
7 June 2023 – The Princess Theatre, Brisbane – words by Joe Harbour – pictures by Bec Harbour
Midweek, work is pretty shite but I remember that I’m seeing The Damned so my evening can only get better.
I arrive after a decent feed of Vietnamese food, to the Princess Theatre located in the Gabba, there’s already a line up and I see exactly what I was expecting. Older and younger people. I think it’s pretty awesome when the age group is pretty wide and we are all somewhere for the same reason.
So who are The Damned?
Well I’ll get to them later because they were supported by a group by the name of Sacred Hearts.
When they started I was immediately intrigued, that ethereal guitar, synthetic drum , It brought to mind Lush, Cocteau Twins and a touch of Big Black and I dunno what else…The Cramps came to mind for some reason.



Sacred Heart – Princess Theatre – photos by Bec Harbour
I really liked them, despite not knowing any of their songs, as I like those bands I mentioned, they were familiar. I look forward to seeing what they do in the future. Check them out here.
Now for The Damned.
Chances are if you’re reading this you know enough about them to know they are total pioneers of early goth and punk culture. Countless band count them as influences and they have a solid catalogue of music to back it up. Through various line-up changes from Captain Sensible leaving to pursue solo ventures to adding keyboardist Monty Oxymoron they have remained fairly consistent, even going on hiatus for a bit hasn’t diminished a thing!



The Damned – Princess Theatre – photos by Bec Harbour
They opened up with a song off Phantasmagoria (the album with Nick Caves missus on the cover) ‘Street of Dreams’, a great ooh wee oooh sing-a long to get us all in the spirit and then proceeded to rip through invisible man off the new album Darkedelic which is not too bad by the way. They played several other tunes from it including ‘Beware the Clown’, ‘Bad Weather Girl’, ‘Motorcycle Man’ and ‘Wake the Dead’. I am really liking this new album.



The Damned – Princess Theatre – photos by Bec Harbour
Additionally they ripped through classics like ‘Love Song’, ‘Neat Neat Neat’, ‘Standing on the Edge of the World’, and ‘Born to Kill’. By the end of a fairly solid set covering pretty much the entire discography, they took off backstage. Were they going to play an encore with a really well known song missing so far?



The Damned – Princess Theatre – photos by Bec Harbour
Well, they did come back out and play a nice encore including their most well-known hit ‘Smash it Up’.
When it’s was all over I was deaf, but so happy I got to see them. Excellent stuff!