Post-gig, Washington DC

[Ozpat]

Very nice review Martin!

[Ghostrider]

great review.. fun to read..

i realy hope soneone is recording all of thise and is willing to share them.. appart from DrG's great recording and some lower quality youtube things i haven't heard a thing from this tour yet.. and we're past 7 gigs..

i wanna hear the spangled banner.. i need to hear Logic.. damned

[6FeetOver]

16. Does Andrew appear to me mouthing things or having lip quivers more than in the past? I just do not recall that from previous tours. I do not mean lip-synching, in case anyone wants to chase that bus, but rather lip movements while not singing. It was not the entire time, either, perhaps mainly during slower tracks.

You know, I noticed that, too, and it concerned me. Do you think it's some kind of tic?

[bismarck]

16. Does Andrew appear to me mouthing things or having lip quivers more than in the past? I mean lip movements while not singing.

You know, I noticed the same thing. My first thought was: this must be why some people thought he was lip-syncing during the last US tour. Ve-e-ery interesting.

[bismarck]

i realy hope soneone is recording all of thise and is willing to share them.. appart from DrG's great recording and some lower quality youtube things i haven't heard a thing from this tour yet.. and we're past 7 gigs..

i wanna hear the spangled banner.. i need to hear Logic.. damned

There's a whole thread called Audio from 2008/2009 Tour with some mp3s from New York and New Haven.

[a violet whining sound]

Unlike your typical big-name, big-venue show, I was able to show up, buy my ticket (25 bucks) at the box office, and get in the "line" at spot #~15 at about 6:45, with doors opening at 7. Being among the first to arrive, I was able to claim my spot in front of the stage, 3 places left of center. The opening act was Hypernova (5 guys from Iraq, interestingly enough) and they rocked the house pretty well. Their audio was, in fact, better quality and way louder than the Sisters! Yes, sad but true.

I was so dismayed at the lack of volume--what with my ability to hear full conversations going on around me, and Ben Christo (the guitar player) right in front of me literally looking like he was in an air guitar competition--that I just had to join in the chant (so to speak): "turn it up!" "louder!!" When I yelled during the intro to "This Corrosion" that it "needs more guitar", Andrew Eldritch finally told me, over the mic and from the stage, "if you want to mix it (points to me), you need to be back there (points to the mixing booth in the back)." I finally shut up, and thankfully the audio output slowly did improve. I still complain that the pre-recorded drum tracks (courtesy of Doktor Avalanche) and murky vocals made for a dull output as opposed to a clean, crisp (and loud, in a rock concert sort of way) sound. The guy next to me thanked them for a fun puppet show. Ha!

After the show, I got the sound booth copy of the setlist and they played all the classics, with only a couple of notable exceptions. Here's what they played:
Crash + Burn / Ribbons / Train/Detonation Boulevard / Flood I / Marian (version) / Alice / Anaconda / Giving Ground / This Corrosion / Susanne / Dominion/Mother Russia / Summer / Still / First and Last and Always / Never Land (a fragment) / Flood II ///// Something Fast / Vision Thing ///// Lucretia My Reflection / Top Nite Out / Temple of Love

Here's what I thought was missing (in addition to the sadly limited sonic experience I already described): Body Electric, Floor Show, Black Planet, Walk Away, No Time To Cry, Nine While Nine, Amphetamine Logic and the fantastic cover of Pink Floyd's "Uncomfortably Numb". That was a pleasant (to me, anyway) surprise at their January 1998 gig in Munich, Germany. This was only my second Sisters show ever. Overall, I was pleased with the setlist. And you know going into it that they only have ~90 minutes. I also don't mind that they overlooked their first single from Vision Thing, "More."

[Silver_Owl]

Black Planet

Well, there's a first time for everything.

Welcome aboard anyway and thanks for the review.

[itnAklipse]

I was pleased with the setlist.

Nice that you approve!

Whiner.

[6FeetOver]

I was pleased with the setlist.

Nice that you approve!

Whiner.

I wonder - can anyone here at Heartland even breathe without being subjected to your vitriol?! Get a life, Jouni, ffs.

[Martin]

Very nice review Martin!

Heee... You're welcome...

[bismarck]

THanks for the review violent whining sound, was good to read. Too bad about the volume. This is a perennial problem with The Sisters since about 2003. I'm pretty sure that the volume problem is due to Eldritch's voice: he sings very very softly, so the mic has to be turned up very very loud. It's potted about as high as it can be without feeding back... which isn't so high. So the rest of the mix (music) has to be correspondingly low in volume to make his vocals even as audible as they are. This would explain why the mix might get worse as the tour goes on: his voice is strong in the beginning, so the music can be loud. But as his voice weakens a week or two in, he projects less volume, and the the music has to dip too. The sound in Philadelphia and New York was great and loud... but then problems started becoming evident. Shame.

I was pleased with the setlist.

Nice that you approve!
Whiner.

Oh, and don't worry about this cocksucker. He's there to be ignored.

Edit:
I went back and read a piece of my post after 2006's NYC gig. Here (in part) is what I thought then:

My first, overwhelming impression as the good Doktor thumped out the opening beats of FALAA was that the sound was waaay too low. If I had been listening to my stereo at home I would've turned it up quite a bit. The Warlocks sounded great and loud, so I know it wasn't the sound system. Something seemed wrong. I mentioned this to Eva but she seemed unperturbed... was I imagining this? I know the vocals always sound low in the front rows because the PA speakers are usually positioned behind the 3rd row or so (and way above), but this problem was about much more than just the vocals. I could have and hear ordinary conversations without shouting... was I going to be disappointed all night? The vocals were indeed low in an already too-quiet mix. The only sound I heard with appropriate volume was Chirs's guitar, but that was because I was listening to his amplifier on the stage. Ben, on the other side of the stage, was virtually inaudible. hmmm.
...
Unfortunately the sound problems were never remedied and the entire show seemed to me as if it was played on "5" when it ought to have been played at "10" (or "11"). This, to me, was a HUGE disappointment. I have been vacillating about going to see the band play Philly tomorrow, but I think I will go in the hopes that they can get the sound right this time. This is rock and roll: we want it f**king LOUD please! We want to hear our ears ring for days afterwards!

So... seems the problem is back.

[DancingtheGhost]

in regards to the "lip movements"....I noticed it but didn't give it much thought at the time. During a few songs (in Philly), it looked like he may have been doing it to keep track of where in the song they were, so he'd know when to come in with his vocals. I'm sorry....I know I didn't express that too clearly! At other times, it looked like he may have needed something to drink. Dry mouth? Anyway, I wouldn't have given it much thought if it hadn't been mentioned here...thought it was my imagination. It is very obvious that there is no lip-syncing going on though!

[Petseri]

in regards to the "lip movements"....I noticed it but didn't give it much thought at the time. During a few songs (in Philly), it looked like he may have been doing it to keep track of where in the song they were, so he'd know when to come in with his vocals.

Expressed perfectly well. That is more or less the conclusion to which I came as well. I am glad that someone else noticed.

[DancingtheGhost]

@Petseri...glad you understood what I meant Another thought on it...lack of cigarettes? Perhaps when he is doing that would be the times when he'd normally be taking a drag? Philly was a non-smoking venue & I'm sure most of the other venues have been like that. Add that to the idea that Von has actually given them up and it could make sense. Would also explain alot of the hand movements. Just a thought.

[Kommandok]

Hmmmm...
Von's got a cold already?
Could it be American air conditioning in hotels? Tour bus?
Or is he being bad?

[Kommandok]

And 's quit smoking, too?
Wow!
Hell's frozen over!

[7anthea7]

And 's quit smoking, too?
Wow!
Hell's frozen over!

If he has, it's been recent. It was definitely making him majorly pissy when he was last in Seattle that this city has banned smoking in clubs. And as a former smoker with many still-smoking friends, I kind of agree. On the other hand, I don't have emphysema either...

[Petseri]

Here is a clip of Hypernova opening at the 9:30 Club.

[Prescott]

Unlike your typical big-name, big-venue show, I was able to show up, buy my ticket (25 bucks) at the box office, and get in the "line" at spot #~15 at about 6:45, with doors opening at 7. Being among the first to arrive, I was able to claim my spot in front of the stage, 3 places left of center. The opening act was Hypernova (5 guys from Iraq, interestingly enough) and they rocked the house pretty well. Their audio was, in fact, better quality and way louder than the Sisters! Yes, sad but true.

I was so dismayed at the lack of volume--what with my ability to hear full conversations going on around me, and Ben Christo (the guitar player) right in front of me literally looking like he was in an air guitar competition--that I just had to join in the chant (so to speak): "turn it up!" "louder!!" When I yelled during the intro to "This Corrosion" that it "needs more guitar", Andrew Eldritch finally told me, over the mic and from the stage, "if you want to mix it (points to me), you need to be back there (points to the mixing booth in the back)." I finally shut up, and thankfully the audio output slowly did improve. I still complain that the pre-recorded drum tracks (courtesy of Doktor Avalanche) and murky vocals made for a dull output as opposed to a clean, crisp (and loud, in a rock concert sort of way) sound. The guy next to me thanked them for a fun puppet show. Ha!

After the show, I got the sound booth copy of the setlist and they played all the classics, with only a couple of notable exceptions. Here's what they played:
Crash + Burn / Ribbons / Train/Detonation Boulevard / Flood I / Marian (version) / Alice / Anaconda / Giving Ground / This Corrosion / Susanne / Dominion/Mother Russia / Summer / Still / First and Last and Always / Never Land (a fragment) / Flood II ///// Something Fast / Vision Thing ///// Lucretia My Reflection / Top Nite Out / Temple of Love

Here's what I thought was missing (in addition to the sadly limited sonic experience I already described): Body Electric, Floor Show, Black Planet, Walk Away, No Time To Cry, Nine While Nine, Amphetamine Logic and the fantastic cover of Pink Floyd's "Uncomfortably Numb". That was a pleasant (to me, anyway) surprise at their January 1998 gig in Munich, Germany. This was only my second Sisters show ever. Overall, I was pleased with the setlist. And you know going into it that they only have ~90 minutes. I also don't mind that they overlooked their first single from Vision Thing, "More."

1. Hypernova is not from Iraq, rather they left Iran a few years back so they could come here to be free to be rock gods.

2. Sorry about the sound there. In 2006 it was too loud and boomy at the 9:30 so maybe they over-reacted in the opposite direction?

3. Pink Floyd's masterpiece is called "Comfortably Numb" and the Sisters have covered that song in combination with a truncated Some Kind of Stranger.

4. They have never played "Black Planet" live. Ben Christo has covered "Walk Away" though in one of his other bands, maybe you'd like that?

5. The Drum Machine/Sampler/half-ton-of-computerized equipment known as Doktor Avalanche I would say does not quite qualify as merely "pre-recorded drums". I think most Sisters fans would hate a live drummer since there has never been one besides Andrew himself almost 28 years ago. As far as the "murky vocals", that part of your review is still debatable, but unfortunately it does seem hit or miss. Maybe it has to do with his mood?

[Kommandok]

Lol!
Yeah..I remember his words.
"This is one f**ked up state"
And "Sorry..I needed a cigarette"
Gotta love him!