For one night only, each act brings their signature wavelenghth of Southern-gothic glow and post-punk introspection to the intimate confines of Electron Gardens in Avondale Estates’ Rail Arts District.
Lisa King of the Hot Place sets the night in motion reading selections from her book of poetry, Dark Queens and Their Quarry: Boneshadows of Motherskin. Framed by hand percussion and the crackling intimacy of her voice, King will read poems that drift between dream logic and ancestral hauntings, dovetailed by an atmospheric backdrop created by sound artist Penny Courtney.
From there, bass player and vocalist King leads the Hot Place—a trio filled out by guitarists Jeff Calder (the Swimming Pool Q’s) and Mike Lynn—delving into a set pulling equally from the shimmering noir-indie pop of the group’s debut LP, The Language of Birds, and the crystalline tension of their 2023 self-titled LP. They’ll slip in a few freshly minted numbers as well as a cover or two—songs that glide between post-punk minimalism and melodic spells sharpened by years of collaboration and collective experience.
Drivin’ N Cryin’ frontman Kevn Kinney follows with a solo set that delivers the kind of stripped down and intimate performance that’s become his signature each time he steps outside the band’s rock ‘n’ roll roar. Kevn’s solo sets take shape like opening a notebook that’s filled with decades of road stories—funny, bruised, wandering, mystical, and deeply human.
Capping the evening, David J, founding bass player of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, threads poetry, storytelling, and songs from across his vast catalog into a singular performance.
Each number floats like a lantern through a library of obsessions: goth punk standards, solo deep cuts, and hymns of romance and ruin. And yes—expect a few beloved Bauhaus and Love and Rockets classics to work their way into the set as well.
David J—co-founder of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets—returns to Avondale Estates for a solo appearance supporting his new poetry collection, titled Rhapsody, Threnody, and Prayer, while playing music from his elegiac new LP, The Mother Tree.
It’s a seated, BYOB affair taking place in a small studio setting, that finds the legendary bass player marking a new and vulnerable chapter in his career. Both David J’s new book and album are tributes to his late mother, Joan Nancy Haskins, each one reflecting on decades of introspection, artistry, and grief processed through the lenses of music and verse. Over five atmospheric tracks, The Mother Tree conjures soundscapes for his poetry to drift through—at once dramatic and meditative, full of memory and emotional ballast.
Mike Lynn (left), Lisa King, and Jeff Calder. Photo courtesy The Hot Place
The Hot Place opens the show. The long-running psychedelic darkwave group led by vocalist and bass player Lisa King and Swimming Pool Q’s guitarist Jeff Calder. Rounded out by Mike Lynn (Betty’s Not a Vitamin), the trio will offer stripped-down interpretations of songs from their 2023 self-titled album. Expect acoustic arrangements that lean into the band’s more ethereal inflections, with King also sharing selections from her own poetry collection Dark Queens and Their Quarry.
David J
The connection between David J and the Hot Place runs deep. The two have toured together playing living room gigs throughout the Southeast, and their creative paths have intersected on multiple projects over the years. This performance promises to continue that synergy in a setting designed for careful listening and thoughtful reflection.
Advance tickets are $50, and are required. There will be no tickets sold at the door, and seating is limited. Doors open at 7 p.m. All-ages are welcomed with accompaniment. Respect the neighbors and don’t park in the adjacent driveway.
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Burning From the Inside has always held something of a mystery simmering just beneath the surface of every note and every lyrical phrase. Bauhaus’ final album (the first time around) perfectly distilled the band’s black-clad post-punk and proto-goth traipse into an enigmatic final act. Like the arrows of chaos, seminal recordings by Love and Rockets, Peter Murphy, Tones On Tail, David J, Daniel Ash, Dali’s Car, and Poptone all fired off in every direction shortly after its arrival.
I’m not sure if there’s a literal code to crack here, but nods to Italian Futurism in “Who Killed Mr. Moonlight” take shape as a poignant snapshot of a group that has already pulled itself apart at the seams. “Antonin Artaud” pushes that tension to an ecstatic state, “King Volcano,” “Slice Of Life,” and the album’s title track are monster cuts—quintessential Bauhaus. “Hope” brings it all to a warm and psychedelic landing, hinting at what the future holds in store. But it’s difficult to see the forest for the trees, maybe that’s what the cover art is all about. All meaning is shrouded in layers upon layers of cinematic imagery here. Nearly 40 years after its arrival, Burning From the Inside still reveals all sorts of insight into the band’s history and legacy. I was thrilled when Cassy, Tom, and James invited me on the show to talk about it all.
You can also listen to our conversation on Spotify.
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If I were spinning records somewhere on Halloween night this is what I would be laying down on the turntables. Press play and let it ride, there are more than two hours of music here—48 of my favorite punk rock (and punk-adjacent) songs of all time! Happy Halloween, y’all!
Please be advised that this performance is taking place while the Braves are hosting a game. Due to the increase of traffic around the Battery purchasing parking in advance through the Live Nation or The Braves websites is strongly recommended.
Daniel Ash has a story he likes to tell about how the inspiration behind his current group Poptone came like a thief in the night. Ash, the former Bauhaus and Love and Rockets singer and guitarist, had fallen asleep at his desk with a pair of headphones on. He’d been clicking around Youtube, and recalls with hazy detail one of the last things he heard before drifting off to sleep: Brian Eno’s 1975 album, Another Green World.
“Eno is one of my favorites of all time,’ Ash says over the phone from his home in Los Angeles. The album’s flowing atmosphere and minimal pop rhythms are more than enough to send anyone’s subconscious mind drifting through dreamland on a cloud of pastel impressionism.
But sometime around 4 a.m., the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll Lemmy Kilmister of Moțrhead emerged to commandeer the streaming algorithm of Youtube on continuous play.
The buzzsaw guitars of Moțorhead’s “Ace of Spades” came ripping through the headphones at maximum volume. When Ash heard the song and Lemmy’s rasp growling out from beyond the grave, “You win some, lose some, it’s all the same to me/The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say,’ it was as though Ash was given a new lease on life. “I knew what I had to do,’ he says.And it had to happen immediately.
“Until that moment, I had given up on the idea of ever playing live again I wanted to make film and TV music,’ he says. “I had lost my confidence, and thought that playing live would never happen for me again.”
Charged by this late night shakeup, Ash let the idea simmer. “I slept on it for a few days,’ he says. “I just wanted to make sure it really was a good idea.” Sure enough, the powerful late-night jolt had awakened in Ash a desire to break his long hiatus from performing live.
His longtime cohort and drummer Kevin Haskins was ready as well. Back in the ’80s, Ash and Haskins had played only a handful of shows with Tones On Tail, the short-lived band they shared with bass player Glenn Campling.
Revisiting Tones On Tail’s songs and giving them the attention they deserved became priority one. But Ash and Haskins had other songs on their minds as well. There was Bauhaus’ austere “Slice Of Life,’ from 1983’s Burning From the Inside a song that Ash identifies as the birth of Love and Rockets. There was also Love and Rockets’ early cover of the Temptations’ 1970 hit “Ball of Confusion,’ which consummated the group’s vitality, along with its shift from Bauhaus’ visceral goth and post-punk charge into the realms of shimmering psychedelic pop.
Love and Rockets also scored a legitimate Top 10 hit with the seductive 1989 single “So Alive.” Poptone was born as a career retrospective, but Ash wanted the group to be a nostalgia trip with a life of its own. It was a new band rather than a reunion with Campling, or Bauhaus and Love and Rockets bass player and Haskins brother David J. The latter has carried on with an extensive a solo career, and has recently been supporting his latest album Vagabond Songs
Ash’s first question: “Who’s going to play bass?” They decided on Haskins’ daughter Diva Domp̩. Domp̩ has carved a niche for herself in Los Angeles’ music scene, releasing solo albums via Critical Heights, and performing in bands such as Pocahaunted, Blackblack, and most recently as Yialmelic Frequencies, as well as hosting a monthly guided-meditation show for DubLab.com.
While much of Diva’s musical aesthetic is steeped in layers of mystical, electronic, and largely instrumental drones, adapting to the role of bass player for Poptone came naturally. After all, she shares the Haskins DNA with her father and David J, and has been exposed to the songs her entire life. The influence even manifests itself in subtle ways, such as her 2015 single “Satori,” which gives a nod to Bauhaus’ 1981 single “Kick In the Eye.”
“I have always been inspired by my dad’s music,’ Domp̩ says. “It was challenging at first, but I wanted to honor this musical legacy, stay close to the original songs, and do my part to hold the space energetically, and make this group happen.” In April, Poptone premiered with a two-night stand at Swing House Rehearsal Studios in Los Angeles. Since then, the trio has been touring across the country in short two-week bursts of shows that keep the group’s energy levels high amid a flurry of blazing lights and the haunted pop ambiance of songs such as Love and Rockets’ “Mirror People’ and Tones On Tail’s “Movement of Fear,’ “Lions,’ and “Go!” Through it all, “Slice Of Life’ is the one song that Poptone has chosen to represent Bauhaus, and it’s still one of Haskins’ favorite songs to play. “I kind of feel proud when we come to that song,’ Haskins says. “I don’t know any other way to explain it, but I start feeling a little emotional when we play it.”
Haskins says the Tones On Tail songs are at the heart of Poptone’s drive. And now, because of technology, they more closely resemble how they sound on the records; each one maintains the haunting presence of its original version, packed with a renewed energy. From Tones On Tail’s ghostly cover of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel’ to the distorted rush of Love and Rockets “No Big Deal,’ inhabiting these songs in a modern context has been enriching for both Ash and Haskins. But it’s the audience’s responses that have affirmed their instinct to return to the stage.
With confidence rekindled, what happens next remains to be seen. Writing new material has been discussed, but nothing has been determined.For Ash, the power of Poptone lies in the freedom of living in the moment. “I get tunnel vision when I’m involved with a project, and I’ll follow it to the end,” he says. “I put everything into one thing, and when it’s done, I move on. So I’m not really thinking about what happens next. It’s like something John Lennon said: ‘One thing I can tell you is you got to be free,’ and I’m a huge believer in that. I don’t know how long this will last, but it’s an absolute pleasure.”
This story was originally published by CL ATL.
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