John Carpenter redux

I saw John Carpenter during the week at Vicar Street and he was great, his band tight, the selection of tracks remarkable. He was also oddly cheery bopping away on the stage flanked by five other musicians including his son. Here’s a man who had a massive influence on synth and synth pop (oh yeah, not least Miami Vice style stuff) and I forgot he directed Dark Star. For that is a remarkable film, a sort of anti-2001:A Space Odyssey. Cynical, knowing, funny in places, it’s great. But then he also did Starman – not so fond of that am I. Christine and a raft of other films. I mentioned last week that my favourite is Assault on Precinct 13, but judging from the clips They Live looks like a pretty great piece of schlocky cinematic social commentary.

Meanwhile from his first solo album…