Poptone (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets/Tones On Tail) Summer 2017 Tour

Can't wait...

Daniel Ash, Kevin Haskins reunite as Poptone, will resurrect old bands’ music on U.S. tour

 

Very excited about this.

 

Isn't this just another iteration of Tones on Tail? probably my fave spin-off band from Bauhaus. Lots of groovy off-kilter songs. I'm sure they will be great though. Never saw Bauhaus but saw Love & Rockets live once and they put in a scorching set.

 

In a sense, you are correct. Playing songs from Tones, Bauhaus, and LNR will make for a great show. Can't wait.

 

so david j. (haskins) isn't involved? i really like his bass playing in bauhaus and l&r, also his songwriting for some contrast with ash. who's gonna be on bass, then?

cheers,
rob

 

The artist / musician daughter of Kevin Haskins and his wife Pamela Dompe is in Poptone with Ash and Kevin, but will she play bass ? Diva Dompe is her name.

 

I am super super excited... thank god Ash will finally get back out there and perform! I thought he was done with playing....I hope he really wants to do this but I'll be there...

of course it seems silly no David J but I think there may be issues between David J and Ash (which is weird given David J was so complimentary of Ash in his book.. unlike say his words on Peter Murphy)...

I really don't care though.. just want to see Daniel Ash.. the rest is icing... he is one of my favorite guitar players

 

Can't forget Haskins on drums. One of the greats.

 

A pleasant surprise. I've always been a big fan of Tones on Tail, almost to the point where I wish that they'd had more of a chance to develop before they shifted over to Love & Rockets. I enjoy that whole seam of Ash & co's creativity, including some of those later Bauhaus tracks, so this could make for an intriguing menu of material if done well. It was a little funny in that Slicing Up Eyeballs article seeing him disparage the idea of going back to the well with that stuff back in 2009, but it's certainly not as if he has overplayed the Tones on Tail card over the years. I would definitely like to check them out if they come to Michigan.

Indeed. A very creative and under-recognized drummer.

 

I think Ash has always been somewhat all over the place in his feelings, and changeable over his nearly 40-year career, it's part of who he is.

Peter Murphy has in the past spoken / written about the emotional nature of Ash and opinion that Ash was not fully utilising his vast talent and importance as a guitarist.

And ex Bauhaus roadie / Tones on Tail member Glenn Campling said Ash would regularly say he was finished, quit music for good. Only to be (thankfully) back after being given some time and space.

 

Seeing Bauhaus live in the early 80s is still a highlight of shows I've attended, incredible energy!

 

I'm in for either one of the April LA studio dates if I can somehow nab a ticket or more likely, the San Diego show. Been waiting nearly a decade to see Danny Ash live again. Last time I saw him was the Love and Rockets pre-Coachella small club show in San Diego and it was excellent.

First round of tourdates, going on sale Friday 3/17:

Poptone tour dates:

April 20: Swing House Studios, Los Angeles, CA (sold out)
April 21: Swing House Studios, Los Angeles, CA (sold out)
May 11: The Marquee, Tempe, AZ
May 12: Brooklyn Bowl, Las Vegas, AZ
May 17: House of Blues, San Diego, CA
May 30: Rio Theatre, Santa Cruz, CA
May 31: Strummer’s, Fresno, CA
June 2: Neptune, Theatre, Seattle, WA
June 3: Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR
June 6: Ace of Spades, Sacramento, CA
June 7: Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA

 

Can't wait. I've heard another L.A. show(s) is happening on the tour.

 

Between this, David J doing a show in Oakland in May and Peter Murphy's big Chapel residency in June/July, Bay Area folks will have a chance to see ALL of the Bauhaus clan this Summer...

 

More West Coast tour dates have been announced. Los Angeles, Anaheim, Pomona...

Fun.

 

Just called the wife....
WE'RE GOIING!
...WAIT!
No Bubblemen songs ????

 

Soooo....
The wife and I went to the Vegas show last night!
Very nice.
I assume these songs (the Tones On Tail ones) haven't been performed since the name change.
Small crowd, but, we were all old 'Gen-Xer's', all singing along, having a grand time!

 

Looking forward to the shows in California!

 

I'm sure it'll be a bigger crowd than here...
Opening act was quite good, too.
The singer of Nostalgia reminds me a little of Siouxsie!

 

Here we have "GO!" where I saw 'em...
You can even hear ME shout, "GO!"

 

...or not! The David J show was cancelled, Peter Murphy's dates moved out to next year. Still looking forward to Poptones though (and keeping my fingers crossed...)

 

I was in Las Vegas for work a week too early for this show - I was bummed. At least I got to see Billy Idol while I was there. I had Elton John tix too but he cancelled that whole stretch of residency dates due to illness....

 

Saw them last night at the (new) Anaheim House Of Blues.

First off, Daniel Ash still has it. So does Haskins. Haskin's daughter is on bass and while she's no David J, she's at least pretty good support . The set was mostly Tones on Tail, a few Love and Rockets, a couple Ash solo tunes, a couple covers and the inevitable "Slice Of Life" as the only Bauhaus tune played in the encore. I'm not a huge Tones fan, but I love Love and Rockets and Bauhaus and Ash is one of my favorite guitarists so I kind of knew going in that this may be a mixed bag as far as what gets played. Unfortunately, the two Tones songs I like, "Burning Skies" and "War" did not get played so a big chunk of the set was tunes I wasn't really in to. Of the few Love and Rocket songs played, "Love Me" was by far the best. They opened with a trippy, fuzzed out version of "Heartbreak Hotel" that sounded like something from early Jesus And The Mary Chain and closed with a nice version of LaR' Sweet F.A.A..

The show was probably only about 50% sold, the HoB had the entire upstairs balcony section closed off so it was people just on the floor and it was pretty easy to move around. The crowd was pretty sedate but at least respectful. Kind of surprised at the lack of goth-heads in the crowd. This new House Of Blues which is in a near-empty new strip mall now across the street from Disneyland is a improvement over the old HoB which was in crowded Downtown Disney. They have a much better (and louder) house sound rig although Haskins sampled trashcan style drumming gave me a pounding headache (No Big Deal was brutal) by the last 3rd of the show.

Over all, a decent show but a far cry from a LaR or Bauhaus gig.

 

I caught Poptone last night in San Francisco. The sound at the venue (Regency Ballroom) was not good (at least from where we were standing - very boomy, echoey), not to mention their nothing-special beer on tap was $12 ("Welcome to the Regency," the bartender said with a roll of her eyes as she noticed our sticker shock), but it was a fun show nonetheless.

Daniel Ash is the consummate showman, and he was clearly having a blast. He's incredibly fun to watch as a guitarist, too. I've always had a huge soft spot for Tones on Tail, so getting to see those songs live was thoroughly exciting. "Lions," "Christian Says," "Performance," and "Movement of Fear" were especially effective. I loved seeing them do "Love Me" and "American Dream" from Express, too! I thought Diva fit in well: obviously a solid musician, and she had a cool, calm presence, though I noticed when she sat down at a keyboard to play "Lions," she was bopping her head along to the song in this endearingly unselfconscious way. I also dug seeing Kevin Haskins trigger a lot of those weird sounds by hitting different pads. They definitely seemed to put a lot of work into recreating the sound on their records. I only wish they had played "Burning Skies," one of my very favorite songs of any band that Daniel Ash has been in.

I'd definitely recommend that people check them out if they're coming to your town.

 

I'll never forget the first time I heard that, in about 1985 when I was 13/14. When Ash part way through, suddenly growls that "OWWWW!" and the whole thing freaks out, I was like...... F.......... !!!!