The Damned unleash its 'Evil Spirits' on Seattle crowd (with openers Giuda) | Live review, photos

The Damned, top, and Giuda, below. (All Cat Rose photos)

By Andy 

Captain Sensible eyed the crowd, grinned and then unleashed his first snarky word barrage of the evening.

"We ain't no Clash or Sex Pistols rubbish!" he exclaimed before The Damned kicked things into gear on Saturday night at the Showbox in Seattle.

With Sensible's broken ribs healed and crooner Dave Vanian's left arm free of a sling after last year's on-stage accidents, the main Damned gents and their comrades were a blistering bolt of energy as they tore into the opener "Wait for the Blackout" and powered on from there during the stunning set.

What's great about The Damned is that they can take a new song like "Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow" from the "Evil Spirits" album and wedge it in just grand among "Plan 9 Channel 7," "Anti-Pope" and "Love Song" to get people moving from the get-go. It's like "Edge" is an old favorite that pairs nicely with the others.

Same goes for "Devil in Disguise," another new one that may or may not be about (SCROTUS) Trump. You be the judge, Vanian told the crowd.

Before launching into the killer "Ignite," Sensible jokingly said that it came to his attention that there weren't enough guitar solos during the set. In order to rectify the situation, he laughed and said that "Ignite" featured seven solos. Guitar aficionados, rejoice!

"Ignite" also featured a crowd sing-along, during which Sensible halted his soloing and led the vocalizing by sticking the microphone stand into the thrilled throng.

"Eloise" was a crowd-stopper, and then Vanian asked the crowd if any of them wake up in the morning and don't know who they are. There's two sides to everyone... and then, of course, it was time for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

The crowd went nuts for "New Rose," which had keyboard guru Monty Oxymoron doing the crazy-man's dance while his skull-laden pajamas nearly fell off his body. That dude's all right.

As for the raucous "Neat Neat Neat," well, the crowd got the floor springing so much, that we nearly did "Break on Through (To the Other Side)," which the band wove into the middle of their song.

And here came Sensible for one of his final orations of the evening, giving a nod to the England soccer squad for advancing to the World Cup semifinals that day. He said they scraped by without cheating, naming Neymar of Brazil for diving, rolling and more.

A few laughs later, we were into "Jet Boy, Jet Girl" and the always raging "Smash it Up" to send us smiling into the night.

Openers Giuda from Italy stomped up a storm and had the crowd bobbing their heads and shouting along to songs like the soccer anthem "Number 10," "Roll the Balls" and others. Score.


Here's photos from Cat Rose:


THE DAMNED

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GIUDA