’s Time” kicks off with bass and guitar that make me think Fleetwood Mac, then lead guitars sounding a bit like Interpol. The lyrics take over, calling out how people waste time on screens instead of finding real love. He even pops in lines about “shoot the breeze with trees.” I get it—he’s never owned a cellphone. His vocals here give off a surprisingly happy vibe, and for some reason it puts me right in a James Bond movie opening sequence.
“Lester Bangs” is another social commentary on rock & roll history—pointing out how he was glued to the pages Bangs wrote on the other side of the world, and how much it meant to read his takes on Roxy Music or the Dolls when Morrissey’s own life was going wrong as a youth. I just finished “The Uncool” by Cameron Crowe (who was mentored by Bangs), so my own understanding of the guy lines up—apparently Morrissey had something to say about him too.
There’s a song that starts with psychedelic sitar-sounding guitar and a killer bassline: “Zoom Zoom The Little Boy.” Some lyrics:
“Zoom Zoom the little boy
he only thinks about joy
he wants to save every animal
from the arrogant human”
If you know anything about Morrissey, you know where this one’s going—mentioning frogs and hedgehogs.
“Boulevard” lyrically is classic Morrissey lines like “I cling to you, like others cling to lovers,” leaning into his lifelong loneliness theme. But musically? Great acoustic guitar with an almost country feel. The lyrics juxtapose a Western film saloon with an icy bathroom, telling a story around alcohol abuse on “the Boulevard.” It’s dark, somber, operatic even—true to his feelings, but sounding unlike so much of his other work. Be ready for this one; it really pulls you in.
I never thought I’d hear Morrissey do a late-’70s almost-disco vibe. Well, it happens on “The Night Pop Dropped.” Great Hammond organ, KC and the Sunshine Band backdrop. I found myself grooving and swaying in my desk chair the first time I heard it—chimes like Blondie’s “Rapture,” some early Shriekback vibes. “Remembering the night pop dropped, the bar ran dry and the dancers stopped.” You’ll probably get your groove on to this one, though it sounds NOTHING like what you’d expect from him.
Without giving it all away, so many great songs here. But I do feel it’s my duty to say something about “The Monsters of Pig Alley.”
The song tells a story of someone chasing fame, eventually getting it, with the family asking if it was worth it—please come home. The video is harsh: a young man (close enough to James Dean) leaves his almost-Amish father and grieving Russian mother to audition for films, to be “big and famous.” He goes through rounds, lands a part, ends up on TV shows with a young woman straight out of the early ’60s. Like James Dean, it ends badly. The video is beautiful and sad—classic Morrissey genius at pulling heartstrings to show real human emotions and stories.
I’ve been entertained by Morrissey for going on 40 years, and *Make-Up Is a Lie* is hands down, for me, his finest work yet.
The album “Make-Up Is a Lie” comes out this week, March 6, 2026. Love him or hate him, you’ll probably listen—and you’ll probably experience it exactly the way Morrissey wants you to.
Do I need to post his socials here? NO, I think you all know where to find this guy and his work.
Having missed Peter Murphy on his Love Hysteria tour in 1988, only knowing one song, “Indigo Eyes” I heard from everyone there that it was a life changing event. He had opened for The Church, with Tom Verlaine (Of the legendary band “Television”) opening the night. I know I missed out on something magnificent that night, only learning about all of it for years as friends who went continue to talk about that gig, even now.
I got the tape “Love Hysteria” and I couldn’t believe how incredible this album was. Great guitar, wooded hollow guitars, great rhythmic basslines, and almost jazz style drumming. Peter Murphy’s vocals on that album were so rich, powerful, and haunting.
In the fall of 1989 Peter Murphy released his 3rd solo album “Deep” where he was sporting the “Thin White Duke” image on the cover, and a couple great singles “Cuts You up” and “Strange Kind Of Love”, enough to hook you onto the album, but in its entirety, this album was something very deep, meaningful, and almost religious. If you saw this tour, I hope it makes you feel like you were there again, if you missed this tour, I hope you read this and say you wish you were there.
ARTIST: Peter Murphy
DATE: 14 March 1990
VENUE: Kingsbury Hall
CITY: Salt Lake City, UT
SUPPORTING: NAUVOO (Last minute)
The entire Salt Lake Valley New Wave / Goth fanbase was there, in this marvelous hall, built for operas. There was mostly BLACK in the audience. I had scored 2nd row seats, and so my girlfriend and I were up close. My buddy Kaycee, or William (Not sure what his real name is and I have known him since 89) saw me and started waving at me, he is 6’4” and weighs about 80lbs. He was in a lace skirt, and a very colorful gypsy jacket, I didn’t recognize him at first, till he got closer. We chatted a bit and just hung out, everyone talking like it was one big club, in Salt Lake City, everyone knows everyone in the RITZ/Palladium scene. I had my setlist in mind, and was hoping for some heavy “Love Hysteria” material, and I knew there was gonna be some Bauhaus in the mix. I was still finding my way through Bauhaus, as I had been swallowed up into Love and Rockets, just a few months after I got into Peter Murphy, but Bauhaus was too heavy and dark at times.
NAUVOO
Bill Allred from KJQ came out and made a few announcements, up coming gigs etc. Then he said that Nine Inch Nails had canceled because they got snowed in and their bus wouldn’t make it to SLC in time. I had NO Idea that NIN was on the bill, and was okay with that, I really didn’t like them at this point. So he said “We have a local band tonight, they are called “Nauvoo” (Named after the old Mormon City), so welcome them to the stage”.
Nauvoo, well, I recognized the bassist, he was from the local thrash metal band “Slaugherchrist” whom we had seen at some Speedway Cafe gigs (*Speedway Cafe was a local punk venue). The venue was darkened, with just a few lights on the band. Long and short, they were a bad mix of “SWANS” meets Dead Can Dance. I never thought I could hear a 12 string guitar, and think it sounded bad. Well, this time yeah, it did. They sang long dragged out songs like “THIS IS YOUR GOD !!!!! BOW DOWN!!!! BOW DOWN!!! BOW DOWN!!!” for several measures. I mean, this was straight off the “Children of GOD” album I guess, it was just kind of miserable. They dragged through a set that most of us wished we hadn’t. The female vocalist got up there and tried to sound like Lisa Gerrard, and that seemed to drag. Maybe they hadn’t practiced enough, or just weren’t ready for this one. I did see their names on other gig rosters for a while, but never saw them live again. Though yeah, a couple Slaughterchrist gigs were in my future.
PETER MURPHY
The stage was being switched out, and I saw this amazing setup, the drummer Terl Bryant had a set of c-wrenches tied with fishing wire to a board, to make chimes, a gorgeous frettless bass was on a stand, and a hollow acoustic guitar with a few other instruments out there. The theme for The Last Temptation of Christ began to play “The Feeling Begins”, and I have known this song since I got the soundtrack the year before, though I never saw the movie till 2001. The house lights went down slowly so we didn’t really notice it, until the last minute of the Peter Gabriel was playing, and the band came out and started playing along, on drums first, so there was the heavy drumming, then the live drumming on top, then guitars and bass right on top as well, then the last 4 measures a spotlight popped on in the back, and there was Peter Murphy, with his head between his knees, hand holding the mic up in the air, while he posed just like he did on the album cover.
Once that light was on, the crowd went insane, and he rose up, looked at the audience then jumped the little platform and the band went into “The Line Between The Devil’s Teeth (And That Which Cannot Be Repeat)”. He was kicking really high to the beats across the stage until it was time for him to sing “A white line, blazing deep, through the wasteland searching we” and it all went mad from there. That song had everyone on their toes as he gave us this song, very tight, and I understood already what everyone meant when they talked about the previous tour, this was going to be one hell of a great night.
While he was welcoming everyone to the show, the drums for “Deep Ocean Vast Sea” were playing, and he tore into that one, with his haunting powerful baritone voice. The lyrics are about power and it’s reaches, and who gets it, or refuses to submit.
Then the drums and percussion began for “Seven Veils” and this fretless bass was the instrument for that song. Peter Murphy would walk up to the light trees on either side of the stage and dance in front of them, you could see his face illuminate or not, depending on where he was. A true showman that Peter Murphy is. With everyone on stage, and in the audience singing the “AHHHOOOOEEHHAA” along with him, feeling like we were all part of the same experience.
After the applause, Terl gave us three taps on the drumsticks then the whole band came in, while Eddy Branch laid out the low cello lines from “Cut’s You UP” on his frettless, the entire venue screamed as this was one of the hits everyone was sure to know. “I find you in the morning, casting dreams of distant signs” and I remember dancing so hard holding my girlfriend’s hand, and just feeling this energy, the movement, the lights, and the vibe, the SPIRIT of this song. “Hold the secret close, I hear you say”, for some reason those lyrics were so spiritual at the time, and I was FEELING the meaning of them, even if I didn’t understand any of it as a 16 year old kid. When it finished we all kind of took a breather.
Next came “I’ve Got A Miniature Secret Camera”, that was a B-side of another single, and for a while was one of his fave songs to play live, I mean I heard it every show for years.
Then came the unmistakable bassline, a jumpy like reggae familiar sounding line but on 8ths, so kind of like reggae gone FAST. It was “Kick In The Eye” a Bauhaus song, that all the goths were there to hear. I have to say, I knew the song, but the way he did it live was fantastic (Also cause I heard a lot of Bauhaus bootlegs by then, and they must have been crap recordings, cause this was great).
Then Peter Murphy walked off the stage, for a minute, and returned wearing a red jacket with so many colors woven into it, and tassels everywhere. He was ALSO holding a gorgeous 12 string guitar, I saw that, and said to myself “Okay, I can die Now”. A bunch of people fired up their lighters, then Peter Murphy said “Oh, that’s alright you don’t need to light up now, we’re not all part of the Rock & Roll circus yet”. Then after a few measures on the gorgeous 12 string, he sang just deep and low enough to melt everything in the room “My mother loved it so she said, sad eyed pearled and drop lips”, it was the ballad “Marlene Dietrich’s Favorite Poem”, the song of that name, not the real favorite poem of Marlene Dietrich’s. This was such a romantic and sad song that everyone had their lighters out, I held my girlfriend from behind so tightly, this was just one of those coming of age moments, all captured in a song.
With everyone on the emotional high from “Marlene” petering out, and a sigh, the drums started to pound out like the drummers of Barundi, and Peter introduced the rest of his band as “The Hundred Men”, with Paul Statham on keyboards, Terl Bryant on drums, Peter Bonas on guitar, Eddy Branch on bass. Then he continued as each member built up into “ROLL CALL”. I swear we are only 8 songs in and he has elevated the entire hall to new heights with his stage presence. This seemed to go a bit long for the duration but it was great, just hard to go so intense for that long.
“His Circle and Hers Meet”, was finally into Love Hysteria territory, a song about not so much sex, but where two peoples entire souls come together.
Then he played the opening for “Final Solution” a Peru Ubu cover, only his version is so much more intense “ Don’t need a cure, don’t need a cure”, and when he sang “Mamma threw me out til I get some pants that fit”, he shook his ass at the audience for the laughs, and cheers. After the 2nd chorus, while the drums kept playing the same beat, the guitars and bass all shifted, and he sang “Whit on white translucent black capes, back on the rack” everyone screamed because everyone knew the next line was “Bela Lugosi’s dead”. He sang a bit of Bella, “Bela Lugosi’s dead- Don’t need a cure” then a hard hit on the base drums and snare, back and forth, then he finished this mash up with the band playing “Final Solution”, while he sang Bela to the end. It was really cool, and he hasn’t done it like that since.
Then the lights dimmed to looking like candles on the stage, and Terryl ran his drumsticks across the crescent wrenches, giving us a “Chime” a few times, while Peter picked up his 12 string again, strums a few times, while Peter Bonas took the lead with his acoustic. It the lighting made it feel like the sun was setting, while we all slowly flowed into the epic lovesong “Strange Kind Of Love”, and it just sounded amazing. I pulled my girlfriend closer and we just melted in the majestic sounds of love that this song made both of us feel. Swaying side to side together, I felt like this was one of those moments you fall in love to. We all sang, eyes closed, many of us out of tune, it didn’t matter this was one of the best love songs ever written.
Peter then came down for a minute and waved at individual people, saying “hello”, while the band switched out instruments. I heard the chimes again, and the keyboards playing these wooded sounding drums, and the guitar queued up some pre very intense sounding chords. And with Peter simply singing in his perfect baritone voice he sang “When the nights are falling, eyes are running wild, and I hear you humming, all night long. The signs I see, tell me about you, all I need from you is….. ALL I SEE”. The drums sounded like tympanies the bass line kicked in and everyone took us through the story of “ All Night Long” the whole time Peters’ voice was powering through, we all felt like we were somewhere in North Africa on some dangerous trek, that was going to be worth whatever it was to go through it for what was waiting at the end. AND, hearing it live the first time, I realized that the softly spoken monologue during the bridge was in French. I was surprised and stoked, as on the tape, it never was loud or clear enough to decipher. It closed perfectly, like the end of “Raiders of The Lost Ark” when everything swept across the canyon and went back into the ark as it closed and sealed right behind everything. Yeah, it was that AWESOME.
He said “Thank you, good night”, and walked off stage for a minute, and there were plenty of cheers, he came back to the stage, still wearing his red jacket, but no shirt. All shirtless got more cheers, he pulled the jacket off his shoulders, and got a lot of screams from the ladies in the venue.
He then played “The Light Pours Out of Me” one that I had only heard a couple times, during my speed through “Should The World Fail”, it was okay, not my fave, it wasn’t till years later I learned it was a Magazine cover.
With all the cheers still going he said “Look at them now”, but I hadn’t heard any music in the background, okay FALSE START…. Then the band chimed in with the opening chords for “Dragnet Drag”, and he sang again “Look at them Now, Look at them do” and I was thrilled to have this energetic guitar piece blasting through all of us, feeling it from the floor up to the top of my head. “Dragnet Drag” from “Love Hysteria” was so tight, as if it was being played from the CD itself, when he sang
“Four guides afloat, Four dots of God,
Look they found the dove
Their triad song too”
I was counting out the numbers on my hand as I held it in the air, imagining it was important, or that he could even see me doing it. When he sang the final lines, and hummed out the chorus along with the keyboard, he ran down to the barricade and slapped everyone’s hand that was at the front. Then he went back to the middle of the stage, gave a great bow, said “Good Night” one more time, and left.
It was a short show, 16 songs, I hoped for “Indigo Eyes” but honestly, it was such a great performance, I couldn’t complain about anything that evening. It had started to blizzard that night, that it took 3 hours to get home safely. I was high for days. It was all worth it.
There are bands that grab you by the ears and bands that grab you by the soul. Then there’s Ghost — the Swedish theatrical death-metal papal circus that somehow delivers both, plus a side of pure, unfiltered goofball joy. They’re not just a band; they’re an experience that leaves you grinning ear-to-ear, wallet happy, and weirdly full of love (yes, love) even after an hour-plus of Satanic iconography and power chords.
I grew up watching KISS movies as a kid, dazzled by the makeup, the flying rigs, the rollercoasters, the whole Kabuki-meets-arena-rock spectacle. But past the theatrics? KISS was mostly killer riffs, great rhythm guitar, and genius marketing. Ghost? They took that blueprint, burned it in a black-mass bonfire, and rebuilt it into something smarter, funnier, and musically ferocious. They’ve pushed every limit — anonymity, blasphemy, spectacle — and still keep the audience laughing and singing along like it’s a church revival gone gloriously wrong.
Anyone who walks out of a Ghost show feeling short-changed is lying to themselves. You get your money’s worth and then some. The feeling lingers for days: a mix of adrenaline, absurdity, and inexplicable warmth. (That was my exact experience last week.)
The policy of no phones in the venue? Genius. Everyone had to lock their devices in those little Yondr pouches — no distractions, no shitty TikTok clips leaking out, no jackass blocking your view with an iPhone on a stick. Even us photographers had to stash our phones while lugging massive lenses to shoot from the sound booth. The result? A crowd fully present, eyes on the stage, phones forgotten. Refreshing as hell.
GHOST ARE THE REAL DEAL
The fans showed up in force: dark nuns in habits and Eyes Wide Shut masks, V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes faces, full “Death Pope” regalia, Satanic priests everywhere. One of the other shooters leaned over and deadpanned, “I think I’m gonna need my gear blessed after tonight.” I laughed so hard I nearly dropped my camera. If you take Ghost seriously, you’re missing the joke. The whole thing is campy, theatrical blasphemy played with a wink — like The Residents if they traded anonymity for papal robes and cowbells.
The show opened with Gregorian chants floating through the dark, building tension like a horror movie score. Ghost took the stage behind a torn curtain, ripping into “Peacefield” (halfway through before the curtain finally dropped). When it fell, the arena exploded. Papa Emeritus (in full regalia) and the Nameless Ghouls were everywhere — animated, theatrical, impossible to pin down. The guitar work was razor-sharp: late-’70s hard rock echoes of Journey, Judas Priest, Boston, all wrapped in modern metal precision. One song in, I was already sold — they’d brought their A-game.
“Lachryma” shifted gears into an ’80s power-ballad vibe with Scorpions-style riffs and soaring vocals — tight, emotional, and huge. Then came the classic horror-film keyboard intro on “Spirit,” with the Ghouls trading matching riffs before splitting into dueling lines. It’s an older track, but it still fits like a glove — pure pre-Wes Craven prog-metal.
I had to stash gear and hustle back to my seat (10th row, first riser — stupidly close) just in time for “Majesty.” A few songs later, during “Devil Church,” the black backdrop ripped away to reveal a glorious gothic cathedral stage: LED candelabras, stained-glass windows glowing, everything lit like a cathedral from hell. The visuals were jaw-dropping, and the song? Pure power. I leaned to my photographer buddy and said, “Dude, I feel like I’m at a Yes concert.” He laughed: “Yeah, me too.” Prog-metal guitars tearing through the Delta Center — who knew?
“Circle” and “Darkness at the Heart of My Love” hit like classic metal anthems — riffs that took me straight back to my teenage bedroom air-guitaring to Boston’s “Amanda.” “Satan Prayer” opened with Papa Emeritus rising on a platform, holding a black matte cowbell aloft like a holy relic. He handed it to the keyboard Ghoul (devil-nun vibes), who started hammering away in perfect sync. My buddy and I lost it — straight-up Blue Öyster Cult “More Cowbell” SNL reference. Genius.
Pyro flared, heat blasting my face from 20 feet away. “He Is” turned into an acoustic power ballad, Papa blessing the crowd like a deranged evangelical. (The video’s Jonestown undertones were strong here — a sly warning about charismatic preachers wrapped in beauty.) “RATS” had the stained-glass windows animating with chasing rats and hellscape reds. Confetti guns blasted dollar bills with Papa’s face on them — they flew past me into the second tier. Insane.
Papa’s banter was pure goofball gold: thanking Salt Lake for growing with them (The Complex → Depot → Amphitheater → Maverick → Delta Center), then conjuring “Jesus” with a chant. A Hispanic roadie rolled out with a leaf blower to clear confetti. “Give it up for Jesus Rodriguez from New York City!” Jesus waved politely and kept blowing. The arena roared.
“Kiss the Go-Goat” was silly fun, but “Mummy Dust” killed — militant marching cadence, layered vocals, killer bassline (that unnamed Ghoul on bass deserves more credit; he held the whole thing together). Papa thanked the fans again, then dropped “Monstrance Clock” — an oldie that’s haunting and heavy, soothing lullaby turning into Luciferian metal.
The encore? “Mary on a Cross,”(Juxtaposition, right? Fair is fair), “Dance Macabre,” “Square Hammer” — the perfect closer, better live than on record.
Ghost isn’t just a band; they’re a full-on theatrical experience that mixes blasphemy, prog-metal chops, ’80s arena-rock nostalgia, and laugh-out-loud absurdity. They take themselves seriously as musicians but not as people — and that’s why it works. If you want humor with your arsenic, spectacle with your soul, and a night where you leave feeling lighter than when you arrived, go see Ghost.
You won’t regret it. You’ll be smiling for days.
Stay scary, goofy, and cursed, my friends. Until next time.
For all the punk shows I have seen, there are so many that only rolled through once or twice over the near 40 years I have been attending live shows. There are others that we sometimes think are going to live forever. Such bands just tied up a group party known as the “45 Years of Groupsex” tour, celebrating the aged like fine wine, the masterpiece of Los Angeles’ punk legends, “The Circle Jerks”.
Being a sort of spinoff of Black Flag, they fired up their own west coast punk act, with their first album “Group Sex” in 1980, if you were offended by the band name, or the title of the album, clearly this band was not for you.
I saw them in the flailing days of “Alice’s” in Salt Lake City that closed shortly after these gigs. No time for nostalgia, they came through several more times as an ever-touring band before they disbanded in 1990.
Coming back and delivering an all-out show of historic punk rock with “Adolescents” and Detroit’s “Negative Approach” in tow.
I arrived at the venue “The Depot,” which is a pretty large concert hall, and though I have seen The Circle Jerks in smaller venues over the years, never anything this big. I got up to the main floor and saw it was filling in pretty well. Aside from a festival, this is turning out to be the biggest hardcore punk show I’ve been to over the years.
NEGATIVE APPROACH
I got into the pit, and got my lighting levels set, and one of the bouncers (who was also a fan) explained who “Negative Approach” was and that they had a brief stint on the scene from 1981-1983, and likened them to the MC5. Whoa, now those are some shoes to fill.
They took the stage, and the singer John Brannon introduced the band, and lemme tell ya, he has a world-class scowl. He told us we would have a brief set tonight, but that he was glad to be back on the road.
They blazed through the set. I know their first song was “Hypocrite” because Brannon said so, it went down really fast, and much like an old Ramones gig, after a song finished, they take a breath and then drumsticks tap in 3 times, then off into the next song. Somewhere in the set, he said, “This is A Sham 69 cover, called ‘Borstal Breakout”And a handful of songs later, he said, “Any Iggy and the Stooges fans out there?” Everyone cheered, and then they played “I Got a Right”. I honestly couldn’t tell you much more about the setlist, just because I had never heard them before, they were tight and fun.
Adolescents
The summer of 89 was a mad summer for punk shows. I saw Testament, Nirvana, TSOL, and so many others. It was a great time for the heyday of hot summer nights and 5$ tickets at the Speedway Cafe. That was when I last saw Adolescents, and they put on a great show. I was sure I would enjoy them tonight, though many of us were now feeling a bit more on the geriatric side, several of my old school punk friends were there. WE all have grey beards, and several of us use canes.
Adolescents took the stage, with all of them looking old-school and just greyer. I was hoping to see Rikk Agnew in this lineup (being an old Christian Death fan), but no such luck; his sons weren’t there either. (we all know how old school acts have high turnover)
They opened with “No Way, and to my surprise, Tony sounded just as good as he did in his 20s. They sounded just really tight. If I closed my eyes, I thought I was back at Speedway. He sounded great, as if no toll had been taken on his voice after all these years.
“Brats in Battalions” followed, while they weren’t as animated on the stage as years past, the floor was pounding to the punters, forming a somewhat large mosh pit. I had to keep dodging the bouncers catching people flying towards them, and still get photos.
I think they were playing “Rip It Up” Before I left the pit, again shooting in between human flight tests.
I went up to the balcony to get more pics, and that was where I saw the mosh pit and the insanity of it all. Reminded me of so many great shows I went to starting in 87, but, yeah, never going to do a mosh pit again. At least not that crazy.
We got what I think was a whole 15 songs on this bill from them, I didn’t get the whole setlist but I remember “Self Destruct”, “Amoeba”, “Democracy” and “Just Because”. There was a lot of anxiety in the air this evening, the angst was powerful, and it kept the punters spinning, and those who were crowd surfing always had somewhere to land.
I will write a little note here about the security staff at “The Depot”, many years ago, some guy sucker punched me and hit my friend in the stomach because I was talking to his girlfriend (Whom I’ve known since 8th grade while she was congratulating me on my new baby born about a week later), and my friend fell to the floor and was just as stunned as I was at this asshole’s behavior. The bouncers were all over this guy for hitting a woman in the stomach, and just hitting some guy out of nowhere, and continuing to threaten him. He was out the side door before he could explain he was just a totally drunken, insecure douchebag. They were asking us if we needed medical, etc all within less than a minute of this. So, it’s clear they know how to handle a fight breaking out. BUT, how do you manage a moshpit and crowd surfing? Well, they seem to do that really well, knowing the boundaries of a mosh pit, people violently ramming into eachother, and not seeing it as an “altercation”. They made sure no one hit the ground and managed to catch everyone flying over the top of the crowd. I haven’t seen something that intense for the bouncers since Lollapolooza, so kudos to The DEPOT on this one.
Now, a breather, striking the gear for Adolescents, they were playing some knarly good polka music. AND, you all know that I am a HUGE polka music fan. So, I was getting my groove on at the absurdity of this, and the chief bouncer in the pit was up on that little platform at the barricade, also getting her polka on. Now, she actually KNEW these dances, I wondered if she was from Wisconsin cause she had those moves down. I tried to get a video of it, to make a TikTok of it, “Bouncer Getting her Polka on, Prior to Punk Rock Gig”. It was too dark and didn’t come out, really, it was a site to behold, for any polka music fan.
THE CIRCLE JERKS!!!!!
With the place just hot with sweat everywhere, and so far, everyone having a great time, Keith and crew took the stage. Keith said, “Ok, I have to give you all a bit of Punk Rock History here,” and he explained how each member came from which LA band and who came from what other band, and how they ended up in this band. Each name brought cheers, but without a whiteboard, it was hard to follow such a historical family tree. Then Keith said, “Ok, so we have 30 songs, and one hour, and we’ll get through this. They tapped out 3 on the drums and started off with “Deny Everything. (I was also given the first 6 songs to shoot, because most of the songs were less than 2 minutes each).
With Zander Schloss on guitar, looking like he walked out of a blues band, and onto the stage for this gig, Greg Hetson on bass, in pinstripe shorts, slacks, and his head shaved, and big glasses, he sort of fit the part. Joey Castillo on drums, with a clear “FUCK YOU ICE” attitude, and the tattoos to show he means business, Keith Morris was there in blue jeans, a black t-shirt, a Greek Fisherman’s hat, red “Chuck Taylors” and dreads past his waist, this was PUNK ROCK as current as it ever was.
With two-minute renditions of the following: “Letterbomb”, “In Your Eyes”, “Stars and Stripes”, and “Back Against the Wall”, I hoped I had gotten enough good shots to cover this gig; it was a whirlwind, and no one could think otherwise. I went upstairs to the balcony, took a seat in a booth, got some really great shots, and just enjoyed the rest of the night.
With a sea of punks rolling around in waves, and a very wide mosh pit, only stopping when a song was finished, waiting for the next one to start, or Keith Morris taking the opportunity to go off on some political tirade about how Trump sucks, and how racism is evil, he would get yelled at by Joey telling him we were all on a time crunch, and start tapping his sticks for the next song. All of this means that everyone was having a really great time.
Several songs, “Beverly Hills”, stand out, and then a great “When the Shit Hits the Fan”, the first song I ever heard by them, in a friend’s basement in 1987. Then “Under the Gun”, and the classic “Coup d’etat” (Let’s face it, they are all classics if you’ve been listening to them since age 13).
After a few more songs, Keith stopped the set, talked about how all of this converges about the rich billionaires making laws on the rest of us. He talked about how people work hard to live normal lives and get out to see a show like this. He said that after so many years, he has never seen the “RICH” class, just rip away everything from the working class, as if we were all criminals who don’t deserve to be rich. He pointed out how, over the last several months, he has seen rights stripped away from people for the first time in his life. Keith then pointed out that at his age of 70, he lives off his social security, and just wants to make enough on tour to stash away to pay his rent. We all cheered at him for his honesty and the fact that he was just like the rest of us. Then the drumsticks went at it, with “Don’t Care”, then “Live Fast, Die Young”, and ironically “Paid Vacation”.
For another break, Keith talked about this next song, bringing them the ONLY sort of hit in their repertoire, we knew it was time for “Wild In The Streets” that I had no idea was a Garland Jeffreys cover. This song is just under 3 minutes, so we had about a minute more fun with this one.
A stint of 5 more songs in 10 minutes, I was looking at the clock above the monitor’s desk, wondering if we were going to make it, at 38 minutes into the set.
Once we were at “Red Tape”, and a one-liner that escaped me, it just made all of us laugh. Keith said they were going to do a handful of Black Flag covers. They gave us some great renditions of “Depression”, “Revenge”, and “Nervous Breakdown”. We were getting all kinds of great punk rock history this evening, the last song was so well done, it is one of the songs The Circle Jerks has done for years, and is an audience favorite.
They closed out with my 2nd fave song of theirs, “What’s Your Problem”, I had been waiting on this one, and it was AWESOME, and the “Question Authority”. It was 4 minutes to 11 when they were done, we managed to do the whole set together, with Keith’s political statements, stories, and fun rants.
Everyone was cooling down and walking out; the bouncers were giving each other high fives for a difficult, chaotic job well done. Lots of hugs between everyone in the mosh pit.
I went backstage and had a word with the band, Keith signed my 7” of “Sweet Transvestite” he had sang with T.S.O.L. I didn’t bring any of my other vinyls or CDs; I just wanted this one (Red Vinyl) signed. Another longtime fan was asking me about it, not knowing it had just been released a few months earlier. The band was happy to sign my autograph book, and I got a fist bump from everyone.
Walking out of the venue, I met Adolescents and got to tell Tony how good he still sounded after so many years.
I talked to John Brannon for a minute, we connected on Facebook, and I learned that we had several mutual friends, he said “Any friend of Frank Meyer (FEAR) is a friend of mine”.
All in all, it was an incredible evening, two bands I have loved for years and seen before, and one that flew under the radar, and had broken up by the time I got into punk.
For any old school punk fans, you would LOVE seeing any of them live, so, snag a gig any time you see them rolling through your town, if anything, you’ll feel young again. I guess that’s what punk does to us all.
I NEVER TOOK THE SMILE AWAY FROM ANYBODY’S FACE There are those bands that just “Appeared” in your life, and have always shown up in cycles over the years. For me, one such band is Scotland’s “Big Country”. I heard them for the first time in January 1987, in a small town in the mountains of southeastern Utah, while driving to a friend’s place in sub-zero temperatures. I just remember 9 feet of snow on the streets, and wondering how in the hell I ended up in such a miserable place, from the only real home I knew in northern Virginia just a few months earlier. My brother put in a cassette of “The Crossing,” and I pretty much fell in love with this band on that short drive across the frozen landscape. I saw the name on my brother’s tapes, but the name turned me off, as well. That town we just moved to – all they listened to was country and bad metal. Once I learned these guys were from Glasgow, just like my father’s immediate clan, and they sounded SO AMAZING, that made my night there really wonderful, and thus, a love for Big Country was born. Through the years of Mike Peters of “The Alarm” playing with them, just because HE LOVED THEM, the death of Stuart Adamson, changeovers and borrowed band members from so many other great bands, they have made history more than once.
When on my LDS Mission in Germany, they played in a venue that was in the same massive centrum as my apartment. I could go out of my apartment’s ground floor, go down a little hallway, and it was backstage to “Das Capital” in Hannover, Germany. 3 times I wandered through there when bands I liked were playing, and I met Marillion (Without FISH), then I met FISH two weeks later. Before that, I walked through the hall one afternoon, as the tour bus had parked there a few hours earlier, I was honored to meet Mark Brezicki and Bruce Watson, just coming through the hall. I got a quick 3 min chat and was thrilled to have met these guys. That was in late 1995.
Fast forward to summer 2025, and to my surprise, the local theater, in another little city up in the mountains of central Utah, was hosting Big Country for a four-night residency. Somehow it’s all coming full circle, the band had just finished 6 weeks with the “Lost 80s Live” tour, with Modern English, Josie Cotton, and some other great bands. So, for them to make a stop here, and hang out for a few days just before heading home was going to be, for me anyway, nothing short of monumental.
I had been in touch with current vocalist Simon Hough, who took the reins of the singer as the band tried to rise from the ashes of the death of Stewart Adamson. We arranged for me to shoot the gig, the day after the Billy Idol gig, yeah, this was a very busy week. I jabbed Simon about being a “Manc”, but he could prove himself playing with some “Glaswegians”.
The Egyptian Theater is on Historic Main Street, in Park City, Utah it is an old, quaint postcard town, with a couple of outdoor amphitheaters, and was home to the “Sundance Film Festival” til just recently. The Egyptian Theater is themed as just that, with the ancient Egyptian art as the motif for everything. It was built during the silver mining explosion of the great rushes in the late 1800s. This place has amazing acoustics, and you could honestly play an out of tune hurdy-gurdy here and it would sound AWESOME.
The stage was set up to make it look more like it would be a folk gig, and I was hoping it was going to be a pretty charged show, though Simon mentioned online he had a bit of a head cold earlier in the week, and was hoping it didn’t interfere with his performance.
Opening the set, Mark Brezeki the original drummer walked out to the mic, and welcomed everyone, and mentioned that they would be doing a set covering several different phases of their catalog over the years, with everyone applauding the rest of the band took the stage, and they opened the set with “Harvest Home” from their first album “The Crossing”, one of the songs that hooked me when I first heard them. With their signature guitar that sounds almost like bagpipes, and Simon singing live, his voice is not exactly like Stuart’s, but it gives a great tribute. I was taking photos, and singing along the lines “JUST AS YOU SEW SHALL YE REAP!! TO THE HARVEST HOME!!”, this was my inner 12-year-old rocking out.
Trying to just take it in that I was finally seeing Big Country live, they pulled out a wonderful, lesser-played gem “Winter Sky”, one of those “Album Cuts” that, while listening to cassettes, you wouldn’t fast forward through, a great song that never made the hit list, but just a loved piece of music.
Another few songs off the “Breakthrough” album, “Steeltown”, “Come Back To Me” then “Just A Shadow” were taking the entire venue back to some wonderful memories. This was not a “Nostalgia” show, but more a few hundred people sharing the same experiences we all once had through music in our younger days. But this time, this, at this moment, with these people in the mountains of Utah, was so powerful. There is nothing more moving than the shared experience. I’ve had them at concerts with other punters, where we all became one with something the band did. From Peter Murphy to U2, this Big Country moment was worth hugging everyone over.
Having the first 4 songs power up the vibe, and I was thinking that this show was for the history books, we got to hear some of the later work “Fragile Thing” from 1998’s“Driving To Damascus”, an album that flew under the radar for many, but the songs were solid, and some great work. Then they played “Hold The Heart” off my fave Big Country album of all time, “The Seer”, I was getting excited about where this might go, with a specific song I had in mind.
They stopped for a bit, and Simon began talking about how they managed to get together as Big Country again. Saying that he had some big shoes to fill in Stuart’s position. He said he never could see himself even being able to fill those shoes. He said he was honored to be in this band and to continue paying tribute to Stuart Adamson, and he really wanted that legacy to live on in the fans. He then said that they were going to play a few songs that were from “The Raphaels”, the band Stuart was in during his American Country & Western phase. To be honest, I hadn’t listened to those records he made, so this was all new to me. They played “Private Battlefield”, and “Learning to Row”.These songs were powerful and beautiful. Imagine Big Country, with a noticeable Celtic influence, and just slow and easy country, more “Western” than country. They were very moving, showcasing Stuart’s later work.
Then they pulled out the most obscure song, “13 Valleys,” that I believe can only be found in the box set. Nothing about this setlist was expected so far, songs you haven’t heard for years, or even rare B-sides. They closed out this first part of the set with “Tall Ships Go”, having played most of “Steeltown” and played all of it so well, I think everyone needed a good breather, they told us they were coming back to play more of the classics.
A few minutes later, Big Country returned to the stage, and Simon said “Thank you all so much for sticking around, let’s do this”, then Mark brought his sticks down hard and the formidable bassline of the well known classic “Peace In Our Time”, had me singing along, knowing it was too loud for anyone to hear me, cause I’m sure I was out of key.
Back into familiar territory and to my fave album, they played “Look Away”, this was just as powerful as the first time I heard it in 86. One of those songs that you just can’t get over how it hits you, with the guitar lines, and the verses, the lyrics were always something wonderful from these guys.
The haunting guitar lines with the signature guitar sound mixing, and the notable bassline, we got “Lost Patrol” from the debut album “The Crossing”. This is one of the many songs where the bass line stands out, and you can hear the bassist leading the song, kind of a cool tool they used throughout so much of the catalog. “Lost Patrol” has almost the most pagan vibe to it, 2nd only to the title track of “The Seer”.
“Wonderland” was a great hit that had weaved itself into the singles collections, and lots of radio play on the alternative station in Salt Lake, carried us through. By this late in the set, Simon said, “Ok, I’m going to need your help with this one,” with instructions on how to sing the chorus with him. Again with a strong bass-line and the funky xylophone sounding guitar, we were into “Chance” from proably my 2nd song of theirs. It is about a woman who “Played chance with a lifetime’s romance, and the price was far too high”. A man who sees how the years have changed people, ripped away opportunities, made us grow old, lose our beauty, vitality, youth, and even a sense of purpose. By the 3rd chorus he asked us to sing along “Oh Lord, where did the feeling go?” then we would chant “2, 3, 4”, “Oh Lord, I never felt so low”.Powerful in its own right, with the venue chanting this between singing the lines, it all felt like we were in this together, feeling the same shame and grief as the song when it was first written.
Simon then introduced the band, with Mark Brezicki on drums (Original member), Gil Allen also from “The Skids” pre Big Country, no surprise there, but the big surprise was Ken Nicol on guitar, from “Steeleye Span”. I freaked out about that, to be honest, I am a big fan of theirs too, some real legends on the stage here, as the band’s personnel history is legendary.
They turned it up to “Eleven” now, and played “Fields of Fire”, everyone was dancing, and I am sure this was the loudest music ever played in the Egyptian Theater, that bassline, leading, with the rhythm guitar, then signature bagpipe guitar on top, Simon had all of us dancing, as he sang with all the vigor he had been saving up all week blasting it out in “ON FIELDS OF FIRE!!!”, I’m afraid for what the personnel changes over the years, songwriting masterpieces, and great live show, tonight, Big Country was telling everyone it doesn’t get better than this.
They left the stage to some roaring appreciation from the punters, who had high expectations, but never expected this. They returned a few minutes later, Mark grabbed his microphone on his drum kit and said, “Ok, everyone, we didn’t expect this, really. This is our last song tonight, but please go to the foyer after the show, we want to meet all of you”. Then they played “In A Big Country” with all the intensity they could muster, which we heard when they all sang “you can’t stay here when every single hope you had is shattered”. I think the fact that they were playing on a mountainside, out in the middle of nowhere (half an hour from Salt Lake), was what brought the rest out of those guys tonight.
Big Country walked off the stage, and as we all congregated in the lobby, everyone was sacking the merch table, and we waited for the band to come meet us.
They came into the lobby, and I approached Simon and reached out to shake hands. Though we hadn’t met yet, he knew who I was. I was surprised when he just grabbed me and hugged me. Simon was so pumped, so thrilled, so proud of the show they had just given us. I realized he was so emotionally high that I don’t know what would have brought him down. He thanked me over and over for the support and had a perma smile. I told him that they had done a great set, and he just said over and over, “I know, it was fucking fantastic, wasn’t it?”. You can’t really say much more in that situation. He was floating about 10 inches off the floor; he was so happy. Frankly, if a band can deliver a set like that, with the lead singer still going through a head cold, those guys had everything in the world to be proud of.
I talked to Mark for a minute, and I told Allen that I worship Maddy Prior (singer of Steeleye Span), and he assured me she is a sweetheart. We all took selfies, and everyone was closing the night of a beaudacious set, by meeting the guys who gave us such magic.
Big Country will hopefully cross the pond and grace us again on a tour, and I hope you all get to see them should they come to a city near you. The music is timeless, and in the end, they did Stuart Adamson and everyone else right.
Thanks so much, fellas. Please, can we do that again sometime?
