Friday, July 24, 1998
Denver, Colorado
Ogden Theatre

by Steve R

A little background: I discovered the Creatures through John Cale and his involvement with producing the last Siouxsie and the Banshees album. I have been a Cale fan for awhile, and it was great to see him live.  I am just now getting into The Creatures/Banshees' music and it was great to see them live as well.

The show started thirty minutes late, but when it did start, it was a great show.  Cale came on first, and did 5 songs - some of my all time favorites like "Fear Is a Man's Best Friend," "River Bank" and "Hedda Gabbler." Siouxsie jumped in on the last verse of "Hedda," and the crowd went wild.  She has a great stage presence!  This was my favorite moment of the show, probably.  It was just so great seeing those two together on stage, the duet was perfect for that song!

Cale took a break, and The Creatures ripped through a six or seven song set.  Unfortunately, I can't name most of the songs, (I'm a newbie) but Siouxsie looked great, and was obviously having fun.  It was a great atmosphere. The smoke machine in the front was going crazy, and finally Siouxsie told the security to turn the damn thing off, because it's "just gassing the people in the front row!!"

Cale came back on and did some other songs.  His song "Gun" rocked live! Many Siouxsie fans recognized it from the Banshees' cover album.  Many people were really getting into Cale's set, which was cool to see.  When he closed with his wicked cover of "Heartbreak Hotel," the rest of the band got a break.  Then Siouxsie came back on and topped her previous performance with an even better second set.  I recognized many of these songs, like B Side Ourselves.  A great set!

They did three encores.  The first one was "Venus in Furs" - dammit that was awesome, Siouxsie does Lou Reed!  Cale was great on the viola. Strutting Rooster was the second encore.  The third encore was a very short song I did not recognize.  After that, Cale, Siouxsie and Budgie did their bows and left for the evening.

It was great to see Cale live, an artist who has inspired me in many ways, and The Creatures, a group which no doubt will be inspiring me very much in the future!