Review: PETER MURPHY Strips at Le Poisson Rouge

In old England, life revolved around the pub, the brothel, and the stage. At times the bar scene feels like all three. That ambiance is in full color with the Stripped tour, the latest from the raging musical iconoclast Peter Murphy.

Back down where early Lower Manhattan Vaudeville spouted immigrant revelry, Murphy rolled up his sleeves in Greenwich Village, shouting at "Italian" bouncers with an Irish brogue. The former Village Gate opened its doors to the greatest names in American music. Twelve years ago, it became Le Poisson Rouge.

As New York's daydreamers perspired in the spring heat, the line formed for the first of three Peter Murphy shows. Two were sold out.

Murphy is a self-named "Sakar Baba" Entertainer in the tradition of the Holy Clown with a voice like an Operatic Dervish. He is the Original Hipster, former lead singer of the post-punk wave in Bauhaus. In 1980, New Musical Express (NME) infamously printed a review slandering Bauhaus as "Gothick as a Brick".

"It was great," said Murphy, lounging in his parked tour bus after playing New York. "It was like they were saying, 'Who the are these upstarts?'"

While authoring a new genre of music may seem impressive to fans, Murphy is not in it for a name.

"Some people come dressed gothic, and they end up surprised with what they hear," Murphy said in between discussing everything from comparative religion to modern dance. "Others who would be amazed were it not for the misleading moniker as a 'gothic' artist. They may not come to the show because of this."

Murphy is an original Poet of the Rose, unafraid to upset the gentry, kicking tables, picking fights, and ribbing his audience, the new American public. Stripped is all about the cannon voice of Murphy and his illahi lyrics. (Illahi is a Sufi concept of spiritual energy transmission that Murphy advocates with conviction.)

"Flowers. Fawn, shadows mere," sings Murphy, on the title track of LION. "On a puppet horizon / We want that lion on our skin, the best of the set we think, we've gotten."

Accompanied by guitarist John Andrews (Loudboy), and Emilio China on violin and bass, the trio exudes everything from Irish folk to industrial rock, rounded out with artful electronica. Drawing from his deep well of song cycles, many are recent with his latest album, LION. And then, from Bewlay Brothers to Purple Rain, he gave tribute.

Ultimately, his is the art of the self-made, choreographing as he goes with that unmistakable stage presence, a Smoking Immortal and Drunken Elder of the eternal and nameless school where only few emerge to tell the tale.

Photo Courtesy of www.PeterMurphy.info

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