When the book is closed on the first 100 years of mega cinema, and when the list of the greatest film composers of all time is considered heavily, there’s no way that Danny Elfman won’t be considered amidst the best, if not the very best of all time on that list. Sure, Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone and John Williams are all amazing, but look out Max Steiner, John Barry and Bernard Herrmann, you have real competition from Elfman, a composer responsible for some of the most unforgettable themes in the last forty years of cinema, some total over 100 or more in his career so far. Here, tonight, at the famed Hollywood Bowl, Danny Elfman brought his recent live performance configuration to a packed crowd. Promising from “Boingo” to “Batman” to “Big Mess” and “Beyond,” this was a different formulation than many crowds have enjoyed this last fifteen years or so from Elfman. Most performances amidst this stretch have been full movie score performances of his now legendary The Nightmare Before Christmas score (with a couple of covers from his first band Oingo Boingo). But in 2020, after a planned Coachella performance was scrapped due to the whole planet basically shutting down during the COVID-19 pandemic, Elfman made an entire industrial metal album, Big Mess. This show, like many in the last year from Elfman, was elongated takes on his career featuring many tracks culled from Big Mess. We saw and shot this show at great length when he performed it at the Las Vegas festival Sick New World earlier this year.
For tonight’s show though, the show would be roughly divided predominantly between Big Mess cuts and classic inclusions from Oingo Boingo’s catalog (and almost all of them Big Mess-ified, each one made punchier and heavier). There were eight songs from the Big Mess album plus two new ones (“Monkeys on the Loose” released this week and the world premiere of a new song “In My Head”) plus a whopping twelve songs from his Oingo Boingo oeuvre. It was a wild show to be sure, but for those coming expecting purely the greats from his film work, what they got was a heavier, more gritty take of songs with some of the classic film scores settled in amidst the rest.
“Sorry” and “Native Intelligence” from Big Mess and Oingo Boingo’s “Insects” (off of Nothing to Fear) got the show rolling on the aggro side with main title theme from the first Spider-Man film sprinkled in between. “Native Intelligence” is one that opens your eyes wide even if you are unfamiliar with it behind its lyric, “Taking a bath in cyanide.” The plucky silliness of “The Breakfast Machine” (look up the bit from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure on YouTube if you’ve never seen it before) brought the levity for the moment, before amped up takes on Oingo Boingo’s “Just Another Day” and “Grey Matter.” Sadly, the only pieces from the genius The Nightmare Before Christmas score to be heard on this evening would be truncated inclusions of “Jack’s Lament,” “This is Halloween” and “What’s This?” Honestly too short, three up, three down amidst a huge set and gone way too soon. This was followed by the ultra deep cut, Elfman’s theme to Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks, a great idea for a movie, but one that’s worth saying was tonally strange and not super fun to watch.
One more OB cut, the epic pondering of “Insanity” from the band’s final album Boingo set lose a series of alternating inclusions from Big Mess and Elfman’s film scores. The best within this section were the ultra brief (but truly legendary) theme to the first Tim Burton’s Batman (personally, a full movie performance of this score is what I would campaign for), the theme to Beetlejuice and Elfman’s unforgettable opening title theme for The Simpsons. “Only a Lad” the title track from Oingo Boingo’s first album shifted the set towards its latter half. The first ever performance of his new song “In My Head” followed, before the set went into the one-two punch of the main title theme from the hit show Wednesday (literally a blink and you’ll miss it inclusions as it’s super short) and “Ice Dance / The Grand Finale” from the famed Edward Scissorhands film. As the set proper drew to a close, “In Time” one of Big Mess’ few more sedate tracks and the industrial metal of “Monkeys on the Loose”–which was coincidentally unleashed on the world just about two days ago for Halloween—were played.
Hardcore Oingo Boingo heads got a rare treat as Elfman and his monstrous band performed “On the Outside” for the first time since 1995. Just watching Elfman lead this ensemble is its own marvelous treat, as it features portions of a mini orchestra with string sections, two kodo drummers, keyboards, a full rock band (featuring longtime Nine Inch Nails live members Ilan Rubin and Robin Finck) and a full choir. Just planning and structuring the arrangements must have been its own logistical nightmare, and one only someone as talented and multi faceted as Elfman could even dare to accomplish. The main set proper came to its close with the somewhat curious inclusion of “Alice’s Theme” from the 2010 Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film. No offense meant, but in a set light on film score inclusions, there are better works that could have taken this track’s spot, or at least more from The Nightmare Before Christmas. This was followed by “Happy” which logically makes sense as it and “Sorry” were the first two songs Elfman composed in the lead-up to what became Big Mess.
Oingo Boingo’s classic Halloween romp “Dead Man’s Party” closed the set proper before the encore break, which thus to this point, was the one OB cut that felt sonically close to its original orchestration and not Big Mess-ified. Following the encore break Elfman returned to perform a trio of classic Oingo Boingo songs, “Who Do You Want to Be” from Good for Your Soul, “No One Lives Forever” from their massive hit Dead Man’s Party album and “Wild Sex (In the Working Class)” from their 1982 release Nothing to Fear. There’s no way to see a show like this and not be amazed that it was even possible to get a chance to be there for it. This one is for the true Danny Elfman fans and real Oingo Boingo heads though. If you’re a casual fan who knows his film scores or just The Nightmare Before Christmas, you’re in for a challenging gut punch. This is a no nonsense hard left turn from one of music and film’s greatest creators. If you were a diehard mark for mid ‘90s industrial like Die Krupps, Front Line Assembly, Chemlab, Razed in Black or PIG, you would find this all massively comfortable and enjoyable. If you’re one of those lifelong fans of Oingo Boingo you were probably elated to hear revved up takes on these classic songs performed all too seldomly amidst one of the most successful careers in film scoring ever.
Sorry
Insects (Oingo Boingo song)
Spider-Man Main Title
Native Intelligence
Nothing to Fear (But Fear Itself) (Oingo Boingo song)
The Breakfast Machine (from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure)
Just Another Day (Oingo Boingo song)
Grey Matter (Oingo Boingo song)
Jack’s Lament / This Is Halloween / What’s This? (from The Nightmare Before Christmas)
Mars Attacks Theme
Insanity (Oingo Boingo song)
Devil Take Away
Batman Theme
True
Dance With the Lemurs
Kick Me
Beetlejuice Theme
The Simpsons Theme
Only a Lad (Oingo Boingo song)
In My Head (World premiere)
Wednesday Main Titles
Ice Dance / The Grand Finale (from Edward Scissorhands)
In Time
Monkeys on the Loose
On The Outside (Oingo Boingo song) (First time since 1995)
Alice’s Theme (from Alice in Wonderland)
Ain’t This the Life (Oingo Boingo song)
Happy
Dead Man’s Party (Oingo Boingo song)
Encore:
Who Do You Want to Be (Oingo Boingo song)
No One Lives Forever (Oingo Boingo song)
Wild Sex (In the Working Class) (Oingo Boingo song)
File photo by Raymond Flotat
Leave a Comment