With bands consistently reforming these days, combined with living in NYC, I have nearly seen every band, in some form or another, from the ’80s and ’90s that I would have liked to have seen while growing up. By 2006, when The Sisters of Mercy came through the US for a short tour, there were a still a few bands of interest to me that I hadn’t seen. Until this show, The Sisters of Mercy were tops on that list. Warlock Pinchers, 7 Seconds, Wolfgang Press, Shriekback and The Replacements still represent unscratched itches. Even though SOM are by all accounts moribund – having not released any new material in over 15 years. (Fun Fact: in the category of maddening un-satiated expectations of a new album SOM have over 5 years on Guns ‘n Roses and Axl is a SOM fan – coincidence?!?.) Even though the show was not as good as many had hoped I quite enjoyed the show and listen to the live recording fairly regularly.
One of the highlights of the show was that it was skull crushingly loud. Eldritch probably doesn’t leave things to chance and avoids venue-to-venue sound inconsistency by touring with his own PA. The sound was nuts loud to the point to of face melt — which is just fine by me. I suspect part of the reason for the volume is to jam recordings since all video I have seen of the tour clip pretty
regularly.
The show featured a bleached haired Eldritch barely visible due to non-top stage smoke, which, sadly, is something that bands don’t use these days. The set covered all albums as well as the Sisterhood ep as well as some new tracks. In case you are wandering there was no Doktor Avalanche sightings but boy, could you hear him. Again, due to spotty video, the mp3 of the track is included.
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Apparently, this was originally a Sisters of Mercy track but was officially released on The Mission UK‘s “God’s Own Medicine.” I guess Eldritch vetoed the track, but then the music was eventually recycled as “Black Planet” on “First and Last and Always.”
I’ve got a dilemma. The Sisters of Mercy will be playing a couple of shows at the House of Blues in Hollywood in a little over a month. I have never seen them, but I absolutely hate going to HOB for shows ($50 ticket, $15 valet parking, $3.50 cokes, $10.00+ Tickemaster service fees, etc.). The other big concern is that the 15 year old goth inside me will be heartbroken seeing an aging idol (Andrew Eldritch is now approaching 50) prancing around on stage, a la The Rolling Stones. Fortunately I still have a few weeks to read some reviews of their shows before I make the decision to drop nearly $100 to see them. In the meantime, I’ve posted a studio demo version of Anaconda which was originally released in 1983.
