Heartland

I was there .... in Leeds
The 16th and 17th
It was great
For me it was the first time that I did visit the home town.
Did meet nice persons...good memories...
The Dry Docks was a great meeting point.

Then the 22nd in Brussel.
AB, what a great place.
And what an awesome gig.
It did rock

I did drive home that night.
From Brussel to Almere.
Thinking over this evening.

23 February, driving to Tilburg.
Meeting up with my friends Bart and Wouter.
Birthday present ... a ticket for the concert and a nice diner

A great concert it was in 013.
I enjoyed it very much.
And some specials suprise that John was there

Thank to all of you who I did meet on these great days and concerts and who did make it realy a great one.
Thanks to Andrew, Chris and Ben for all the good things

For the book of good memories

Hope to see you all in the future
and now waiting .... until the next one

-------------------------------------------

Leeds 2, Vienna, and Paris were immensely entertaining.

Best tour I've seen.

Great tour! 8.5 out of ten is fine with me!

Oh and I loved the Barbie Doll, so cute!
And I danced with a very cool woman from Japan, and I got drunk with a very cool man from New Zealand, and it's so amazing that the love for The Sisters is what made them come over from so far away, and that thanks to this love so much rapport appears between people from so far apart within minutes! (Mind you I don't usually write here about rapport between people, so if I do I must be feeling really mellow and soft and moved )
And the sparkles between the stage and the audience both at the begining of the first gig in Leeds and at the end of the last one in Paris! The overwhelming "so good to see you again" vibe at the first one. The atmosphere at the end of the last one, with the entire band taking the final bow and Mr E in such a cheerful mood and so aware of his worth yet still so humble. It was so f**king moving that my eyes actually get slightly wet (in a very pleasant and warm and exhilarating way) whenever I recall it.
This huge amount of positive energy which I received will now keep me going for many weeks!

Any news on Stateside appearances???

I did the first 4. REALLY liked first night in Leeds and second night in Brussels. But then again I always enjoy their shows:)

I can only agree with all the positive comments, much better than 2004 tour

But seriously...been to both Brussels and Berlin, three different shows with different openers and setlists (unbelievable!), all of them very good (BXL II rocked most, of course...), and from reviews I can only guess all other shows were more or less excellent too.

Such a short tour maybe little bit disappointment for the most enthusistic fans (greetings to Emma! ), but iit is much better for keeping band's (or let's admit it, 's) energy on high volume. Much better to have 10 or something top shows than dozens of "standard" ones like in 2006....

And, of course, whole approach of Nurse and Co. was probably the biggest pleasure. Good old songs are back, new covers (at least) are in, innovations in setlist ("false end" with Flood II really worked...) and top performances of now very well harmonized band... Thanks!

How do I rate this tour? Entirely PERFECT ...






* it will surely take me some more days to come down from all this meanwhile slightly straining euphoria
and to reach the realms of silence and relieve for more than an hour ... ah, soon, soon ... good night, best wishes, relax, recreate ... shut up ... and see you tomorrow ... ...

The two gigs we went to in Leeds were great, and met a few more heartlanders than in the Spa.. Looks like the band is back up to full tilt.... Just waiting for it to hit 11.

I only went to the first night in Leeds but, I have to say from the evidence of that night and the recordings of 2010/11, the band is back on form and better than at any time since as far back as 2000 or perhaps even 1998.

Since Feb 16 I've been trying to make sense of this reversal, and I think there are a number of things that are contributing.

- Andrew has truly got his voice back and actually appears to be enjoying himself. He's singing better than any time since 2001 or 2002.

- As for the guitarists, I've always thought Chris's playing was right for the Sisters. At the outset, Ben's playing was too sylised (in a bad way, like over-using squealy harmonics) for my taste but he seems to have increasingly aligned his style to the Sisters sound over the years. I've recently been listening closely to the lead guitar parts on a number of songs in their various 2006 - 2011 versions and the change is obvious. For example, the early efforts at On The Wire were painful to listen to - the lead guitar part murdered the song - but the performances of OTW on this tour have been stormingly brilliant. This year, Ben has even brought some brilliant new touches to the songs - the opening of Kiss The Carpet, for instance.

Basically, the guitar parts, and consequently the songs in general, 'sound right' to me once again.

- The arrangements and sonic textures of many of the songs (not just the guitar parts) seem to have been seriously worked on. And the set lists are so much more interesting. I thought that the new versions of Kiss The Carpet and More were just perfect.

- Like a lot of people are saying, and it's hard to know for sure, but there does seem to be more of the feeling that the Sisters are a real band again rather than just The Andrew Eldritch Show.

All in all, I'm blown away by Sisters XXX ... and I can't wait to see them again.

the sisters did a fine job on theri XXX indeed.

by far the best guitar sound this lineup ever had, and a much better balance (i still don't understand some of the settings of previous tours).
andrews voice (almost constantly) good in the mix (- his voice has not got stronger, its simply better in the mix).
lots of interesting songs (although due to obsessive beahviour its not allowed to include too many "new" tracks into one set, just not to confuse the audience of course.
abbreviating the songs is still a pity. there exists a speed limit even for tracks!

all in all really great (thx for all the recordings!). looking forward to the next one to materialise!

andrew, do it!

great setlists, good voice, good sound, seems like fun was had. don't like Ben's high voice, sorry. miss live bass. could have been more special as in song choice but overall very happy. I had nearly given up but they proved me wrong. Eldritch has his 90 ies voice back instead of the noughties mumble. Bring on the 60th gigs

mandrake wrote:Bring on the 60th gigs

will you supply the zimmer frame or shall i?

I must say that this was the best tour since early 2000 or even 1998, Andrew on top form and sound and visuals (not filmic delights!) were super. Kiss the Carpet and More being the highlights. I want more.

TheBoyNextDoor wrote:I want more.

Moi aussi.

I think the short version of MORE (and Floorshow, Lucretia etc. ) it´s a shame!

saw both Leeds are thought they were awesome. I felt a real communal sense of the band and the audience feeding of each other - which I don't get as much in the UK as the mainland (maybe that's a yorkshire thang!?) Even on the bootlegs, there's almost a palpable sense of eurphoria coming of the crowd in waves & that continues throughout the tour...

Definately since they bit the bullet(!) there has been a huge upturn over the last few years and it feels they're hitting yet another peak! Roll on Dublin in November!