Temple of Love
Ribbons
Will I Dream
Crash and Burn
When You Don't See Me
We Are The Same, Susanne
Giving Ground
Summer
Dominion/Mother Russia
Slept
Alice
Anaconda Burn <---
Flood
---
Something Fast
Lucretia
---
Top Nite Out
First And Last And Always
Vision Thing
i'f i'm wrong on this, please correct me. i was PSYCHED to hear Burn, though it was a bit shortened. the floor was very empty until the Sisters started up, i suppose it was the drinkers upstairs making their way down later. even during the show the floor was not packed, plenty of room to move. i was up front by the barrier, stage left.
met a nice guy & his girlfriend from Germany, he mentioned reading this forum but i don't think he's a member. he mentioned how mellow US audiences are, and i agreed. i also said the Sisters should have played more upbeat/known songs earlier in the set to get people moving.
The Warlocks performed minus a guitar player. they said he was in the hospital for a kidney problem. they still sounded good, just a bit less "wall of sound" compared to NYC. spoke with the bass player lady, she was sweet (and tall!), told her how much i enjoyed their set.
on the drive home, came THIS CLOSE >< to being t-boned by a car at an intersection, the other driver went thru a red light. a bit of luck, some fast reflexes and good driving skills got us thru the intersection unscathed, if a bit shaken. home by 12:30am this time, not as late as NYC.
Very good show last night. Dave, your set list looks accurate.
Thanks much to Trevor who gave me a lift back to NYC...got in an hour earlier than if I'd stuck with Amtrak.
Hauled butt from work, took the bus, walked up to the venue just as Corpy was arriving. We walked in at 8pm...The Warlocks literally went on at 8:05pm. Saw Trevor milling about, grabbed a beer upstairs.
Venue is nice, has an upper balcony bar on the right side, nice big floor. No coat check (doh!)
EvilBastard---got your t-shirt, sir.
The Warlocks played the same songs, I believe (they sound quite a bit like Interpol, particularly the first track they played, sorry I don't remember song names for them). Lots of smoke...you could see maybe two of the band members. They played about 1/2 hour, 35 mins maybe.
Corpy, Francis and I hung around the back drinking before heading down to the floor when the intro music kicked in. (They were using what sounded like Scientist, some very cool dub, for most of the in-betweens tunes).
First off, the venue looked no way near sold-out. A lot of room on the floor, even after The Sisters went on. We hung back just in front of the mixing desk, toward the middle of the floor, could see everything. A lot of space behind us, some very unexcited goths, arms folded, watching (goth obligation to attend a Sisters gig, of course.)
Corpy and I moved up later on since there was so much room, we got pretty close. More HLanders in the front.
The crowd was pretty subdued early on, looked like half the folks were on Thorazine. A lot of people stayed upstairs on the balcony, where you could sit and drink...I don't get it though, there was a ton of room on the floor, the whole back of the venue was wide open. Anyone know the capacity of Electric Factory?
Sound: Way better than NYC, first thing we noticed. (Course, could be where we were, but others confirmed). Vocals were clearer, everything sounded clearer, a better mix and not the wall of sound we got at Webster Hall which killed some of Von's vocals).
Opened with Temple, very nice. Will I Dream made an appearance, not my fave new track, but sounded good. They mixed up the set list well, added some tracks, mixed the order. Something Fast, When You Don't See Me, very welcome them.
Biggest surprise of the night was Burn---when it kicked in, I thought it was a revamped Floorshow or (maybe, just maybe) a new song. Very welcome to hear it, though cut short. Top Nite Out, excellent once again---Chris and Ben having a lot of fun with that, bouncing around like metalheads.
The crowd definitely picked up as the show went on. There were still a lot of folded arms, though, staring at the stage. One guy behind me did not move during any song...music critic? Thorazine, perhaps?
However, a mosh pit did form right by Corpy and I by the end (Vision Thing), so we got to toss some revelers around for a bit. It was mostly the people in front of the stage who got excited (of course), but as I mentioned, people warmed up, just seemed like they could have packed more people in there (deceiving because of amount of balcony-goers).
Show wrapped up at 11pm, pretty prompt---does Philly have different laws/rules for venues and booked bands? HLanders hung on the floor for a bit (hello Eva!), very cool.
Just a really good show, really good sound---would love a copy of it if it floats about. Would see a show at Electric Factory again for sure.
Trevor, thanks again, cool to hear Sisters oddities on the ride back. Great to see folks again.
NY-area HLanders, don't be strangers. As I mentioned, I'd be at the shows either way, but was nice to meet up with fellow fan(atics) and talk it up and enjoy the loud noises together.
I'm in better shape than the other morning here at work. Got my long sleeve t, am quite pleased.
Francis, do tell us of the Toronto gig.
And so Von's weekend job just rolls on. Do we really think he's trying to lure a record company to pony up cash for an album? Or does 52 dates mean he's trying to stack up some cash to live out his days and retire the machine?
I think they'll tour again...the man is a songwriter, a singer, this is his thing...do we really think he's gonna stay home with the cats forever? I will say...if we don't get some kind of new action by the time he's 50 (magic number, maybe), then I might believe he's packing it in. The band needs a believer somewhere with $$$...somebody at a big label. Problem is, Von's name is probably mud in the industry, there's little incentive to sign them on now for a few million, blah blah blah. But hey, have been surprised this year so far. You never know. We take what we can get, and I'm quite pleased this week.
davedecay wrote:
met a nice guy & his girlfriend from Germany, he mentioned reading this forum but i don't think he's a member. he mentioned how mellow US audiences are, and i agreed. i also said the Sisters should have played more upbeat/known songs earlier in the set to get people moving.
Well, he is, was nice to meet you Dave
I found the beginning of the show almost eerily quiet...like, the Sisters just walking out on stage without much smoke at all, starting to play Temple of love, the "crowd" (I wandered from the back of the venue to the stage in about 10 seconds) looks up to see what's going on and after a while continue chatting to each other
Burn was a highlight, but even better was Lucretia, for me the by far best song of the gig! It sounds MUCH better now than last year. The band was tight and good as usual, but as a gig experience in total, this was way below anything I have ever seen in Europe. Ben didn't even care to look the least interested for the first 6-7 songs, but as the show went along he started to enjoy himself, and seeing the last encore makes me realise that these new young guys are the best that have happened to the Sisters in a long time!
One of the songs had a completely new guitar solo by Ben, but I cannot remember which one (either Flood II, Something fast or Dominion I think).
Electrochrome wrote:Just a really good show, really good sound---would love a copy of it if it floats about.
We have uploaded some individual MP3s from the second half of the show. From where we were standing, the bass drum was freakishly loud, and the guitars not nearly loud enough. This difficulty is reflected in the MP3s, which are of dubious quality (the bits from the night prior in DC were decidedly cleaner sounding).
Nevertheless, still better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Or something.
NOTE: You need to click "download this link," or whatever, a couple of times before the actual download page will emerge. Such is free file hosting...
Chairman BOX, unlike Chairman Bax, is not watching you.
Although we, much like the BORG, are a collective-
excepting only that our brains pulse with funk, love, and napalm.
@ Electrochrome - thanks for the review! I'm glad to read that Francis and Eva are enjoying and alive and well. For the life of me can't understand why people are not going crazy on the dance floor?!?
Come to Europe Sisters....we know how to party!
@ Chairman BOX - thank you for your effort!
it's all about circles and spirals
that ongoing eternity
Valentine wrote:Or "If 2000 people all sucked in right now, we'd lose this smoke"
You could be right. So does that mean he thought there wasn't enough smoke? There was certainly lots more at Washington, choreographed very effectively with the lights and sound. Somehow we got talking to the guys who supplied the smoke machines at the end of the show. Apparently they'd asked for 5 smoke machines but only got 3 "cos that was way too much anyway". And he said they'd watered down the mix as well. He was a very friendly guy but I now know far more about smoke machines than is good for me.
Anyways, what do you reckon Mr Eldritch shouted at the end then Val?
And you know that she's half crazy but that's why you want to be there.
Sound blah blah Burn blah blah smoke blah blah Eldritch needs a glass of milk blah blah blahdittyblah.
The important thing here is that I got to meet Ben, and not only is he pretty as a picture, he's such a sweetheart. I'm thinking of promoting him to 'future third ex-husband' status.
Thanks for all the reviews, guys (+ girl)
Electrochrome, it was nice indeed to drive back + discuss The Sisters for 2 hours...
It's been a busy day for me today, but I will post some thoughts on Philly on this thread later tonight, perhaps tomorrow... I firmly believe it's every Heartländers' solemn duty to post thoughts and observations of gigs they see but others did not... I know I'll look forward to reviews from the rest of the tour.
Trevor
there was a guy at the philly show standing 2nd row, almost dead center, talking to an 11-year-old girls long-haired dad. i overheard you say you've got every vinyl release except Damage Done 7". Are you on this list? 30 yrs old, glasses, dark hair and a blazer i think, knew all the new songs... Anyway, you here?
