Disco de Bauhaus: “Rest in Peace: The Final Concert”

On July 5th, 1983, Bauhaus played their last concert (well, last for 15 years, anyway) at the Hammersmith Palais in London. This is a live recording of that show, with no editing done on it. Disk one is the main show. Disk two is the encore, which went longer than expected and sent the message that the band was, as rumored, dead (undead undead undead). Rest in Peace.

the tracklist (amazon's welcome to put this into their format and remove it from my review)

CD1 1 (Introduction) Satori (4:35) 2 Burning From the Inside (7:04) 3 In Fear of Fear (3:04) 4 Terror Couple Kill Colonel (3:32) 5 The Spy in the Cab (4:44) 6 Kingdom's Coming (3:22) 7 She's in Parties (4:15) 8 Antonin Artaud (3:27) 9 King Volcano (2:50) 10 Passion of Lovers (3:30) 11 Slice of Life (3:33) 12 In Heaven (2:52) 13 Dancing (2:54) 14 Hollow Hills (5:27) 15 Stigmata Martyr (3:40) 16 Kick in the Eye (3:21) 17 Dark Entries (4:34) CD2 1 Double Dare (4:58) 2 In the Flat Field (4:16) 3 Boys (2:41) 4 God In an Alcove (4:00) 5 Hair of the Dog (2:53) 6 Bela Lugosi's Dead (9:45)

I was a huge bauhaus fan back in high school (early 90s). My friend threw me a recent DVD rerelease a few days ago and I've been sucked back into the magic created by this band. Browsing around amazon I am shocked that this live release is still in print and that someone actually gave it 5 stars. Yes, you can love bauhaus, but you needn't slavishly give every release of theirs a perfect mark. If one negative stands out in my history of bauhaus love, it is how cheated I felt when I bought this CD. I rarely sell CDs, but this is one I would have gladly paid someone to take off my hands.

Consider this a warning to anyone tempted to hear 'the final live concert'. This recording is wretched. It has all of the quality of someone standing 10 rows back with a minicassette recorder and holding it up in the air. The crowd noise overwhelms the music and the music itself sounds thin and badly mixed. If you would like the thrill of a live bauhaus performance, consider picking up "press the eject and give me the tape" instead. The Bauhaus were great live, but you could never tell by the recording quality of this disc. This live cd is a cruel joke.

As a fan of both Bauhaus and Peter Murphy's solo work, I found this CD to be a real letdown. I've heard bootlegs that sound better than this official release! Terrible sound quality makes it sound like a garage band rehearsal session. You'd be much better off getting the Volume I and II set for a wonderful retrospective of this seminal band's work.

The final concert. This album will be around for some time and it should be in your Bauhaus collection. Yes, the sound isnt that great, but who cares..your a Bauhaus fan?...right?.