Time for a Bavarian Death Waltz

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One of the most famous Afghan Whigs bootlegs is Time for a Bavarian Death Waltz. The title comes from an offhanded comment Greg Dulli made to the audience before the band launched into When We Two Parted. The music blog Captain's Dead has the entire bootleg online.

It's an amazing show. There is the usual Greg Dulli off-key singing and the band shouting down hecklers. The band's anger and intensity was a two-way sword. The Whigs came off as four big scary guys. The flip side is the band played unbelievably tight. The live version of Debonair blows away the album version. Drummer Steve Earle's playing makes Dave Grohl sound wimpy. There is also covers of New Order and Prince songs. What other former Sub Pop band would cover both those bands.

The standout is a rare version of Dulli singing My Curse. Marcy Mays sang the original version on Gentlemen. My friend Mommylap asked me to find a live version with Dulli singing the song. She thinks there is something wonderfully twisted about a man singing those lyrics.

Side note: Mommylap met Dulli back in 1988. Ask her about it. I like to see her write a blog post about it.