And suddenly, 2016 became the summer of punk cabaret.
Boston duo the Dresden Dolls have announced a pair of live dates set for this August, which finds Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione back on stage together for the first time in an official capacity since 2010 (they played Rough Trade in New York last year). The Dolls will play Boston’s Blue Hills Bank Pavilion on August 26, then help christen New York’s newly-minted Coney Island Amphitheater the following night. Tickets for the Boston show go on sale April 15; fan pre-sales have opened today.
While the group has sprang up here and there over the past few years, both have been busy with various other projects. Palmer has evolved into a social media force and solo artist, made headlines for her $1.2 million Kickstarter campaign in 2012, and earlier this year collaborated with Jherek Bischoff on a David Bowie covers EP called Strung Out in Heaven. Viglione, meanwhile, has leant his considerable skill to various bands since the Dolls began their hiatus, from Nine Inch Nails to World/Inferno Friendship Society, and was recently named the new drummer for the Violent Femmes.
The live shows, however, do not hint at a longer tour or promise any new recorded material, Palmer says. The Dolls’ last album was 2006’s Yes, Virginia….
“This is it,” Palmer tells Pitchfork. “These are right now two totally isolated ‘let’s get the band back together’ shows.”
Palmer says the summer gigs will be full of surprises and stretch beyond what we had seen of the band in the 2000s. She elaborates, via the ‘Fork: “We have always, as a band, prided ourselves on delivering something delicious to a live audience. The Dresden Dolls are like riding a bicycle. Brian and I could wake up any day of the week and get marched to a stage, and get told to sit down and play the greatest hits of the Dresden Dolls. And we could do it with our eyes closed and practically our hands tied behind our backs. But we don’t like to repeat ourselves, and we do not like to be predictable, and that is what made the Dresden Dolls such a fantastic live band. Throughout the course of our touring history, you never knew what you were going to see when you went to a Dresden Dolls show. These two shows are going to be no exception. We are going to pull out all the stops: there is going to be insanity, onstage special guests, strange happenings, love with the audience. It’s never simple.”
