To paraphrase the Bob Dylan track “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall” black was definitely the colour of choice for the assembled sold out crowd gathered at The Corner to see the legendary Sisters Of Mercy. Formed by singer Andrew Eldritch in the United Kingdom in the early eighties, this is a band that has only recorded three studio albums in their lifetime. However those albums have inspired countless thousands across the world over the past three decades.
Tonight was also a wonderful chance for old friends that hadn’t seen each other for many years to catch up. Defiant outsiders united by music. It was like an unofficial reunion of every Goth club that’s ever existed in Melbourne. There was a lot of camaraderie and love among those seeing one of their favourite bands live for the first time in Australia.
The night was kicked off in fine style by Kim Salmon, in a performance that probably should have had the subtitle “Solo & Rowdy”. Gleefully attacking his guitar in his own inimitable style, he proved to be a solid warm up for the arriving crowd, playing some great tracks like “Fix You Up”, “Frantic Romantic” and “We Had Love”.
The double edged sword of anticipation and anxiousness for Sisters was palpable. Anticipation due to that idea of seeing live the music you’ve grown up on. That is always a rather special experience, as many will attest to when they saw The Pixies live for the first time in Australia some years ago. Anxiousness because of the fact that, over the past three decades, while being a brilliant band on record, after seeing live footage and hearing live material, unfortunately Sisters Of Mercy have never been a band that have been able to fully translate their material to a live setting.
The enigma wrapped in a mystery that is Mr Andrew Eldritch, bald and sporting a goatee and incongruously wearing a white hoodie amongst a sea of black before him, accompanied by the ever-present drum machine/sequencer Doktor Avalanche and guitarists Ben Christo and Chris Catalyst, arrived on stage to an utterly spectacular amount of fake smoke. This scribe hasn’t seen this much fake smoke since he went to a Blue Light Disco as a teenager and the smoke machine spontaneously exploded! The sold out crowd was going utterly mental.
Kicking off with a medley of two brilliant tracks from the band’s back catalogue, “Doctor Jeep” and “Detonation Boulevard”, the excitement level of this crowd didn’t drop one little bit for the next ninety minutes. Ripping through some great tracks from the Sisters back catalogue such as “Amphetamine Logic”, “No Time To Cry” and “Dominion”, along with new material such as “On The Wire”, the band cut a solid figure live both physically and sonically. After all these years, Eldritch is still in fine and distinctive voice, with a truly commanding quality.
There were some criticisms to be levelled at tonight’s performance. The role of Doktor Avalanche, while integral to the band’s sound, really does tend to carbon date them to the 1980s rather than making them sound relevant in the soundscape of the world as it is today. Also, in regards to sound balance between the components of live music, the good Doktor was way too loud and overbearing at times. Also, there was a suspicion that Eldritch had some pre-recorded assistance with his vocals, especially with the screaming. Holding the microphone away when he did so, Edritch’s sounds and actions didn’t quite match up.
However, there were some utterly transcendent moments this evening which more than compensated for the shortcomings. The fog juice, when combined with the lighting, was highly effective and striking, such as the red lights through the fog that made it look and feel like the crowd was on an express elevator to hell. Musically, “Lucretia, My Reflection”, “This Corrosion” and “Vision Thing”, stripped of their studio bombast and overkill, sounded wonderfully organic and urgent.
For this scribe, a spine tingling version of “More” was the high point. This was a moment where, as a fan, you’re like a hyper twelve year old when you hear an all-time favourite song performed live. It was quite a special moment to many people. The band finished the night with a ballistic take on “Temple Of Love”.
While by no means the electrifying, tell the grandkids experience many assembled hoped for, this was a hugely entertaining night. What made it special was the fact that many people across both Melbourne and the rest of the country were united by a wonderful band and the common ground that goes with that. In regards to music, that is something to be cherished and admired.
– Neil Evans
