The Sisters of Mercy @ Phoenix Concert Theatre, Oct 28
Old goths almost dead
BY Liisa Ladouceur October 29, 2008
When The Sisters of Mercy last toured back in 2005, they may have well not even bothered. Rumour has it, between all the fog and vocal effects cloaking the stage, few in the crowd were convinced it was actually Andrew Eldritch (the sole original member) up there. Since then, even Axl Rose and Kevin Shields have been more active — a follow-up to the last Sisters album, 1990’s Vision Thing, has now become more unlikely than Chinese Democracy. And it’s not like Eldritch, Goth’s greatest elder statesman/resident curmudgeon, actually deigned to make public statements: the live dates simply appear without reason or wraith, the band rolling into town like a Stephen King mist. Abandon all hope ye who enter here, indeed….
But it seems Toronto is still filled with folks with a morbid curiosity and a closet of corsets that need wearing, and so the Sisters stepped out of the fog to a fairly full Phoenix — and then proceeded to do as their opening track suggested: “Crash and Burn.� Running through a series of old hits and “new� material — meaning songs written, although never recorded, in this century — at a confusing gallop, it was as though they were trying to speed away from the languid, doom-laden rhythms that define them and get the hell out of there before bedtime.
And by “they,� we’re talking Eldrich and two guitarists and a keyboardist presumably hired for their ability to put up with him, plus the ever faithful Doktor Avalanche, the Sisters drum machine. Unfortunately, the sound mix was awfully heavy on guitarist/back-up vocalist Ben Christo (who lists Danger Danger and Bon Jovi among his influences, and seemed to be lifted straight from a Carnival Cruise hair metal band), perhaps to mercifully cover up Eldritch’s lack of anything resembling a vocal performance. Nail, meet coffin.
Since the whole point of a nostalgia show is to feel good about the old days, not depressed, one could be forgiven for spending that first 40 sad minutes dreaming of alternate scenerios for a Sisters show: Andrew reunites with both That Guitarist and Patricia Morrison; Andrew hosts a live version of Am I Goth Or Not. Hell, Andrew giving a PowerPoint presentation on how he can afford all that fog would be more appealing than this rote race through “First and Last and Always.�
And then, on the new song “Romeo Down,� something happened: Eldritch turned on the Goth God. Finally, the right balance of growls and yowls and glorious musical gloom that segued into the seductive “Flood 2� and even carried through into the cock rock of “Vision Thing.� And in a fine finishing move, a shortened version of “Lucretia� stripped down to the raw nerve, closing with ye olde singalong, “Temple of Love.�
There’s an old joke that goth’s not dead, it just looks that way. Same could be said of the Sisters, but for a few moments at least, they breathed a little life into the old corpse.
Original source here: http://www.eyeweekly.com/music/liveeye/article/43741
