Geez, it's been well over a year since my last post here. Despite some occasional contributions to my Flickr page, I really haven't had much to say. But I definitely wanted to chime in about the Gary Numan show I was fortunate enough to attend last Thursday.
I'd been a fan of the song "Cars" forever, but my interest in anything else Numan had to offer is relatively recent. My friend Jack's inclusion of "Cars" on a massive 80s compilation CD set a few years back re-ignited my interest in the song. Over the following years, Numan began to enter my conciousness in other ways: both Nine Inch Nails and the Foo Fighters covered his songs ("Metal" & "Down in the Park," respectively), then Numan himself guested on Fear Factory's cover of "Cars." Finally, my friend Chris played "Airlane" on his vynil (!) copy of Numan's debut albumThe Pleasure Principle. I was hooked.
I downloaded the album myself and loved it. (Tangentially, got to like the Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At," after being able to recognize their sample of Numan's "M.E." in it.)
I took a mild interest when the Trocadero announced a date for Numan earlier this year. But when I found out recently that he would be performing The Pleasure Principle in it's entirety, it became a must-see show for me.
There were a few things about this show I found surprising:1) Numan's fans ("Numanoids") were among the most dedicated I've ever seen, with a very conspicuous Fan Club presence and activity. They only became annoying when Gary tried to address the crowd at one point, and the diehards in the audience took it as a cue to try to have a conversation with him, their shouting nearly drowning him out as he was explaining his recent throat problems (more on that later).
2) I was expecting Gary to do more of the "heavy lifting" keyboard-wise. But he left most of the recognizeable lead-lines to his back-up band, and stuck to the bass-end of the keys. I suppose it allowed him to concentrate more on his vocal performance...?
Backed by a 5-member band (bass, drums, 2 dedicated keyboardists and one guitar/keys/percussion multi-instrumentalist), Numan began by plowing right through The Pleasure Principle non-stop.
A couple of songs in, he explained that recent throat problems were still giving him trouble, and that there were some songs on the album that were in a register that was just too high for him to sing. During these songs, he just turned the microphone to the audience and lead them through the vocals.
Of course when he played "Cars," it was a high point in the show. His multi-instrumentalist even hit the percussive accents on the his keyboard, just like in the video.
But it was when The Pleasure Principle was done that the show really took a turn. The SST Virus synths were put away, the guitars came out, and the music got heavy and industrial. It was here that Numan morphed into the proto-Trent-Reznor-Robert-Smith-goth-punk-demigod that his fans love. 
And yes, even Mr. New-Wave-Synth-Rock himself picked up a six-string.
It was a powerful sound, easily on par with NIN or Stabbing Westward. The band rocked it hard. And Numan turned out to be a charismatic performer who could pull it all off.
All in all, it was a cool show. It certainly made me appreciate the breadth of Numan's career much better. I'll likely be checking out his later offerings soon. I don't know if I'd ever go to see him again, but I definitely won't rule it out.
I'll also likely be checking out opening act Rasputina soon (supplemental blog post to hopefully follow).
