BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:691@jointherevolution.net DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250513T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250513T235900 DTSTAMP:20241118T183339Z URL:https://www.jointherevolution.net/concerts/the-damned/ SUMMARY:The Damned DESCRIPTION:People have been arguing about punk rock since the big bang tha t created that high decibel universe. The Damned were at the heart of that revolution and have returned like resurrected vampires to take back the(i r) punk rock crown. Few bands have managed to maintain their manic muse\, few bands have been key catalysts to a musical genre\, few bands have mana ged to improve like fine old wines and few have managed to do it with such fantastic chaos\, captivating style and shape shifting music as The Damne d.  Their mix of theatrics and raw power combine to create their vaudevil le immaculate and gothic horror shivers\, dark music hall anthems and a pe rfect punk rock. In the rules of rock ’n’ roll most bands fade away bu t then the Damned were never playing by the rules. One of the originals wh o sparked the punk rock riot doesn’t mean they had to stay there. Their trip has been long and thrillingly strange and ‘Darkadelic’ is a late period triumph that entwines their core obsessions of garage/psyche/punk r ock old black and white Universal horror film soundtracks and even moments of sweet jazz which they sieve with a brooding and enthralling melody. Th is is a tasteful aural experience with exquisite guitar playing delivered with a breath taking virtuosity but never loses its inventive punk rock ed ge. It feels they have been waiting for decades to deal this hand that see s them surpass their early 80s classics such as Machine Gun Etiquette\, Bl ack Album and Strawberries whilst nodding at what was loved on all those c lassic albums. From their 1976 formation to the new album this has been a wild creative trip. Playing by their own rules\, The Damned were the first punk band to release a single in Nov 1976\, the first punk band to releas e an album and six months later they were the first punk band to release a second album\, they were the first punk band to tour America and then the first punk band to split up. They did this all by the autumn of 1977 befo re most people had cut their hair and even woken up to punk rock. The Damn ed were then the first punk band to reform and came back with all guns bla zing with their third album\, 1979’s Machine Gun Etiquette\, and then lu rch through the years with their powder keg music\, sartorial style\, inno vative takes on psyche and goth and even a brush with pop stardom in their grandiose pop goth phase of the late eighties. For a form of music that w as meant to be of the moment and flash in the pan\, punk has become a much loved historical epoch and it’s perfect that one of the form’s key or iginators and one of the most prestigious bands coming out of the 70s scen e are the only true survivors and are still\, somehow\, at the top of thei r dark game.  Few classic bands still have the inspiration left to make a lbums and few make albums as good as the aptly named Darkadelic. 2018’s Evil Spirits finally established the band in the top ten of the album char ts giving the band the confidence to make an even more guitar driven album that celebrates their garage psych influences that have always been a par t of all their best work. Taking advantage of the enforced down time of th e pandemic they have been in creative overdrive in the past year either wo rking remotely or in Thomas Mitchener’s studio just outside Watford. Th e Damned may have been the punk pioneers but their muse has always been mu lti dimensional. From their first rehearsal onwards the band were beyond t he cliche. They were the only “classic” punk rock band to combine goth ic sounds and horror aesthetic with punk music\, shaping a strong identity of their own. They had a baritone crooning vocalist instead of a shouter. They also had great songs and an intense manic energy plus a wild abandon of ideas. The new album brings all these threads together into a perfect whole. Their unlikely strange brew of psychedelia\, garage rock\, punk roc k with a gothic twist has never sounded so well realised. It’s this seam less combination of all the dark and fascinating forms of music that is th e key to the band\, a combination that reflects the oddly diverse core mem bers of the group.  You could not get a more unlikely combination of char acters into one room if you tried. After four decades the two leading memb ers of the original line up are as chalk and cheese as ever. The vampiric stylish sex god singer David Vanian is still dealing that 24 carat gold cr oon that pioneered Goth and gives the band a unique dark flavour. The sing er is ageless as the mad\, bad and dangerous to know Byronic vampire and i s still immersed in the attendant B movie culture that he is so imbued wit h. His partner in crime is the manic songwriter and guitarist/bass player Captain Sensible whose wild stage personae\, hilariously perfect monicker and off the cuff quips sometimes masks his brilliant guitar playing and ti meless knack for melody and a creative sensitivity that is peaking on the album.  It’s this fantastically phantasmagoric bizarre core to the band that is key to their genius. They are the sartorial and stylistic creativ e tension that is the representation of the band’s music. Like all the g reat bands\, the Damned were always a combustible creative arms race from the start. They were formed by the foresight and genius of Brian James who was famously described by The Clash’s Mick Jones as having the vision f or punk a year before anyone else. Brian also had a fist full of anthems t o back his perception up with. Their classic November 1976 New Rose debut single was released a month before the Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy In The UK’ putting a spiky cat amongst the pop pigeons.  The Damned should have bee n huge. They had the tunes\, the style\, the moment and the momentum. They hit the road with Trex\, threw up all over the music press and were a thr illing surge of lunatic energy but they were hamstrung by being on an indi e label and fell apart as other punk bands were catapulted into the mainst ream by the majors. Their influence from that period though hangs over the worldwide punk scene. The 1977 debut album with its short sharp shocks of songs was a template for many teenage youth working out what punk was and then its insane speed and wild energy was key to American hardcore and be yond. The album’s darker moments and shivering aesthetic were riders on the storm harbingers to goth and death rock. As the years rolled by The Da mned have been acknowledged as one of the fundamentals of alternative rock history and one of the most influential groups of all time. They have bee n acclaimed by a diverse selection of bands that includes Guns N´Roses\, who covered New Rose on Spaghetti Incident\, The Foo Fighters\, Depeche Mo de\, Minor Threat\, The Misfits\, Black Flag\, Bad Brains\, Green Day\, Th e Offspring…That would have been enough for any band but the Damned have remained restless and have survived and thrived. Evil Spirits showed ther e was still plenty of creativity in the tank and Darkaledic takes this up several notches. Where once they were almost feared for their wreckless an d wild abandon the Damned now are respected for their talent and influence and Darkadelic is the perfect document of this sea change. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.jointherevolution.net/wp-content/upl oads/2024/11/IMG_9774.jpeg CATEGORIES:All Ages,Concerts LOCATION:Revolution Live\, 100 SW 3rd Ave.\, Fort Lauderdale\, FL\, 33312\, United States GEO:26.121358;-80.1461974 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=100 SW 3rd Ave.\, Fort Laud erdale\, FL\, 33312\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Revolution Live:geo:26.121358,-80.1461974 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR