Original UK punks The Damned perform live at 9:30 Club on Friday, May 2. This show is a particularly exciting occasion as it’s The Damned’s first DC-area show since the return of founding drummer Rat Scabies to the band.
The Damned launch their 2025 North American tour on May 1, and they arrive at 9:30 Club on the very next day. They promise to pack some powerful music in the performance with Rat Scabies back on the road with them!
Said The Damned on Facebook: “Tour rehearsals are now officially underway, a lively setlist locked in and last minute booze requirements forwarded to the venues… this one’s shaping up to be something special.”
“With a full compliment of Black Album personnel you’d expect these ’80s tunes to scrub up well… and they most certainly do!”
The Black Album (1980) was the fourth studio album by The Damned and the first to feature bassist Paul Gray. And of course it spotlighted the dynamic and fantastic vocals of frontman Dave Vanian and the killer guitar of Capitan Sensible! The Damned now includes all four men along with keyboardist Monty Oxymoron, a welcome fixture in the band since 1996.
The Black Album introduced really great singles including “The History of the World (Part 1)” and “Wait for the Blackout” to The Damned’s catalog.
Watch The Damned perform “Wait for the Blackout” live for A Night of a Thousand Vampires on YouTube:
Playing by their own rules, The Damned were the first punk band to release a single in November 1976, the first punk band to release an album (Damned Damned Damned (1977)) — and six months later they were the first punk band to release a second album Music for Pleasure (1977), they were the first punk band to tour America, and then the first punk band to split up. They did this all by the autumn of 1977 before most people had cut their hair and even woken up to punk rock. Founding Damned guitarist Brian James, who was there for those first two albums, passed away on March 6.
Of course, The Damned endured through lineup changes and more under the brilliance and guidance of Dave Vanian. Most recently, The Damned released Darkadelic, their endlessly catchy 12th studio album. We anticipate The Damned will pack this upcoming tour with classics, however!
The Damned
W/ The Bellrays
9:30 Club
Friday, May 2
Doors @ 8pm
$55
All ages
