Psychedelic Furs @ Élysée-Montmartre, Paris - August 29th, 2017

These guys were never huge in France so it was probably to be expected but I'd never seen the Elysée-Montmartre look so empty. It must've been pretty demoralising for this veteran band to see such a poor turn-out, and it's very unfair in regards to their long catalogue of great songs. To their credit, they played great and always seemed to be enjoying themselves, when other bands in the same situation would just grow a chip on their shoulder and half-ass their performance. They were very good.

Richard Butler used to look like John Lydon but he now looks like Bowie. His brother Tim on bass didn't get the memo that the 80's had ended nearly thirty years ago. But all that is unimportant. What's important is that hit songs like Dumb Waiters, Love My Way, Ghost in You and of course Pretty in Pink sounded fantastic, and the small but loyal audience sang every word with them.

It's funny to think of these bands as classic bands now, but that's what they are. Hell, the Strokes is a classic band now. The 80's are generally considered to be the worst era for music (and to be fair, they have spawned some of the worst atrocities) but Psychedelic Furs is one of the bands that redeem that decade. For that Pretty in Pink song alone, they have a place in rock History. But God, that movie sucks.