Some people will probably say that the show wasn't great, for example a few of the small group of friends I went with. But I was in awe. For me, a Sisters show is akin to a religious experience.
I will say this, the sound started off pretty bad. Andrew's vocals were barely audible.. After a few people hollered "louder!", Andrew matter of factly directed them to "stand in front of what we call speakers" and informed them that "whatever I say, It doesn't f**king matter."
Throughout the performance he was very animate, stark contrast from his show here two years ago.
We were up front off to the right, and when the second song, Ribbons kicked in, his vocals improved enough that I was satisfied.
The immense wall of fog present in '06 was absent which was nice, affording everyone clear views of the band throughout the majority of the evening.
A particular highlight for me was of Andrew growling out the lyrics of Ribbons while directly behind a pulsing halo of red. Stunning.
The current reworkings of the songs were fabulous, and we were treated to On the Wire and Neverland which were omitted in '06.
Unfortunately Something Fast was cut short about 6 seconds in when The crowd chatter (which was utterly horrible and extremely annoying most of the night) caused Andrew to ask the "dudes and dudettes" to quiet down as he couldn't hear himself think. He asked if we wanted something quiet or something live and promptly switched gears into Vision thing, thereby turning an expected four song double encore into a three song single.
One particular omission was Suzanne, which I really wanted to hear.
Nevertheless, hearing the classics as well as the "new" material was awesome. I especially enjoyed the reworking of Marian and Train/Det. Blvd.
I don't remember the full setlist. Apologies, and also no photos or sound will be forthcoming. I lack the equipment.
As for merchandise, Of course, I bought one of each...
I would like to extend a special thank you to the kind gentleman at the merchandise booth who went back to the tour bus to get me a beanie (I suspect that I was the only one) when I found out that they weren't selling any that night.
All in all, an awesome show!!
I wouldn't have missed it for the world!!
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