The Damned w/ The Dictators and Lenny Kaye at Hammerstein Ballroom
Schedule
Fri May 31 2024 at 08:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Manhattan Center | Manhattan, NY
Advertisement
THE DAMNED ANNOUNCE THE BLACK STRAWBERRY BALL IN NYC ON MAY 31. FEATURING THEIR LEGENDARY 80’S LINEUP: VANIAN, SENSIBLE, SCABIES, AND GRAY – TOGETHER AGAIN AFTER 35 YEARS.
Mammoth Northeast cordially invites you to punk pioneers’ The Damned’s Black Strawberry Ball with special guests Lenny Kaye & Friends Celebrating Nuggets and The Dictators at Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC on Friday, May 31. This special concert extravaganza will bring their full 80’s line-up back together in the US for the first time since 1989 with the return of Rat Scabies. The legendary lineup will include David Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies and Paul Gray – together again after 35 years. The songs you want to hear, by the people you want to play them. A limited number of presale tickets will be available before the onsale to patrons and followers of key local businesses and curators of NYC punk culture. We won’t tell you where though – if you know, you know.
Full event details and tickets can be found at Ticketmaster.com.
Fans and critics alike have been calling for the full band’s US homecoming. What better place to celebrate this seismic musical reunion than in New York City, the birthplace of punk rock? When asked for comment, The Damned drummer Scabies simply warns - “Be careful what you wish for.”
Revisiting the music from their 80s line-up, audiences can expect songs from The Black Album, Strawberries, and Machine Gun Etiquette as well as The Damned fan favorite tracks like “Neat Neat Neat,” “New Rose,” and more.
Leather, straps, and a willful disregard for convention are encouraged (but not required) for attendees of the Black Strawberry Ball. Come ready to smash it up!
ABOUT THE DAMNED
Following their formation in 1976, The Damned became the first UK punk band to officially release a single, “New Rose,” and an album, Damned Damned Damned. With 12 studio albums and several UK chart singles, the band are pioneers who emerged from the London punk scene, earning an ever-expanding fan base fueled by legendary live shows. Their dark lyrics and Dave Vanian's rich baritone vocals also catapulted The Damned to the forefront of the Goth-Rock Genre.The Damned of today defy any categorization and the ease of which songs from all phases of their career fit together in this ground-breaking spectacle is absolute proof.
THE DAMNED line-up are:
Dave Vanian – Vocals
Captain Sensible - Guitar
Rat Scabies - Drums
Paul Gray – Bass
Monty Oxymoron - Keyboards
ABOUT LENNY KAYE & FRIENDS
The music world was forever changed in 1972 when soon to be founding member of the Patti Smith Group, guitarist and writer Lenny Kaye released Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, his iconic and markedly influential compilation of underground garage and psychedelic rock. Nuggets features songs from The Electric Prunes, The Standells, The Seeds, The 13th Floor Elevators, Count Five, The Leaves, Blues Magoos, The Chocolate Watchband, and more, and Lenny Kaye’s liner notes for the compilation features one of the first uses of the term “punk rock.” A bastion of NYC music since his early days as a clerk at Village Oldies record store in Greenwich Village, Kaye continues on the legacy and the spirit of the punk and psychedelic rock scenes by bringing together a star-studded lineup of artists on stage to perform songs from this legendary tome.
ABOUT THE DICTATORS
Considering that the first Dictators album came out in 1975, scads of credit is due to these hearty pre-punk New Yorkers for blazing a long trail, melding the essentials of junk culture — wrestling, fast food, TV, beer, dope, cars, scandal sheets — with loud/hard/fast rock’n’roll and thus creating an archetype that has been adopted and adapted by countless other bands. Although wavering wildly in terms of style and track-to-track consistency, all of the band’s albums are great. As protégés of genius music journalist Richard Meltzer, The Dictators helped translate a lot of intellectual fandom’s crazed hypothetical theorizing about rock’n’roll’s possibilities into wretchedly wonderful reality. Originally formed as an homage/response to the MC5, Flamin Groovies, New York Dolls and the Stooges, The Dictators wound up playing a similarly crucial and inspirational role to the generations that followed them. Even more amazingly, the group has endured to compete (artistically/conceptually if not commercially) with those acolytes — and their progeny.
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
Manhattan Center, 311 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001-2418, United States,New York, New York, ManhattanEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
