Danzig falling off the stage is probably old news for most people but it seemed to provide a good reason to finally post my review of Danzig's newest CD, "The Lost Tracks of Danzig".

For anyone who hasn't been keeping up with recent Danzig news, he fell off the stage on Tuesday night in Baltimore on the opening night of the tour. It appears that he injured his shoulder and, after falling, he cut out The Misfits set from the show that night.



Danzig played Wednesday night's show in Philadelphia with his arm in a sling and the show included a 4 song (or 5 - depending on whose review you read) Misfits set with Doyle. Last night's show in Worcester was cancelled so it is anyone's guess if the show at Nokia Theatre tomorrow night will really take place.

I'm thinking that neither Danzig nor Jerry are going to get my money this year. Jerry just needs to give it up -- his voice has gone to hell and "The Misfits" featuring just him and Robo don't amount to much. As for Danzig, I have seen his 15 minute Misfits set (with Doyle) last tour. It was fun the first time to see the closest thing to a Misfits reunion but now I'd rather pay money to see Danzig play with Bobby (not that this is ever going to happen) than a rehash of the set he & Doyle played two years ago.

"The Lost Tracks on Danzig" is a pretty interested 2-disc set of songs spanning Danzig's solo career. This CD differs from many of the "outtakes" CDs that other artists have released as the majority of the songs on this set are fully produced tunes that didn't make it onto one of Danzig's solo CDs. For Danzig fans, this set is a "must have" but there doesn't seem to be enough here to convert a casual fan.

I thought Danzig hit his creative peak with "4p" and a good chunk of the first disc covers the time between the end of Samhain and the release of "4p". I didn't really care for the generic metalism of the post-4p CDs but many the tracks on Disc 2 show a different side of Danzig's songwriting process. This isn't to say that there aren't some throw-away tracks on this set. As an example, "Unspeakable (Shango Mix)" is the last track on this set and it is a complete throw-away. (This was a backing tracking from the XXX horror flick "Grub Girl"). There aren't many of tracks though from Danzig's NiN-wannabe period so the few duds shouldn't turn off the fans.

So, let's hit the highlights. There are pretty interesting cover tunes on this set: T Rex's Buick McKane (essential), The Germs' Caught in My Eye (interesting) and Bowie's Cat People (strange). Outside of the cover tunes, the highlights are the slower tunes that showcase Danzig's voice. Essential listening is "Cold Cold Rain" and "Come to Silver" (which was written for Johnny Cash). A few of the other tunes on this set were released on movie soundtracks or were b-sides of singles so it is great to have them all on this one set.

It would be nice to see some more unreleased Misfits (can anyone say "12 Hits From Hell") or Samhain but, all-in-all, this is a nice set that should please the fans.

Links:
Danzig's Website