John Carpenter in Concert

I was lucky enough to see John Carpenter in concert at the Hollywood Palladium last night. It was great fun - a very entertaining show. Wonderful to be in a packed room full of Carpenter buffs who clearly knew and loved his films.

Not a super long set. It was lovely to see Carpenter bopping around, feeding off the crowd's reaction. How many other directors would you pay to see in concert? Actually probably a few for me... but Carpenter is a skilled musician, whose tunes form an integral part of the mood of his movies. They played clips from his films on a screen in the background.

From memory the set list was like this:
* 'Escape from New York' title track - great choice, really got the night off to a good start.
* 'Assault on Precinct 13' - good follow up - the clips included killing the girl. Jeez!
* 'The Fog'
*'Village of the Damned'
* 'The Thing' - he made sure he credited the writer
* some songs from 'Lost Themes' i.e. Carpenter was like most older musicians, sneaking in the newer tracks after some hits. Audience enjoyed them though - and they are good songs.
* 'Starman' which Carpenter proclaimed "is my only love story!'
* 'In the Mouth of Madness' - a more rocking song... I don't normally like his rock and roll in films but it worked well live
* 'Porkchop Express' from Big Trouble in Little China - great live song
*'They Live' got a great response
*something from Body Bags which I've never seen
*'Halloween' - of course big rise
He went away and came back from an encore where he played
* 'Santiago' from Vampires
* 'Prince of Darkness'
* song from Christine. He ended the show saying "take care on the roads, watch out for Christine... " then launched into the song.
I think I've got all the songs down. The order may not be right.
Nothing from Dark Star or Ghosts of Mars or Memoirs of an Invisible Man, but I was very happy with what I got. He looked like he was having fun and so did the audience.