acerbic wit

Saw David J's Cabaret Oscuro ("a very dark, highly visual, starkly theatrical presentation in the best Bauhaus tradition...[A] contemporary take on the avant-garde cabaret of old Paris, Weimar and Berlin,") at the Casbah tonight.

I was skeptical when the opening band set up and a xylophone and trombone were put on the stage. My doubt was well founded.

But David J. was phenomenal. The archetypal Englishman — scathingly witty and goofily unfettered by self-consciousness — played with a cellist (Joyce Rooks) and pianist. "Androgyny" got the evening going, followed by "Joe Orton's Wedding." But my favorite parts of the set came with "Pretty," [I'll] "Mess Up" [Your Life], and "Dress Sexy At My Funeral." I don't know the second-to-last song he sang (perhaps "Pulling Arrows From Our Heels" or "Who Killed Mr. Moonlight"?), but that captivated me as well.

Having never owned the requisite uniform (corsets, chains, and chokers and an amulet ... and turkish cigarettes in a black coffin lunchbox), I was amused by his send-up of "Goth Girls In Southern California" and his comically sarcastic — but beautiful — version of "Bela Lugosi's Dead."

Still, you could almost feel the goths drooling when he made a coy allusion to the fact that Bauhaus is re-forming and will be recording a new album and touring later this year.