Echo and the Bunnymen Entrance Fillmore Detroit With Stellar Performance
One week ago, Ian McCollach, the lead singer of your mother’s favorite 1980s Post Punk band was injured in a road traffic accident while heading from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia during the band’s current tour. This accident caused the band to take to social media to announce their cancellation for the show in Philadelphia that night as McCollach was on the way to have x-rays taken and undergo further medical examination instead of being on the way to take the stage of a very hungry crowd.
One week later, in seemingly great health, McCollach appeared alongside the rest of his band to a very full and hungrier crowd at The Fillmore Detroit on June 16. And even more impressively, with a flawless hour and a half run time.
Veteran Liverpool post-punk band, Echo and The Bunnymen need no formal introduction. Often referred to as one of the few original New Wave bands left standing and listed by Apple Music as inspiration for bands such as Coldplay, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, The Verve, The Killers, Pavement, Ride, and many more. The band, associated with faces covered in “stark white face paint with the thickest black eye liner, and the cartoon character that accidentally electrocuted themselves while ironing their hair” goth style hairdo, still kick ass, even fourty-eight years later.
However, before we can talk further about Echo and The Bunnymen’s Detroit appearance, it would be criminal to skip discussion surrounding the opening act. For every stop on the Bunnymen’s tour, there has been a hand-selected local opener. Detroit’s local opener was one of Ferndale’s own: The Aston Neighborhood Pleasure Club. A three-person ensemble of jazz musicians that performs what they self-proclaim as “Early Style Music”. It was obvious within the first 10 minutes that while the inspiration of the early 1900’s NOLA jazz scene was certainly present in their sound, the trio were implementing a concoction of gnarly drum fills and saxophone solos that would have even made mid 1900s jazz musicians take a double take. As well, the presence of a couple Sun Ra covers at the end of their set was really the cherry on top. A tightly wrapped present of a captivating 40 minutes that in all honesty, was just as entertaining as the main act of the night.
There was a specific morbid hype behind the idea that the band’s lead singer had just come out of a very unfortunate situation and with minor setbacks was still continuing the tour like nothing really had happened. Echo and The Bunnymen still played in Philadelphia two days after the accident. Were we going to see a band that was still shaken up by the incident? Was the performance going to be below-average output for the band? We’re they going to be tired because they are mostly in their 60s?
The answer to all three of those questions was… no.
The setlist was a perfect split of their discography. They hit almost every era of their career with bits and pieces from Crocodiles, Ocean Rain, S/T, and Heaven Up Here while sneakily sliding in snippets from The Doors and Lou Reed. Starting the setlist with a strong three-song run of “Going Up”, “All That Jazz”, and “Heads Will Roll”, the concertgoer was quickly able to fulfill their Doc Marten-wearing fantasies as the 1980’s were sung to a very expressive lyric-knowing crowd. McCollach and the band’s founding guitarist Will Sergeant are still cool; rocking sunglasses and a vintage Jazzmaster respectively.
“The Killing Moon” rounded out the set list in a burst of emotion and sonic haze before the band decided to call it for like two minutes before they came back on stage and played both “Lips Like Sugar” and “Ocean Rain’. It really felt like the most complete setlist possible with a performance from the Bunnymen. Encore and all.
Even after forty-eight years, this band’s sound really doesn’t age. In a world where Geese, a 2010’s slacker rock revival, and a true Jesus and Mary Chain comeback exists, it’s nice to see the band where everyone got their chops from. Post Punk has since been slaughtered: redone over and over again with the same dreamy guitar tones and the same look since 1986. It’s easy to believe that someone discovering The Bunnymen for the first time in the last couple years could be quick to dismiss the band as yes, many projects since have been inspired by the foundations of The Bunnymen’s sounds. Many bands have done arguably more interesting things with the genre since the 80’s. But, there is something special and completely irreplaceable about this band. They aren’t just one of the first, they might still be one of the coolest to ever do it.
In June 1989, the band’s then drummer Pete de Freitas tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident. This is an event that would permanently change the course of this band’s history. It’s something that is hard not to think about for long-time fans of the band when it is announced to the general public in 2026 that McCollach was involved in a traffic incident. The world is still lucky to have this band around. And more importantly, lucky to have McCollach safe. June 17th proved that Detroit is lucky to have the Bunnymen.