Poptone “Poptone” 2018, limited edition double LP on white vinyl. Cleopatra Records. We visited Minneapolis last week, as did Poptone, so we got to see Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins of Bauhaus/Tones on Tail/Love and Rockets who are, along with Haskins’ daughter Diva Dompe, performing as Poptone at First Avenue. (Though I’ve been to Minneapolis many, many times, this was my first show at First Avenue and all I could do was giddily picture Purple Rain era Prince and Morris Day and The Time videos.) I also picked up this album at the show.

In concert and on Poptone, Ash and Haskins focus on revamps of previous material – most even darker and heavier than their unique industrial goth, which was pretty heavy and dark to start with – with lots of Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets tracks. I was in heaven! Tones on Tail songs they played that appear on Poptone included “Movement of Fear,” “Lions”  “Performance” and “Go!”  The Love & Rockets selections were “Mirror People,” “No Big Deal,” “Ball of Confusion,” “Love Me” and “American Dream.” Not on Poptone, their First Avenue set had a ton of other Love & Rockets’ selections:  “Motorcycle,” “Haunted (When the Minutes Drag),” “All In My Mind,” and “Yin and Yang The Flowerpot Man.” The last time I saw Love and Rockets was in 1989 when they were on tour for their 1989 album Love and Rockets. That fall, either right before or after that concert, a friend of mine and I took the Greyhound bus to Minneapolis from Madison, WI to visit her sister and see a guy I was dating who went to the University. Her sister’s boyfriend drove us around town at full speed while blasting Love and Rockets, so it just felt right to be hearing those songs again at First Avenue.