Bauhaus Returns With Heartfelt Music of the Night

“This ain’t rock ‘n’ roll--this is resurrection,” singer Peter Murphy proclaimed early in Bauhaus’ show Friday at the Hollywood Palladium, adapting David Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs” invocation, “This ain’t rock ‘n’ roll--this is genocide.”

Any allusion to being undead suited the black-swathed children of the night who had come to celebrate the return of the English quartet, the original troubadours of the Goth underground, reunited for the first time in 15 years. But save for the encore of the 1979 debut single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” with Murphy donning a Dracula cape, this show had scant to do with the silly yet persistent vampire identification of the fans, many barely born in the group’s heyday.

Rather, this was about an unlikely reinvigoration of a group and its music--and beyond that, of a future vision that never came to be. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Murphy, guitarist Daniel Ash, bassist David J. and drummer Kevin Haskins played the part of a bleak cabaret act, straight from the fin de siecle/new millennial projections of Euro-cinema (Jean-Luc Godard’s “Alphaville”) and Euro-rock (“Diamond Dogs”).

Here at the actual fin de siecle, that image holds no more reality than, well, Dracula. But Friday, during the first of three sold-out Palladium shows kicking off a limited tour, it remained a compelling fantasy.

Murphy’s fluid, arty movements and the playing of his three bandmates (who have continued together as Love & Rockets since the late ‘80s) have actually gained in richness, depth and character. Murphy, dressed in streamlined Byronesque splendor, still fell back on his Bowie-Eno-Iggy touchstones and the music still echoes minimalist patterns of such ‘70s space-rockers as Can and Hawkwind. But it was often entrancing, offered without gimmickry or guile, and with plenty of heart. This Goth has warm blood in its veins. Are you paying attention, Marilyn Manson?