Peter Murphy’s The Ruby Tour At The Novo, Los Angeles

The Novo, DTLA | Los Angeles, CA | February 28, 2019 | Photos & Words: ZB Images |

Forty years ago music was changed: Punk had roughed up rock ‘n roll and Peter Murphy with his band, Bauhaus, were about to smooth out the edges and coat it in midnight.

The Ruby Tour with Murphy’s original Bauhaus bassist David J. celebrates this anniversary and it arrived Wednesday night at the Novo in Los Angeles. Bauhaus’ first album, 1980’s In The Flat Field, would be played in its entirety with a few extras thrown in. Perhaps the part goth/part ex-goth crowd was a bit overly enthusiastic for Murphy’s dark aesthetic because when they cheered him on after the first song he yelled back, “I haven’t done anything yet – SHUT IT!” And when someone yelled out that they wanted him he responded with a “No thanks: I want me.”

Dressed in a blue sequined jacket that matched his eyes, the goateed Murphy was a commanding presence as he surveyed the crowd through devilish brows while striking godlike poses that were shadowed on the wall behind him adding theatrical touches that would impress any true lover of velvet and lace.

Opening for Murphy was a seemingly exhausted Desert Mountain Tribe who seemed happy to be opening the last night of the tour. The show stopper, however, was The Great Vinsantos: a bedazzled, rough-around-the-edges drag queen who had “just flown in from New Orleans on a vintage broom.” Vinsantos was both sardonic and whimsical playing a painted, toothy piano and cracking vaudevillian jokes like teasing the crowd that although some were dressed to the nines – something appropriate for a Peter Murphy tour in LA – others were only dressed to the ones and twos, and they could have at least thrown on some eyeliner.

At the end of his set, Vinsantos was joined by the man of the hour himself, Murphy, who reclined in a chair on stage, took it all in, and even lent his voice by joining Vinsantos on a song.