My bank holiday, and half-birthday, gig had been a much anticipated one for me. Having first seen The Sisters of Mercy back in 2023, I’d been looking forward to a follow-up, especially in light of talk and footage indicating that frontman Andrew Eldritch’s live vocals had improved considerably since then. Then came the announcement of yet another two-nighter at the venue at which I’d previously seen them, the Roundhouse, followed, once again, by my purchase of a ticket for the second of those nights and the successive countdown of months, weeks, days….
Come the day of truth, I arrived outside the venue with anticipation and a playlist in tow; the latter, discographically ordered, arrived at their second album, Floodland, the grand opener of ‘Dominion/Mother Russia’ surging through my wires….
….and then it happened. Upon the cry of 🎵MOTHER RUSSIA, MOTHER RUSSIA, MOTHER RUSSIA, RAIN DOWN, DOWN, DOWN! 🎵, the heavens pissed down their payload, carrying on through the next track on the album, the aptly titled ‘Flood I’, before trickling to a halt at its end. Eerily timely. At least it wasn’t nukes.
Shortly after entering the venue and securing my barrier spot, I had the pleasure of finally meeting long-time Facebook mate Keith Harvey, AKA Mirai Intelligensia, attending with a friend of his who, going by convo, was more of a fan than he was. Twas good to talk in person with him about Laibach, Jim Davidson, and the Front 242 gig we both attended sans knowledge of each other’s presence till after the fact, amongst other things, even if my joke about the night’s anaemic support act failed to land.
Elaborating on said support act, Oversize, have to be the blandest support act I’ve seen in a long, long time, if not ever. Hailing from the Southwest of England, the band play a type-of Deftones-infused radio rock, that reminded me why Deftones, despite having some notable bangers, never really took with me. Mind you, I’d much rather be listening to the entire Deftones discography than whatever Oversize put out, forgettable, mushy, dirgy college rock that seems to lurch from track to indistinguishable track. Listening at home, I couldn’t find a single track that made a distinctive impression, and the live set exacerbated, rather than alleviate, that sense stultifying sameness, outstaying its welcome with me by, well, a whole setlist. Given that, the fact that their latest album, and a track therefrom, is called Vital Signs perversely apt as I struggled to detect mine throughout the duration of their set. Still, they got some applause, including from the chick standing by my side of the stage with a camera, so different strokes and all that. I won’t begrudge them their fans, even if I’m not among their number.
After merciful release from the damage done came the wait for the main event, during which, the bloke next to me managed to get a half-decent shot of the setlist. Having seen setlists from the most recent preceding shows online, I’d abandoned my hope for a 40th-anniversary commemoration of First and Last and Always, their first album, and expected little in the way of surprise: maybe the same tossed bone from that album (either the title track or ‘Marian’), a set dominated by the most popular Floodland and Vision Thing cuts and, of course, the live-exclusive numbers conceived since those albums, unrecorded and unreleased to this day. I’d enjoy the selection whilst expecting each track to fall where it usually fell.
Imagine my shock, when I saw ‘Lucretia, My Reflection’ placed as the *opener *, the appearance of ‘Flood II’, a deeper Floodland cut, and ‘Giving Ground’, a firm favourite from the Eldritch-supervised splinter project The Sisterhood (played the last time I saw them), on the night’s setlist! Though I couldn’t make out everything from the bloke’s picture, there was yet another very pleasant surprise in store for me during the set to come.
Shortly after, the current iteration of Sisters took to the stage: Chris Catalyst, current operator of the infamous Doktor Avalanche; bassist Ben Christo, whom I’d last seen in Diamond Black, supporting Esprit D’Air on their 2024 tour; Kai, vocalist of the latter band (and my main focal point of the evening being positioned nearest the stage to me), on guitar, prompting the thought that Espirit would’ve been a much better support act than that which actually placed on the bill; and, of course, the main man himself, Andrew “Von” Eldritch, surveying the audience with a Nosferatic solemnity.
With ‘Lucretia’ kicking off proceedings, I braced in anticipation for Andrew’s vox. Would I be “treated” to emphysemic grandad doing karaoke again?
Then it came, bigger, bolder, and stronger than 2023:
🎵I hear the roar of the big machine. …🎵
Indeed!
Now this is not to say that Andrew returned to his ’80s glory with his voxwork that night, but, all the same, the difference between his performance then and back in 2023 registered as stark as that between night and day—a *substantial* fucking improvement! Instead of emphysemic croaks, we got a more sustained snarl and snap, a spark of reignited vitality, from the belly of the beast. Just as noted and seen in forums and footage elsewhere, much to my relief.
Some of this vitality may well be down to the introduction of the aforementioned Kai to the mix. As well as helping out, along with Ben, on backing vocals, he held his own formodably on guitarist, at select moments whirling and striding around the stage like a human dynamo. A sterling addition, much like his friend and brother-in-arms Ben. As for Chris, he did a solid job keeping the good Doktor humming along.
Setlist-wise, highlights included the aforementioned ‘Giving Ground and ‘Flood II’, the earlier rainmaker ‘Dominion/Mother Russia’, ‘Alice’, live-exclusive favourites ‘Don’t Drive on Ice’, ‘But Geniveve’, and ‘When I’m on Fire’, and the closing one-two punch of ‘Vision Thing’ and ‘This Corrosion’ (the latter introduced by Andrew with a verbal wink: “It’s that time!”).
But the moment that made my entire fucking night was when they saw fit to grace the audience with that one First and Last and Always number: not the title track or ‘Marian’ but ‘A Rock and a Hard Place’, one of my absolute favourites from that cracking album, eliciting a full-throated “FUCK, YEAH!” from me—result! I may not have gotten that album anniversary set, but that was one helluva silver lining.
In short, a cracking show, marked by revitalising additions, setlist blinders, and vocal redemptions. Speaking of the latter, if Andrew doesn’t capitalise on his current line-up and vocal form to record and release those live-bound numbers, he’s missing out on the opportunity of opportunities.
~MRDA~
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