I Just Read About That…

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 16, 2026] Danny Elfman

I felt like this concert was announced suddenly and with no warning (which is how Danny likes it, I’m sure).  I was super interested in going, but it was on the same night as Angine de Poitrine and there was no way I was missing that, even if this was Danny’s first tour in 30 years.

I remember Danny from his Oingo Boingo days and obviously everyone knows his from his hundreds of fantastic scores.  Since I had no plans to go  to this I didn’t give a lot of thought to what the show would be like.  so I’m fascinated by this review from Loudhailer magazine:

Danny Elfman has done a few one-off festival performances in recent years, but his stop at The Fox Theatre was only the second show of his first actual tour with a band since 1995 – and it absolutely rocked. How could it not, given an all-star backing that included guitarists Nili Brosh from Dethklok, Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle bassist Matt McJunkins, and Josh Freese, who has drummed with everyone from Devo and Guns N Roses to Foo Fighters. Putting a supergroup like this together meant that Elfman was never going to just replay nostalgic Oingo Boingo hits or film scores. That would have been a waste of the overwhelming talent on stage. Instead, songs from the ’80s new-wave era were rebuilt in a more industrial metal style. 

 The sonic reinterpretation ran throughout the night, with Oingo tracks like “Ain’t This The Life” and “On The Outside” trading their new wave brightness for a much heavier grind. Most of the show fluctuated between Oingo classics and tracks from Elfman’s 2021 solo record Big Mess, which didn’t need the same makeover since they were written with exactly this sound in mind.  Another standout of the night was the one and only piece of Elfman’s film work that made the set: a metal version of “This Is Halloween,” which Elfman played in a Jack Skellington-style jacket.

The 80-minute, 20-song set closed with Boingo classics “Only a Lad” and “No One Lives Forever,” followed by an encore of “Who Do You Want to Be.” Thirty years after Elfman last toured for a living, the songs didn’t sound preserved and replayed. They were rebuilt and renewed.

So how about that

Danny Elfman at Fox Theatre in Detroit, MI