The Dresden Dolls at the Troxy, London

Sometimes magic can happen. Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione are the Dresden Dolls. I discovered the Dresden Dolls in 2005 shortly before i started this blog. I saw them play live twice in 2005 and twice in 2006 and that was the last time they played in the UK until 30 October at the Troxy when I saw them again. It's been a long 12 years without them but they were a delight to see again.

The queue to get in was huge and it seemed like everyone had turned up early to make sure they got in in good time. The strange thing was the absence of weirdos - where were the costumes and make-up? When I saw the stage it seemed so familiar - an empty stage apart from two risers, one with Brian's drums and one with Amanda's keyboards. And taped to the front of Amanda's keyboards were flowers, as is right and proper.

The first song was 'Girl Anachronism', a signature song from their first album, followed by 'Good Day', I was particularly pleased by 'Good Day' since it was the first Dolls song I heard them play at a free gig in the Clore Ballroom  in the Royal Festival Hall after they'd appeared in a revue show as part of Patti Smith's Meltdown festival in London in 2005. That's when I bought their first album and met Amanda for the first time when she signed the record.

They went on to play classics like 'Sex Changes', 'Backstabber'. 'Mrs O', 'Pirate Jenny', 'Mandy Goes To Med School' as well as a couple of new songs with the hint of a new record to come. I'll buy it! Towards the end of the set we also had 'Coin Operated Boy' - of course. It was great to see Amanda swigging from a bottle of beer again during 'Amsterdam' and the final encore was 'Sing' from 'Yes Virginia. I have fond memories of this song from the last night at their Roundhouse gigs in 2006 - you can catch that performance on the DVD and YouTube if you look.

Thank you for the benediction of the punk cabaret Amanda and Brian - don't leave it so long next time!

PS: photos nicked from the internet.