May 2 - London Astoria

Johnny M · 03 May 2006, 01:11

markreed wrote:The Sisters played for 80 minutes.

Hmm ... someone in the know had quoted me a two hour Sissies set being performed the night before.

Care to comment?

hellboy69 · 03 May 2006, 01:12

OK. "Flood" was the point at which the gig ran into trouble.

A shame, as "Crash & Burn" was incendiary, beautiful & perfect. "Ribbons" doubly so.

But back to "Flood". No-one could hear Von at this point. Apart from maybe Von himself through the monitors and insane fog barrier. Yes the fog was more than last year. MUCH more. And i like fog, really i do!

Anyway. The pit-crowd were shouting "Up! Up! Up!"

(A friend actually thought they were shouting "Off! Off! Off!")

to which, Von replied, "Well, i can't hear YOU either..." But after that, for a coupla songs at least, there was a marked (ie: upwardly mixed) improvement in vocal levels.

This was my 8th Sisters show since Reading Festival & was the 2nd worst. Funny thing is, the worst show was the Exxile show at the Astoria ~ so maybe the venue is to blame??? :p "Smoke & Mirrors" at the Forum was one of the best, absolutely. To quote one lass at the bar, "I can't see 'em, and i can't hear 'em ~ maybe i should've spent the money on some booze and played my Sisters CDs at home with the lights off" hehehehe.

They did pull it back for "Lucretia", Neverland" & "Temple" and funnily enough, "Top Nite Out" was one of the best performances! But i wanna hear The Von!!!

Overall, i still love the Sisters & am proud to wear my Bullet shirt tomorrow. Don't get me wrong. But i felt that Von just couldn't be arsed tonight, and that felt sad. I really felt that he couldn't be bothered to sing half the f**king lyrics, and not in an "oh go on guys, you sing them with me" kind of way, he just couldn't be bothered! The show he's hearing onstage is apparently vastly different than the one we're paying Â£20+ to hear. I know someone who works right next to the Astoria & so hears all the soundchecks ~ she's also a massive Sisters fan. Lucky lucky, you might think!

But guess what kids? The support band soundchecked twice. And the Sisters? Not a peep was heard, aside from some Nurse action, ~ all day... Goes to show eh?

Less smoke, posturing, fancy costumes, and PLEASE more professionalism Mr Eldritch. Do a soundcheck, sort the f**ker out dude.

*So many* people complaining on the way out, i wonder if they'll be playing the ULU next time?

If they play the Forum, i'll be there of course

markreed · 03 May 2006, 01:17

it was Good, but not Great. I'll be at Nottingham & Glasgow.

markreed · 03 May 2006, 01:18

Johnny M wrote:
markreed wrote:The Sisters played for 80 minutes.
Hmm ... someone in the know had quoted me a two hour Sissies set being performed the night before.

Care to comment?

they came on at 9.09 and were done by 10.28.

James Blast · 03 May 2006, 01:24

The Jesus and Mary Chain used to do 15min gigs, Bruce Springsteen has been known to play for over 3hrs, I ain't complaining

Johnny M · 03 May 2006, 01:25

Comments from Amsterdam and tonight is that he's looking tired and sounding very jaded. And no wonder after this marathon jaunt.

So the UK can expect the dregs ... again. See previous UK gig post above.

Johnny M · 03 May 2006, 01:29

markreed wrote:
Johnny M wrote:
markreed wrote:The Sisters played for 80 minutes.
Hmm ... someone in the know had quoted me a two hour Sissies set being performed the night before.

Care to comment?
they came on at 9.09 and were done by 10.28.

not aimed at you. i was told last night that they were gonna do a two hour set as back in blighty. sadly it's still the 80min euro pop 'take the money and run' type thing.

DGP00666 · 03 May 2006, 01:33

If we continue this way, the aborted Barcelona show I had the luck to attend is going to result the most vibrating and least predictable gig off this tour.

Hey, they played Burn after all

richmagpies · 03 May 2006, 01:50

Had a good time with the guys and girls in Ben Crouch's - Paul, mick, from sarf london nice to meet you and the others whose names i forget!!! forgive me! overall thought it was a bit quiet but i guess vons voice may be giving out after 40 odd gigs...dominion was great...if i sounded out of tune.....tough... oh and to the people who complained and had a go at us when we bumped into them whilst dancing...get a life u sad fvcks..its a gig, not a fvcking wake.....

perish the thought that anyone can have fun at a gig these days....

9while9 · 03 May 2006, 02:32

daggs wrote:Oh well, I'm sorry you didn't have a good night, glad I picked a decent perch I suppose. Are you going to any other UK gigs? Hope its better for you there if you are

Sounds like you blocked all the sound Daggs........

If any of you whiners can speak with out feeling a strain in the vocal
cords then you weren't participating....so go to sleep you ungrateful...

Just my opinion....

godgirl · 03 May 2006, 04:02

well if the venue is going to bar half the guests from entering, the show is going to suck because the two way dialogue between band and audience is gone.

if security thinks i'm a risk on lex's shoulders during rubbons, well, again, more bad blood between band and venue.

and when they won't listen to reason leaving some of us in the bar over the road pretending there's no gig til tomorrow, well, that's just dandy.

sounded ok to me whilst i was there, which was til romeo down. and thanks for bringing back "when you don't see me" in favour of "willl i dream"thanks to random merch bloke for looking after my real gothic co-operative funeral service sponsored football shirt.

marge xxx

aims · 03 May 2006, 08:01

bananacamel wrote:Don't be so blinkered that anything other than 'It's the Sisters, I'm honored' is right.

I think that shows that you haven't read what I said. I couldn't care less what people's personal opinion of the gig was - you're a fan of the band, you paid to get in, you're entitled to critique it. What annoys me is where people haven't bothered to have a look at recent setlists and then bemoan the fact that it wasn't a nostalgia act. Perhaps more annoying though is when people try to prescribe their view as consensus, talking of these imaginary generic folks called "fans". You don't get immediate post-gig consensus amongst 1,000 people. You get it in your 5-10 person cluster, yes, but you haven't gone round asking everyone. If Heartland/Dominion is a representative random sample (which it's fair to say it could be, we have a decent spread of ages, locations and opinions) then there's a split of about 50/50. Yet for some reason, the unhappy ones are far quicker to make sweeping statements about what the "fans" want, seemingly oblivious to the other side of the story.

In short, feel free to state your own objections, but don't try to tell others that they didn't enjoy it

itnAklipse · 03 May 2006, 08:25

Exactly, Motz.

bananacamel · 03 May 2006, 08:32

Motz wrote:In short, feel free to state your own objections, but don't try to tell others that they didn't enjoy it

Yeah, you're right, sorry was a bit pissed last night and dissappointed. I didn't want a nostalgia fest (But let's face it, with the last release over 13 years ago, that's largely what it's going to be) I just wanted to have a good night, like every other sisters gig I've been to.

I'll be at Nottingham though, "Body & Soul" Painted on the back of my jacket, come and say hi

Gromit · 03 May 2006, 08:35

daggs wrote:
bananacamel wrote:The volume was so low
The base was pounding against my chest where were you?!
sorry about the triple post lack of decent vision to post...too tired

Err... this has to be one of the worst sisters gigs i have ever been to..

The sound was rubbish... even Von said that "Even I can't hear myself" to the sound level..

And I was standing in front of the speaker stacks to the right.. (about 3 m from the speakers..)

The sound only corrected to the Astoria normal level during something fast!...

smoke was OK .. its what you expect from a Sisters gig..

The place was toooooo packed tho...

One thing about the low sound was as mentioned before you could hear people on the dancefloor having conversations and this ruined the atmosphere for the most of the night....

I wanna be swept away by the Sisters not try to decipher the song from the people chatting around me (yes in front of the speakers)...

Set to short as well...

and the man seriously needs to change the set list....

But all in all had a good night and the power of Lucretia made the night... what version was that and where can I get it ...

doctoravalanche · 03 May 2006, 08:44

I think they really need to fire their sound engineer Jurgen Jansen, the Sisters deserve a competent person instead of him .... That's what I think when I read all the complaints about the sound. Even if we are all big fans of the Sisters, we must not be blind, a great sound for everybody in the whole venue (not only in front of the speakers) should be part of a Sisters show.

hellboy69 · 03 May 2006, 08:57

doctoravalanche wrote:I think they really need to fire their sound engineer Jurgen Jansen, the Sisters deserve a competent person instead of him .... That's what I think when I read all the complaints about the sound. Even if we are all big fans of the Sisters, we must not be blind, a great sound for everybody in the whole venue (not only in front of the speakers) should be part of a Sisters show.

That's fair comment ~ and i agree, "Lucretia" really truly kicked in. That was special.

My main beef is with Eldritch's apparent lack of interest ~ that's just very disheartening and uninspiring from a God of Rawk

Maybe he was just having an off day? Happens to the best of us. Oh, and yes, i hollered along with the best of 'em, but colour me old fashioned, i like to hear the vocalist singing at a gig

Ben & Robo were fricking excellent though. Maybe the future for The Sisters is singalongasisters, karaoke style ~ Eldritch won't even have to turn up. Hey, i kiiiiiiiiiiid! I kiiiiiiiiiiiiiid!

I certainly wouldn't try to convince others they didn't enjoy the show ~ how ridiculous is that? And overall, i did enjoy the show! It just pales in comparison to 2003 etc that's all. The antithesis of, say, The Cure show at the Royal Albert Hall recently where the band played for 3hrs 6mins & gave it their absolute all. 110%. And they're old codgers too!

And yes, they've delivered a blistering performance after 40~60 gigs, tired out or not. Hmmm, i wonder who their sound guy is?

Anyway, looking forward to hearing about the rest of the tour ~ have a blast in Leeds etc guys.

Badlander · 03 May 2006, 09:00

Motz wrote:Why is it that people can be arsed searching for a forum to whinge about the gig afterwards but not to have a look at what they're in for beforehand?

I've said it before.

And I'll say it again.

I know I'm seeing things from the skewed viewpoint of coming in late, but this "set list of personal favourites" seems to have been fairly stable over the past few years and people keep paying to see the shows

So true.

Black_Dahlia · 03 May 2006, 10:10

Feeling very diasappointed this morning.

Awful,awful sound and for the first time I truly thought AE looked like a man going simply through the motions (although he may just have been as pissed off as us at the lack of decent sound?) This was the 5th Sisters gig I've been to and definitely the worst - first time my boyfriend had ever seen them and frankly I was embarrassed, having banged on about how great they were. Giving Ground sounded so awful I actually had tears in my eyes.

As already noted, the place was packed (and the Astoria's a sweaty little scumhole at best) and there seemed to be a higher than usual knobhead quota who insisted on elbowing my BF as much as possible (minding his own business at the back I hasten to add) - presumably because he doesnt look "alternative" enough.

I dont think I've ever been to a gig where people were actually asking for their money back.

Highpoints? Dominion, Anaconda and Von's coat!

Beth

Former Utterly Bastard Groovy HL'er in another life

in vino veritas · 03 May 2006, 10:11

The Astoria gig was a real disappointment. I first saw The Sisters back in 1985 and have seen them about 20 times since. I can appreciate that they don't want to be some sort of novelty nostalgia act - and I respect that. But last night they were just bad - and wilfully so.

They played storming versions of Alice, Dominion and Susanne. The rest was just terrible - just really bad pub goth rubbish. What was going on? They showed they could get the sound right on three songs - why not the rest. Were they taking the p*iss?

The Sisters were a big part of my teenage years and I still listen to them more than any other band - but I walked out of the Astoria last night vowing never to see them again.

TheBoyNextDoor · 03 May 2006, 10:24

The sound on this tour has always been better somewhere i the middle.. and then be worse again.

So what does this mean?

My guess it that they have pre-mixed everything on a digital mixing desk (perumably before the tour), and don't bother to mix anything during the gig (or can't?). And it's hard to do anything with those pre-recorded stuff...

markreed · 03 May 2006, 10:34

There was nothing wrong with the sound in itself - but it wasn't LOUD enough. I went upstairs for RomeoDown / Neverland / Corrision, and the sound was just as good there. The visuals were dreadful upstairs, multi coloured shadows wandering in a fog - and the lights are good enough, they don't need all that fog.

Dex · 03 May 2006, 10:35

Feck, the Astoria was a real real disappointment of a gig. Completely lacking in lustre. It's all been said. Even Alice failed to leave me wishing anything other than having stayed in the Ben Crouch. I get better sound in the bath. Yeah, it's a fleapit of a venue but I've seen other bands there really deliver.

TheBoyNextDoor · 03 May 2006, 10:42

markreed wrote:There was nothing wrong with the sound in itself - but it wasn't LOUD enough. I went upstairs for RomeoDown / Neverland / Corrision, and the sound was just as good there. The visuals were dreadful upstairs, multi coloured shadows wandering in a fog - and the lights are good enough, they don't need all that fog.

Mainly I was thinking about the voice not being loud enough, as a bunch of people have pointed out during this tour.

Ok, I experienced the same in MalmÃ¶ - the overall sound not loud enough.
In Copenhagen the sound was almost too loud. My ears are still ringing (especially my left, thanks Ben!).

Bartek · 03 May 2006, 10:48

thanks for all review, but wheres photos