I remember it like yesterday. October 26th, 1995. The eve of my 16th birthday. Oingo Boingo were scheduled to play their final SF show, and I couldn’t have been more excited. As a “ska” teen, despite Oingo Boingo not being a ska band, they were still part of my world, and I was eager to suit up and get sweaty. Well, the band was too eager to close up shop and canceled every show except the one that was recorded for their Farewell album, and I ended up having a beach bonfire and broke a femur running from the cops instead.
Dammit Danny.
I gave up hope of ever getting to see Oingo Boingo. But then Coachella 2020 dropped its lineup, and Danny Elfman was hiding in the lineup. Hope appeared, and if you’ve already forgotten what happened in 2020, you are part of the problem. Instead, he put out the most unexpected solo album, Big Mess, an elaborate collection of dark prog-metal. Gone was the whimsy and silly insanity, and instead, we were giving anxious darkness. I don’t think I knew anyone who didn’t experience anxious darkness in 2020. We started getting occasional shows, but everything in Southern California, aside from an odd appearance at Sick New World, a Nu-Metal festival in Las Vegas. After four years, Elfman finally brought his return to the rock n roll stage to the Bay Area, and it was finally time for me to get to see the man himself.
Opening the show was former Glass Candy instrumentalist Johnny Jewel doing 15 minutes of dark, atmospheric synth music that felt like I was lost and confused in the goth club, trying to figure out how to move. At the same time, everyone around me was deeply connected to the music. Things improved for me when Canadian vocalist Megan Louise, also known as Desire, came out to add some humanity to the mix, even pulling out a faithful cover of “Bizarre Love Triangle,” which was the thing that got the audience moving, only to cap off with her 2009 hit “Under Your Spell.”
After this set, a curtain came down to reveal the massive number of musicians onstage, as he’s done with other shows on the comeback tour. We had a full orchestra and choir conducted by fellow Oingo Boingo alumnus Steve Bartek and a rock band that consisted of guitar hero Nili Brosh, Nine Inch Nails veterans Robin Finck and Ilan Rubin, and Lady Gaga bassist Stu Brooks. These musicians surrounded 71-year-old Danny Elfman, looking especially fit, with pale white makeup and freshly died bright orange hair, looking practically like a CrossFit clown.
The set opened with “Sorry,” an intense and odd piece of industrial metal being airdropped into a haunted carnival, and everything sounded perfect. Elfman hasn’t lost an inch of his epic range and is an impressive, intimidating force on stage. He took this straight into a version of the Oingo Boingo classic “Insects” that felt closer to System Of A Down with Orchestra than the original, and it worked like I never would’ve expected. And just to ensure we didn’t get too comfortable, the lights went dark around the rock band, and the orchestra fired into a suite from the 2002 Spiderman film, complete Spiderman imagery.
The set, for the most part, kept a similar flow- a few Big Mess cuts, a few metalfied Oingo Boingo cuts, and then Elfman would turn around and watch the orchestra, with pride, play some of the most famous pieces from his work with film and TV. Some of the “heavier’ versions of Oingo Boingo songs worked well- the anti-fascist anthem “Insanity” had an additional degree of urgency considering a presidential race with an actual fascist running is coming two days later. (Editor’s Note: HOW THE FUCK DID THIS GUY WIN AND HOW THE HELL ARE WE MAKING SURE HE DOESN’T GET AN OUNCE OF HIS AGENDA DONE?!?!?!?!) “Ain’t This The Life” became an industrial blitz. Other songs didn’t work either- “Just Another Day” was barely recognizable.
More surprising was how well the orchestral portion flowed with the rock songs. I was reminded that Mars Attacks is a great movie. The score to Beetlejuice is an earworm for the ages, and I think I need to rewatch this film. Suite from Edward Scissorhands was one of the most life-affirming and stunning pieces of music I’ve ever heard live. The Simpsons started as a traditional take on the song. Still, after Lisa Simpson’s solo (and the sax player who got to handle that part looked like they won the lottery of life during those few seconds), we got to experience an excellent metal take on the most famous TV theme of all time.
The main set ended with a faithful rendition of Oingo Boingo’s trademark jam, “Deadman’s Party,” bringing the audience to a joyful, skankin’ mass on a cold November night. The encore stayed in this vein- much more faithful versions of the songs we love. And experiencing my second favorite Oingo Boingo piece, “No One Lives Forever,” with 7,000 people was pretty much as glorious as I expected it to be. I hope you get to experience this joy, too. He doesn’t seem anywhere near ready to stop.
