Pere Ubu delivered a scorching set at D.C.'s Rock and Roll Hotel tonight. The cuts in tonight's nearly 90-minute gig came from the recent box sets put out by Fire Records. The esteemed label is in the midst of a welcomed reissue project that sees the early Pere Ubu albums coming back into print in sets. The first set, Elitism For The People 1975-1978, dropped in 2015 and the second one, Architecture Of Language 1979-1982 came out earlier this year.
Tonight, the band behind leader and legend David Thomas was Steven Mehlman on drums, Michele Temple on bass, Robert Wheeler on keyboards and Theremin, and Gary Siperko on lead guitar. Thomas remained seated for most of the night but he did seem to command the room with every utterance from his lips, whether it was a yell, a coo, or a bit of between-song-banter. I took most of these shots during the encore of "Final Solution" and, it's certainly worth noting, the cut had a large contingent of the crowd singing along.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I'd be in a crowd singing along to a Pere Ubu song but such is life, eh?
Read my interview with David Thomas of Pere Ubu from 2015 for a few details on these reissues.
Check out Fire Records for news on the reissue series and the tour. And UbuProjex.com for all your Pere Ubu needs.
