SF Review
Posted: 29 Mar 2006, 06:26
(I posted this to Dominion, as well, so sorry for the repeat, to the Dominion subscribers)...
Hi,
The Sisters are one of my favorite bands, I've enjoyed to Floodland hundreds of times, and I own all of the albums. I also saw them the last time they came to SF, at the Maritime Hall. This was a very good show. Andrew put on a good show, and the people watching was fantastic. The fans really get into character.
Anyway, the SF show at the Warfield was a MAJOR disappointment. My wife and I bought late, and ended up with balcony seating. For the first song, we could see only fog and a few lights. The smoke was actually pouring out of the balcony entrance, it was so strong. For the second song, one of the guitarists was BARELY visible. For the first four songs, Andrew was not visible at all. Not even a hand or a flash of light, just billowing smoke. We decided not to stay. On the way out, during the fifth song, we checked downstairs, from the back. We saw the guitarists, up front, but still no lead singer was visible. And the smoke wasn't getting any better. I can't say the sound was all that great. I didn't recognize the playlist until the 3rd song, at which point I was so mad I wasn't able to enjoy the music.
There were a number of other fans in the lobby with similar complaints about the smoke.
We went out to find the manager, who was not in his office upstairs. From the ticket booth, we demanded, and received, our money back for the face value of the tickets from the venue, around the fifth song or so. We are still out $22 to Ticketmaster, and I am still pretty pissed off about the whole event. The Warfield apologized profusely, and told us over and over again "it's not our fault, it's what the artist requested." I explained that this may have been what the artist requested, but I paid for a show, and I wasn't paying $95 to stare at smoke all night. Atmosphere is fine, but this was just out and out ridiculous. I kept wondering if Eldritch was even on stage, or back in his dressing room (or in Hawaii, for that matter).
A friend who was downstairs in front says he showed up later in the concert, but from the pictures I've seen on the net, I doubt if we'd have seen him in the balcony. This is conjecture, of course.
We had no trouble at all seeing the band the last time around, in Maritime Hall, so I take exception to the, "you just don't know the Sisters, they use lots of smoke" explanation, promulgated by a lot of fans, many of which don't even say whether they attended this show. We could BARELY see the guitarist, and of Eldritch, NOTHING AT ALL.
Anyway, that was our experience. Other tour locations may be different, we only saw this concert.
-Gregory
Hi,
The Sisters are one of my favorite bands, I've enjoyed to Floodland hundreds of times, and I own all of the albums. I also saw them the last time they came to SF, at the Maritime Hall. This was a very good show. Andrew put on a good show, and the people watching was fantastic. The fans really get into character.
Anyway, the SF show at the Warfield was a MAJOR disappointment. My wife and I bought late, and ended up with balcony seating. For the first song, we could see only fog and a few lights. The smoke was actually pouring out of the balcony entrance, it was so strong. For the second song, one of the guitarists was BARELY visible. For the first four songs, Andrew was not visible at all. Not even a hand or a flash of light, just billowing smoke. We decided not to stay. On the way out, during the fifth song, we checked downstairs, from the back. We saw the guitarists, up front, but still no lead singer was visible. And the smoke wasn't getting any better. I can't say the sound was all that great. I didn't recognize the playlist until the 3rd song, at which point I was so mad I wasn't able to enjoy the music.
There were a number of other fans in the lobby with similar complaints about the smoke.
We went out to find the manager, who was not in his office upstairs. From the ticket booth, we demanded, and received, our money back for the face value of the tickets from the venue, around the fifth song or so. We are still out $22 to Ticketmaster, and I am still pretty pissed off about the whole event. The Warfield apologized profusely, and told us over and over again "it's not our fault, it's what the artist requested." I explained that this may have been what the artist requested, but I paid for a show, and I wasn't paying $95 to stare at smoke all night. Atmosphere is fine, but this was just out and out ridiculous. I kept wondering if Eldritch was even on stage, or back in his dressing room (or in Hawaii, for that matter).
A friend who was downstairs in front says he showed up later in the concert, but from the pictures I've seen on the net, I doubt if we'd have seen him in the balcony. This is conjecture, of course.
We had no trouble at all seeing the band the last time around, in Maritime Hall, so I take exception to the, "you just don't know the Sisters, they use lots of smoke" explanation, promulgated by a lot of fans, many of which don't even say whether they attended this show. We could BARELY see the guitarist, and of Eldritch, NOTHING AT ALL.
Anyway, that was our experience. Other tour locations may be different, we only saw this concert.
-Gregory
