Masonic Lodge, LA, 9/10/25
The Dresden Dolls had a whole slate of shows scheduled for 2025, but they were all canceled due to ... let's just call it Amanda's divorce situation.
The one show left on the docket was headlining a music festival in Austria on September 13th. Since they hadn't played together since the Roadrunner shows in early November '24 they decided to do an invitation-only warmup show in Brian's hometown of LA.
I have seen them do warmup / rehearsal shows in the past that were a bit of a hot mess. Lots of fun, no doubt, but messy nonetheless.
This was not that.
At the Patreon meetup the night before Amanda had said that she and Brian had been rehearsing all day for two days, and it showed. The set was tight, the band was tight, and the show was nearly flawless.
They did a couple fun new covers, had a very surprise special guest, and - since they were prepping for a show in Austria - sang a couple songs in German!
All in all they headed off across the pond well prepared.
Good Day (Brian on guitar to start)
Brian came to the front of the stage to address the crowd.
"Ladies and gents, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Are you happy to be here?" <crowd roars> "It's been one year since we have played a show together, so we assumed that we ... must off the dust off."
Brian: "Everyone got their singing voices ready? Even if you don't know the words they're pretty easy."
Amanda: "This is a break-up song!! I have a few."
Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley cover) Brief excerpt, slow and in a minor key. <heavy foreshadowing>
Missed Me
"So if you did not get the memo (and if you're at this show it's probably kind of hard that you didn't get the memo) but this is a warmup show because we have a show in a couple of days in Europe, so we wanted to do a warmup show and Brian lives here in beautiful Los Angeles." <cheers> "And a lot of our crew is here and a lot beautiful things came together to create this night of random awesomeness. Thank you so much for coming! And now - und jetzt - we are going to something that we have never done in America ever before: which is play you - because we have to fucking practice them - a couple of songs in German."
Eisbär (Polar Bear) (Grauzone cover)
Seeräuberjenny (Pirate Jenny) (from ‘The Threepenny Opera,’ music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, in the original German)
The Doll People (Sophia Isella cover)
"That song was sent to me by like a hundred and sixty-eight people when it came out cuz we didn't actually write it. That song was written by Sofia Isella, who is an incredible young artist from, actually, your part of the world. FUCK that's a great song! And really fun and creepy to play!"
Amanda then announced that they would play one new song and turned to Brian and asked, "Whattaya wanna do?" Before he could answer multiple shouts of "The Runner" rang out from the crowd.
The Runner
Science Fiction/Double Feature (from 'The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show' by Richard O'Brien, featuring his son, Linus O'Brien.)
Coin-Operated Boy 'Never Gonna Give You Up' wormed its way into the middle there somehow, so Amanda basically rickrolled us.
"We didn't make any merch for this show, but we did have our awesome painter friend Nikki McQueen make this beautiful poster just for tonight. And since we know none of you fucking paid to get in here ... buy this poster!"
War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover in honor of Ozzy Osbourne)
Half Jack Usually during the prolonged intro Amanda basically just keeps time on the piano while Brian improvises a lengthy drum solo. But tonight they actually had a bit of a musical conversation with Amanda playing a brief piano riff and then Brian responding on drums.
Pre-show shot of the venue reflected in my glasses. (by Betsy Cacchione)
The lighting was a bit dicey and since it was their first show in almost a year I wanted to stay in the moment, so I didn't take a lot of pix. And more of Brian than Amanda cuz he was in rare form.
When Amanda Palmer talks people listen.
The Dresden Dolls, ladies and gentlemen!
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