With Halloween and Daylight Savings Time behind us and fall in full swing, amphitheater season is typically over. Not quite though, as Danny Elfman brought his dead man’s party for the second of two very special career-spanning shows to the Shoreline Amphitheater.
While Elfman has been celebrating his movie and television soundtracks live for the last few years, the idea to expand the setlist to include Oingo Boingo and solo material really only emerged as part of an oddly placed mainstage performance back in April at Sick New World Festival in Las Vegas where he shared the stage amongst headliners Slipknot and other heavy acts. Improbably, the reception was phenomenal.
Following up Sick New World with two headlining shows was no small feat; the Shoreline stage crammed with at least 50 people including a choir, an orchestra, and the “Elf-Band” which included Robin Finck (Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails) on guitar, Stu Brooks on bass, Nili Brosh on guitar, and Ilan Rubin (Nine Inch Nails) on drums.
The nearly two hour set ran the gamut of Elfman’s diverse career, including soundtrack work from The Simpsons, Batman, Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks, Edward Scissorhands, and of course The Nightmare Before Christmas during which Danny channeled Jack Skellington the “Pumpkin King.” During the instrumentals, Elfman stood in the shadows and the crowd largely stayed seated.
So what got the crowd on their feet? A dozen Oingo Boingo tunes interspersed throughout the nearly two-hour set! For a 71 year old man, Elfman was jacked from time in the gym and his voice was flawless as he tore through these classics with his signature maniacal glare. The Oingo Boingo tunes alone were worth the price of admission although the chorus tended to soften some of the edginess of the early material.
Not to be overlooked was Elfman’s more recent material which included a healthy dose of songs from his 2021 solo album Big Mess and a new song “Monkeys on the Loose” which was only just released on Halloween.
Those that stuck it out for the late Sunday night set were rewarded with an encore of a trio of Oingo Boingo songs to wrap up what was the only chance to experience this career-spanning set any time soon.
