I am exhausted and my entire body, including my head, aches, but I flat out REFUSE to go to bed before recording this experience, because I do not want to lose a single detail over the next eight hours, or however long my body decides it needs to sleep.
So I went to Endfest, and all these great bands played, including the Psychedelic Furs and Echo and the Bunnymen. I have seen each of those bands twice, once playing together, and they were always phenomenal.
Well, the Psych Furs did not disappoint. Richard Butler was as charmingly bizarre as ever. According to AMG, he was born in 1953, which puts him at 51 years old, and goddamn does the man wear it well. He was gorgeous.
After the Furs, some other bands played, including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, X, the Violent Femmes, and Franz Ferdinand (also gorgeous, I was DYING). Actually, when Franz Ferdinand came onstage, I said to my friend David, "Oh my GOD. They're ADORABLE." He said, "Okay, if you say so." Then some girl behind us shrieked, "YOU'RE SO CUTE!" at them, and David said, "Huh. I guess you're right... Man, I wish I was in a band!"
So now I'll get to the main point of this entry. Echo and the Freaking Bunnymen. Or, to be more specific, Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen. They come out, and he is in a peacoat and ripped jeans, a stark contrast to Richard Butler's tailored pinstriped pants and black dress shirt. He swaggers up to the microphone and yells a bunch of crap that is COMPLETELY unintelligible. And yes, the man has an English accent, but it was seriously like his mouth was full of marbles or something. He yelled something about chocolates and a banana, and then threw those things into the audience. The only clear sentence he spoke was that they would now play the greatest song in the world, at which point they launched into "Lips Like Sugar". Very humble of him.
So they finish that song, and he does some more garbled talking, and he really sounds very angry. At this point, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is drunk. He says something about "blokes" and "bollocks" and then they play another song. When the song ends, he yells some more. David has now deduced that he is apparently pissed about the sound quality, which honestly sounds fine except for the fact that you need closed captioning to understand him. By now, every time he begins to speak, David and I are giggling uncontrollably and David is saying things like, "I can see the headline tomorrow. Ian McCulloch kills three in drunken rage. I really think we're witnessing the END of Echo and the Bunnymen here tonight. He is having a break down."
They begin to play "Bring On the Dancing Horses". Two verses in, Ian stops the song, stops the band, announces that it's "too fucking slow," and HE wants to play Crocodiles. So they do. More giggling from David and I.
After Crocodiles, Ian is beginning to seem a little more lucid. He yells, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS? IS THIS A FUCKING BRA?" and gestures at something on the stage. He then announces that someone once threw a bra up on stage that looked like a hammock. The audience laughs politely. David notes that must have been a long, long time ago.
For the most part, Ian's talking between songs is still a) unintelligible, and b) very angry sounding. The audience is definitely noticing. A fifteen year old kid in front of me asks if I have ever seen this band before, and if they're always like this. Everyone around us is talking and laughing about Ian's garbled drunken gibberish. David notes that things are NOT good when your audience is mocking you openly and loudly. He then also suggests we stay quiet and clap as appropriate before Ian comes after us.
Ian again says they are going to play the greatest song in the world (no kidding, this is the second time), and they begin The Killing Moon. At this point, he has begun making it about halfway through the song, and then abruptly leaving the microphone to smoke and drink whilst he should actually be singing lyrics. Like, he'd actually just walk away from the mic in the middle of a verse. It was really charming.
At one point, Ian did pause to clearly state that the audience was a bunch of dumb fucking bastards. Also charming. Also, halfway through the Killing Moon, Ian paused, pointed at someone in the audience, and yelled something. David said, "Uh oh. That guy better get a restraining order."
Eventually, the experience degenerated into David and I breathlessly awaiting Ian's next spoken words. For instance, after a bout of angry muttering, David said, "I think I heard... ticklish?" The kid in front of us said, "I heard dictionary," and shrugged. At one point, David looked truly puzzled and said, "Did he just say canoe sticks?"
By the end of the set, David is telling me that this will be the final scenes on the Echo and the Bunnymen Behind the Music, and that he is glad they're taping it. He also says he can't wait till it comes out on DVD so we can figure out what Ian's saying.
Without a doubt one of the lowest points in New Wave history. Major disappointment. I told David it was seriously the definition of the word "spectacle". He agreed, and we both said it was like a car wreck - though hideous and horrifying, we were powerless to look away. It was both the high point AND the low point of our afternoon/evening.
If I think of any more details, I will be sure to add them. Now I must go to bed.
