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Colston Hall, Bristol, October 23, 2016

Buoyed by the success of his Lost Themes albums, genre director John Carpenter has taken to the road to present a retrospective of his movie themes, as well as to share new material co-written with son Cody Carpenter and stepson Daniel Davies. Starting in LA this May, Carpenter’s UK/Irish leg of the world tour is taking in eight cities, including Bristol’s Colston Hall as part of the city’s wider Simple Things festival.

Carpenter is that rare beast, a director who scores (most of) his own movies. But more than that, he has established a signature sound – 80s synths playing simple repetitive themes overlaid with ominous chords. It’s a sound that has been imitated many times, most recently in Stranger Things and It Follows, either to establish a sense of period (1980s) or to give the movie a lean, propulsive underscore.

While the director’s movies and TV projects have been few and far between since the late 1990s, his 2015 album Lost Themes – a compilation of themes from movies that have yet to be made – showed that there is still an appetite for the artist’s scores, which in turn spawned a follow-up album this year.’

When Carpenter strides on to the stage with trademark Lee Van Cleef ’tache and silver ponytail and stands behind his keyboard there’s a palpable sense of anticipation in the air. Flanked by Cody and Daniel – respectively on lead keyboard and lead guitar – a drummer and two more guitarists, Carpenter strikes a cool pose. At times he has a hand in his pocket, casually jabbing at the keyboard with a posed indifference, but then he cracks a smile, blows a kiss to someone in the crowd, while throwing the universal ‘I’m watching you’ hand signal.

John Carpenter has been scoring our nightmares since the mid-70s – how will he launch the show? Wisely, it’s a classic: Escape from New York. The crowd go crazy. Images of Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken are projected on to a rear screen, reflected in three smaller screens… and it sounds great. It doesn’t stick slavishly to the original arrangement, instead offering something that has a place for the other band members to make a contribution. Thud thud thud thud… the walls of the Colston Hall reverberate to that iconic theme. Those who’ve bought Carpenter’s EP from Sacred Bones Records will be familiar with the 21st Century redux of this theme, as well as the new takes on Halloween, The Fog and Assault on Precinct 13.

And barely have we left 1997 New York City before we’re back to 1976 LA, Precinct 13 to be precise. It’s another killer theme that blasts the venue’s foundations. Two tracks follow from Lost Themes, the very familiar sounding Vortex, and Mystery, which has its roots in Argento’s Goblin scores. The swapping between new and old continues across the set with Wraith, Night, Mystery, Vortex and Purgatory from Missing Themes featuring in the mix, as well as Distant Dream and Virtual Survivor from Lost Themes II

As Carpenter tells us that he loves to tell ghost stories, a thick fog rolls in from Antonio Bay and the dry ice machines go in to overdrive. It’s a neat effect that adds some local atmosphere to The Fog’s lean theme as drowned pirates attack Hal Holbrook on the screens. And then the band all don sunglasses so that they can read the hidden alien messages in They Live. It’s a bluesy theme, ideal for our hero ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, who gets his own cheer when he’s shows up on screen.

Morricone’s main titles to The Thing get an Antarctic blast across the auditorium to a montage of Rob Bottin’s remarkable VFX, but then things get a bit lighter. Carpenter tells us that of all five films he made with his friend Kurt Russell, they never had more fun than when they were searching for a girl with green eyes. The chopsocky fun of Big Trouble in Little China – the Pork Chop Express – is an 80s confection that only lacked the appearance of fellow Coupe De Villes band members Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace.

And then the big one. Neither saved for the opener, finale or encore, Carpenter’s Halloween main title has lost none of its impact since 1978. Much copied, never beaten, it’s a horror standard, Cody Carpenter turning up the synths to 11. The titles of In the Mouth of Madness, one of the composer’s lesser-heard works, proves to be a fun track, accompanying the fairly bonkers Lovecraftians on-screen antics, and then there’s my personal favourite Darkness Begins from Prince of Darkness, all synth chanting and ominous portents.

Just before we leave for the night, our host warns us to be careful on the roads – Christine is out there. I’d forgotten how much I loved that score, which is a worthy finale.

The gig was live streamed on the night and you should still be able to watch it here

Verdict: John Carpenter’s scores were the soundtrack to my youth. And while often it’s a really bad idea to go home again, sometimes it helps you remember just what it was that gave you so much joy. What a blast. This was the night he came home. 10/10

Nick Joy