It was around 1992 when I last visited this venue. Back then, it was the Town and Country. After a long time closed, it’s back as the O2 Academy. From what I can remember, it doesn’t seem all that different. And that’s a good thing.
Despite having been largely forgotten by the vast majority, The Sisters of Mercy are not departed or gone. But after spending the best part of a decade trying to escape the clutches of an unsatisfactory recording contract, and the best part of another without a contract, there’s been no new product in a very long time, so it’s hardly surprising. But they’ve been touring with moderate frequency all this time, and a lack of new product doesn’t equate to a lack of new material. So, what would be on the set tonight?
I’ll admit to having gone with a degree of trepidation: the last time I saw the Sisters, at Leeds University in 2006, the sound was terrible and the band were tediously lacklustre, and that’s being kind. And while iLiKETRAiNS had supported on the first leg of the current tour, the support for tonight remained ‘tbc’ everywhere I looked. Not a good sign: again, I’ve seen some terrible bands supporting the Sisters through the years.
So seeing Goldblade take to the stage was actually a rather pleasant surprise. Despite having been around for years, I’d never got around to checking them out. Like a rockabilly-edged Ramones, they cranked out the songs hard and fast and, while they all work to the same formula and feature shoutalong slogan repetitions for choruses, credit where it’s due, were most entertaining, and certainly did a good job of warming up what can be a tough crowd.
In some respects, they share some common ground with the Sisters, in that both bands revel in the stupidity of rock ‘n’ roll and deliver their material with a straight face, tongue firmly in cheek.
Not that one often gets to see where Andrew Eldritch’s tongue is, given his predilection for lurking halfway toward the back of the stage engulfed in smoke for much of the set. But it was ever thus, and while many of the older songs have been reworked, some quite radically, tonight’s set is vintage Sisters.
The stage is plunged into darkness and the rumble of ‘Afterhours’ indicates that they’re due to make an (almost) appearance. Kicking off with ‘Crash and Burn,’ an unreleased classic and live favourite since 2000, it’s evident that they’re on good form.
The span of the band’s career is fairly well represented in tonight’s set, although it’s inevitable that favourites are omitted. So no ‘Some Kind of Stranger’ (which they’ve not played in an age now) or anything from ‘The Reptile House EP,’ but ‘Marian’ makes a rare appearance, albeit to a mixed reception in its revised, uptempo form. From their monumental 1987 album ‘Floodland’ there’s ‘Flood I’ and ‘Flood II,’ ‘Dominion / Mother Russia’ ‘This Corrosion’ and ‘Lucretia My Reflection’ and despite Eldritch’s initial insistence that the album was not one for the road, the songs translate remarkably well live, with Doktor Avalanche’s pulverising mechanised rhythms to the fore and relentlessly driving.
|
There’s also a fair helping of early singles in the form of ‘Alice,’ ‘Anaconda,’ which benefits from an update and works well when stripped of its trippier trappings, and set- closer ‘Temple of Love’ (well it had to be, didn’t it?).
Unreleased songs constitute a large portion of the set, and ‘We Are the Same, Suzanne,’ and ‘Romeo Down’ are up there with many of the older greats, proving that the Sisters are anything but a nostalgia act and also evidencing that idea that while the record industry is dead, the live scene is the most effective method for getting the music to the masses. There’s even a new new song, in the shape of ‘Arms’ which boasts dense chugging guitars in the verses that give way to soaring synths for an instantly memorable chorus. Like ‘Summer’ which still features in the set without a studio version having seen the light of day, ‘Arms’ could easily be a single given the chance.
The interplay between the two guitarists, Ben Christo and Chris Catalyst, is finely honed, and is particularly well evidenced on the instrumental encore track, ‘Top Nite Out.’ Sure, Eldritch’s vocals tend to be low in the mix and generally felt rather than heard, but there are occasions – in particular on ‘Flood II’ – where he really gives it his all, and it’s compelling stuff that provides ample evidence of why the Sisters have not only endured, but still manage to pack out reasonable seize venues with practically no promotion. And the audience are a form of entertainment in their own right: there are human pyramids springing up all over, like it’s 1985 again.
Two encores and then it’s done. No thank you, no goodnight, just a deep, silent bow, and then the Sisters are gone. But they’ll be back... It would be nice to think that next time it will be to promote a new album, but the chances seem slim at best. Oh well, we can dream...
|
