Legendary Pink Dots Preview

Legendary Pink Dots
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Double Door, Chicago

Give it up for the Legendary Pink Dots: 25 years ain’t nothin’ to scoff at.

Plenty of bands have lasted this long, but there’s something cool about a band like the Dots keeping it together all this time. Maybe this is is an incorrect assumption, but we can’t help but think it’s a lot easier for, say, The Rolling Stones or U2, who reconvene every four or five years to record an album and drown themselves in cash from sold-out mega-arena tours, to stay together for 25 years than a band like the Dots, who grind it out at Double Door-sized clubs.

Is it tougher to find the motivation, after 25 years, to play to nightly crowds of hundreds instead of thousands? It sure as hell shouldn’t be, and the Dots are proof. More than two decades after forming in London, the group rarely go more than a few years (and often not even that) without recording a new record (the most recent being Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves), have kept their sound (industrial tinged electronic-psych pop sound close?) in check, and most importantly, have kept their creative team in check. Though the supporting cast has experienced *numerous* changes since the band’s inception, the songwriting team of vocalist Edward Ka-Spel and keyboardist Phil Knight (The Silverman) remains the same to this day.

A few special treats await fans who catch the band during the North American anniversary tour. First, former member Martijn de Kleer will rejoin the band specifically for the this leg of the tour. Second, Ka-Spel promises a setlist that will change nightly and reach deep into the Dots’ vast catalog of tunes.

— Trevor Fisher

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly