He may have played other gigs prior to his Halloween Night sell-out concert at the Troxy, but you could sense right from the preliminary queue and atmosphere inside the Troxy in Limehouse, East London that 31st October, 2016, was going to rank as a momentous occasion for John Carpenter.
John Carpenter, Halloween Night. The perfect match. HALLOWEEN is not just a horror classic, but a state of mind. SCREAM director Kevin Williamson thrived on it when creating his 1996 smash and many a generation caught it on television before the big-screen. Across town, The Prince Charles Cinema played HALLOWEEN in it’s now-annual treat for fans and the BFI South Bank is also honouring Carpenter with a season of his films in November 2016, with screenings of THE FOG and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK in 35mm, as well as the excellent Digital presentation of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (reviewed on this website by myself earlier this year)
Forty years after his modern classic ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 graced cinema screens for the first time, the audience was ready for a mix of old and new Carpenter material, which encompassed most if not all of the themes that the savvy, smart genre-loving crowd had embraced for a generation, as well as several cuts from his LOST THEMES album.
The doors opened at 6pm. The concert began at 8.30pm. The gigs in Manchester and London had been overshadowed by concerns over ticketing (the original promoter went into liquidation and confusion over how to claim tickets as well as the validity of those received dominated chat in the queues and on the Troxy floor), but the buzz as showtime approached was incomparable.
Then the lights faded and the band appeared. Carpenter emerged in front of his five-piece (with son Cody on second keyboards, plus two guitarists, a bass player and a drummer) to phenomenal cheers and applause. Opening with the Main Theme from ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, followed by ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, the performances were solid and Carpenter does come across like somebody who wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Prog-Rock combo like Emerson, Lake and Palmer or Yes. Each of the tracks performed, with the exception of the LOST THEMES cuts, were done against a montage of clips to each of the respective films (if you haven’t seen the films on show, then I would suggest watching Carpenter’s work ahead of any future concerts if they happen, so you won’t be spoiled).
Given the Troxy’s similarity to the crummy vaudeville theatre where Kurt Russell as Snake tries to find the President in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, there was a faint hope that we might have had a vocal performance of EVERYONE’S COMING TO NEW YORK, the COMING UP ROSES-esque track on the film. Given the night itself, I was half expecting the HALLOWEEN III Jack-O-Lantern’s and the SILVER SHAMROCK advert ditty.
The practice of fusing music to visual montages of movies has been used with other recent genre-based soundtrack performances (Fabio Frizzi appeared at the Union Chapel in London at Halloween 2013 performing his music to the likes of Fulci’s ZOMBIE FLESH-EATERS and THE BEYOND and Carpenter’s partner in music time Alan Howarth performed last year at the same venue. Howarth worked with Carpenter on ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and HALLOWEEN III, as well as doing the music for HALLOWEEN 4)
He didn’t speak much, but when he did, it was amusing and light-hearted and there were knowing smiles and signals to the people using their phones to film him. An affectionate tribute to Ennio Morricone happened with a performance of the opening theme from his 1982 classic THE THING and competent performances of the likes of BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, THE FOG, THEY LIVE and PRINCE OF DARKNESS followed.
Surprisingly, the Main Theme from HALLOWEEN featured during the main part of the 75-minute set, the encore leaving space for the CHRISTINE theme. Still, this is a minor gripe on a night when a Horror Legend of the Silver Screen more than proved his musical spurs. Given the incredible reaction to what transpired on this night of HALLOWEEN nights, it won’t be the last we have seen of John Carpenter in this country. All I can say is – watch this space and book a ticket for the next set of gigs as and when they are announced.
Given the reaction to the music last night, it would be nice also to hear a complete performance of the ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK soundtrack. 75 minutes was mercifully short and there is room to add more in performances, especially since Carpenter didn’t ask for a support act according to reports online.
It was well and truly the night that HE (Carpenter) came home to his film-lover family.
VerdictÂ
