Review: John Carpenter, Colston Hall

Not only a director synonymous with iconic horror imagery like Michael Myers’ white mask and the misshapen flesh and bone of The Thing; John Carpenter is also imprinted on the world of film soundtracks as a master of the musical macabre. His electronic, percolating soundscapes, ranging from the impending dread of Halloween to the pop funk of Big Trouble in Little China, have exerted a massive influence on generations of film composers (It Follows by Disasterpeace being a noteworthy recent example), and although no-one would mistake his scores as models of compositional complexity, they demonstrate unerring dramatic intuition and structure. It says a lot for Carpenter’s skill that the repetitive chords of Halloween continue to stalk the minds of listeners nearly four decades later.

With that in mind, Carpenter’s showstopping live Colston Hall performance, acting as the finale of Bristol’s Simple Things Festival, was the perfect showcase for the filmmaker’s scores. Very often a live performance can threaten to dilute the impact of an original score with minor nuances or changes in tempo robbing the work of its vitality. Not so with Carpenter, his eerie musical minimalism given a new lease of twisted life by the energetic rock and roll swagger of son Cody Carpenter on synths and godson Daniel Davies (son of The Kinks guitarist, Dave) on lead guitar, both of whom worked on the filmmaker’s critically acclaimed Lost Themes concept album. Meanwhile John Spiker’s bass, John Konesky’s guitar and Scott Seiver’s drums (all three of whom from Tenacious D) lent further fuel to the onslaught.

Both Lost Themes and its 2016 companion album were interwoven through the crowd-pleasing show as Carpenter himself (rocking a big smile and ponytail throughout) fronted the stage on keyboard. In particular the former album’s eerie Vortex acted as an overture of sorts to Carpenter’s musical career, alternating between aggressive swagger and woozy atmosphere. In truth though it was the film works that brought the house down, from the aforementioned Halloween to the ghostly The Fog (Carpenter himself wreathed in dry ice during one of the show’s most memorable moments) and the bone-chilling dread of Ennio Morricone’s The Thing with its brilliantly doom-laden electronic pulse. (Disappointingly Jack Nitzsche’s yearning, haunting Starman theme was absent from the line-up.)

Other highlights included the entire band donning shades for the energetic performance of They Live, the witty martial arts licks of Big Trouble in Little China and a neat inclusion of the oft-overlooked Christine, its punchy chords driving ahead as relentlessly as the movie’s titular possessed car. Although much of the music was cut from the same cloth, there was no denying Carpenter’s skill in stripping down and re-assembling his ensemble to suit the needs of a given genre. Bold, brash and fun, the concert acted as an unashamedly entertaining distillation of a legendary filmmaker who’s done it all and now just wants us to revel in the bravado of his career. ‘Horror films will never die’, Carpenter proudly addressed the cheering crowd. Neither will the legacy of his own films, or indeed their music.

Pix by Tony Benjamin