From The Pit...
Oingo Boingo held their final "Dead Man's Party" this past Halloween at the Universal Amphitheater. Boingo claims this is going to be the last ever tour, ending a seventeen year reign as one of the wildest and craziest bands around. This was certainly in evidence at the four hour, no holds barred Halloween show. When Boingo took the stage, singer Danny Elfman said "We're not leaving until they kick us off." Boingo didn't leave until about twenty minutes after the house lights came up about four hours later.
All in all, the show was amazing. Out of the four Boingo shows I've seen, this was by far the best. The original horn section was back and the whole deal was filmed and recorded for a live album and home video release. Boingo's energy lasted the entire four hours, as did the energy of the crowd. People danced in the aisles, on the seats and in the air above the mosh pit.
The set list was a hardcore Boingo fans dream. Boingo played nearly every classic song they've ever done, and many surprises. The show opened with "Insanity" from the last studio album and after that rocked almost constantly with such gems as "Little Girls", "Nasty Habits", "Aint this the Life", "I'm So Bad", an so on.
Of course the usual Boingo mainstays were included too. Standouts included "No One lives Forever", "Gratitude", "Nothing To Fear", "Not My Slave", "Who Do You Want to Be", "Gray Matter", "Only a Lad", and of course "Dead Man's Party". Some of the surprises included hearing old Boingo classics like all four tracks from the original Oingo Boingo EP, "Capitalism", and "Controller", from the Only A Lad album, and other are tracks like "Reptiles and Samurai", "Whole Day Off", and "Tiny Guns".
The show lost momentum only once for about 20 minutes, in what Elfman called "The coffee house portion of the show". Included in this lag were "Mary", "Useless", and "Change", all form the last album Boingo. A friend of mine took a nap during this part of the show. The band also played "We Close Our Eyes" two times in a row for some unknown reason. Elfman had said that they wouldn't play "Good-bye, Good-bye", but they wound up closing the show with it anyway.
The crowd was great the whole show. Energy was high and a good vibe could be felt in the air. The show was craziest during the encores, with moshing and body surfing breaking out everywhere to the strains of such tunes as "Wild Sex", "No Spill Blood", and "Only a Lad".
Overall, the last Boingo was nothing short of amazing. The band left in fine form and will be missed by all their fans. I will be surprised if we don't see the occasional Halloween reunion show though!
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