Afghan Whigs Play First Los Angeles Gig in 13 Years
After the newly reformed Afghan Whigs celebrated their 25th anniversary with a reunion show in New York and subsequent dates across Europe, fans in front man Greg Dulli's city of residence, Los Angeles, began awaiting West Coast dates with baited breath.
It came as a shock, then, when it was suddenly announced last week that the quartet would be playing their first L.A. date in 13 years at a new spot called Bootsy Bellows on the Sunset Strip, as part of The Fader and Captain Morgan's Step into the Black music series.
Though the David Arquette-owned burlesque club was perhaps an odd venue for the band's return to L.A., it was, at the same time, a perfectly appropriate environment for Dulli's libidinous booze-fueled R&B/punk love ballads -- dark, intimate, middle-aged and full of free drinks.
Taking the stage punctually at 10:30PM, after a set of club tracks courtesy of Katy Perry's DJ Skeet Skeet, the band launched into their blistering 1998 song "Uptown Again," then burned through their "I'm Her Slave," before the slimmed-down Dulli, known for his stage banter, finally acknowledged the crowd.
"I guess we should keep going. We'll stay in B minor for this one," he deadpanned, before tearing into "Blame, Etc."
Perhaps Dulli's sobriety was to blame for the lack of banter, yet he still found time for drug references and jokes about the venue.
"It's kinda like being in somebody's basement. Who's got the whip-its, let's do it!" he cracked, before playing "What Jail is Like."
"Who's smoking weed, pass it on up!" he quipped. "David Arquette, rolling the joints in the back."
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