The Sisters of Mercy @ First Avenue
The early nineties, for me, were marked by the lovely smell of the smoke machine and the heavy mystery of dark, dank clubs. I’ve always loved that smell and the excitement the ethereal fog creates as it fills the room. The reassuring thing about a Sisters of Mercy show is that it will always be enveloped in an abundance of smoke. It’s like a magical vapor released from a genie’s bottle, and Andrew Eldritch, the only original band member that is part of the current tour (save for Doktor Avalanche, the trusty drum machine), waits for the smoke to completely shroud the stage before he chooses to present himself.
The First Avenue show on Tuesday night opened with the beats of Doktor Avalanche but proved to be more about thrashing guitars than the groove machine. And although Andrew’s vocals were buried too low in the mix, we were in for a treat indeed. “Ribbons” and “Flood I” helped set a sexy, if not seedy, tone with skin, mascara, and stolen guitars. We heard the dark moral of “Alice” unfold and they played “Giving Ground,” a rarity by The Sisterhood! New song “Romeo Down” was introduced by Mr. Eldritch as a “murder mystery without the murder or the mystery… okay, just a bit of murder” and was performed against red and pink lights like a valentine. “Flood II,” my favorite song of the evening, was complemented by oceanic blue streams of light and healthy puffs of smoke, and found Eldritch hissing “like the sea” into the microphone, bringing the first set to a dramatic close.
The impressive light show continued for two more encores, before the show finished with “Temple of Love,” the stage awash in green and golden rays of light.
While I’m not convinced that the backing vocals should ever overpower Andrew Eldritch’s, as during the chorus on songs like “This Corrosion” or “Dominion/Mother Russia,” guitarists Ben Christo and Chris Catalyst’s did energize the live show. I feel lucky to have seen The Sisters three times in the early nineties (one of those shows was at DAR Constitution Hall, with Public Enemy and Gang of Four), and their shows are always more than mere melancholy. Sisters of Mercy songs, when you get past the smoke and despair, are quite smart. The lyrics transport one to another world: dark, glamorous, and exotic. Whether it’s a shadowy hallway or pre-perestroika Russia, it’s always a theater of the mind. And that sense of drama was what everyone turned out (and dressed up) to see, and it was on full display during the stirring Sisters Of Mercy show at First Avenue Tuesday night.
[Review by guest contributor Jennifer Hood, photos courtesy of Marcus Johnson]
Nice review Jennifer. You captured the night quite vividly. I agree about Andrew’s vocals not being high enough in the mix, and without the lyrical distinction (and the drum machine) some songs seemed to sound quite similar. But it didn’t seem to affect the energy of the show too much. There were a lot of people (dressed in their Gothic finery) that were happy enough just to be in the same room with Andrew again-it was quite the visual spectacle. As was the London fog that set in on the upstairs bar and bathroom-you could hardly see at all up there. Definitely a dark, dank club that you spoke of in the review.
Rad review! It’s great to see The Sister of Mercy are still at it. Hopefully I can catch them in NYC.
I never really got into the sisters of mercy but your review made me feel like i was there at the concert. Good job Jennifer!! I hope you washed your hands after the show, it sounded kind of dirty:)
Saw them at The Orpheum in the early ’90′s (Vision Thing). Not my favorite music genre but they were very, very entertaining. Great review.
Jen, this is a great review. Very descriptive, I felt like I was there. Really liked the closing paragraph, your thoughts on the band. I can just see “the kids” in their goth wear
And Gang of Four?! You saw them? So jealous…made me remember how much I loved Shriekback too…
Nice review sexy. I felt like I was there with you.
Thanks for the review.
I must ask where you were standing at the show to not hear the vocals.
From my vantage point (one of the black shadows in the front row in front of Andrew), the vocals were loud and overpowering. Definitely the best sound I’ve ever heard at a Sisters gig.