Heartland

MortaR wrote:The Sisters Of Mercy - Temple of love (live at Suikerrock, Tienen, Belgium, 01.08.2015)

https://youtu.be/e1bpVkIIpX8

Thanks for this ... ... Temple of Love, nicely measured ... ... it's such a great song with endless potential ... ...

* I also loved the fact that the version with Ofra Haza was played a few minutes before the actual gig ... and that I could hear Marian and Walk Away being played in the streets of Tienen ... ...

And above all, we can all look forward now to another masterpiece by DocSommer ... oh my, the clarity of the first vids is just perfect ... *sigh in entire anticipation ...

damagedone wrote:Great recording,Doc
Yeah,his voice was amazing indeed

His voice sounds STRONGER, but not amazing. Still the same yelling, mumbling, hissing and almost uncomprehensible vocal lines, such a pity...
This sounds more like a trick of the PA than a trick of the man.

Just my opinion of course, glad you all enjoyed the gig

IZ.

Izzy HaveMercy wrote:

damagedone wrote:Great recording,Doc
Yeah,his voice was amazing indeed

His voice sounds STRONGER, but not amazing. Still the same yelling, mumbling, hissing and almost uncomprehensible vocal lines, such a pity...
This sounds more like a trick of the PA than a trick of the man.

Just my opinion of course, glad you all enjoyed the gig

IZ.

I tend to disagree on this one.There was yelling and hissing but not at all to the extend you describe,definitely less than the last year

Thanks for the comments. I had a bit of a lucky day recording-wise. Found a good spot with mostly friendly and calm people pretty close to the front.

I recall the gig as pretty average and wasn't really excited about the show like in 2008 or at MeraLuna 2011. Von did a lot of pressing his voice and if he tries that it does sound like a drunken pirate sometimes -arrrrrgh Other songs wen't a bit sideways when he forgot lyrics or the mixing was bad (like at the beginning) so I won't put that on YT.

The audio recording do sound way better than expected on my end.

It was fun meeting some familiar and new faces so all in all a good trip

Being645 wrote:Thanks for this ... ... Temple of Love, nicely measured ... ... it's such a great song with endless potential ... ...

Grrr

damagedone wrote:Great recording,Doc
Yeah,his voice was amazing indeed

+ 1

meat is murder wrote:pics

Nice pics, thank you.

Oh, thanx for the review and the related stuff to the gig
The Police Car video made my day. I'm impressed:-)
I find myself in Arizona driving my boxy Caprice interceptor through the desert.
So sad that the true times of real music & cars are almost in the past:-)

Got three more vids on my channel


....plus check out the sharing forum...

have to say the first videos looked slightly better, temple of love just proves how much the contemporary guitar setup sucks..
police car just another useless cover, zero energy, unfitting dynamics.

good to know that at least on "festivals" they turn the sound up, unlike a lot of their own club shows.

GG

Phew... they sound good. Great videos!!!

But what about this elusive new material? Maybe they are saving it for the bijou tour this fall?

Hope so, it will be first time I've seen them since Von had hair.

I'll weigh in on the voice quality debate.

In general, I'd give him a 7 out of 10 for voice quality, and that is grading on a bit of a curve. I've heard gigs where you just knew that there was nothing left and this was NOT such a gig. Neither was it the experience of 25 years ago, either...


Von could make some interesting and appealing scowl-like effects, but his voice would periodically completely disappear. Only for a line or two, however. Not for four songs as it was known to do circa 1998 or so.

One thing that really struck me and was confirmed a friend I met this trip: the whole concert was quiet! I was front and center for five hours (to steal another Heartlander's line: I don't drink so I don't pee so I don't lose my space up front), and I had zero hearing loss. Compare that to ministry in SF last month where I stood back and left early and couldn't hear for three days.

I guess that Belgium has laws about volume? I didn't feel enveloped and vibrated by the sound as I like to be, but it was good for the volume they had to use. Good, not perfect.

I think it all comes down to what we compare with - of course his voice cannot reach the levels of the 90s, not even the end of the 90s. On the other hand, comparing to anything he has sung in the Ben&Chris era, I think his voice in Police Car was brilliantly clear. But maybe that says more about his voice in the last 10 years.

It's very evident from this recording that he at least tries to do something about it, like Doc says here:

DocSommer wrote:Von did a lot of pressing his voice and if he tries that it does sound like a drunken pirate sometimes -arrrrrgh

Depending on your view, that might be sad, good, or both. For me, this level is enough, but he should try to avoid songs that require lots of whailing to come out good. I think he did the last cover, Gift that shines, really good for example.

I LOVE the confidence (or whatever it was that he lacked the last few years) with which he goes to loud/melodic parts nowadays, like in I'm A Police Car there. I for one like the mumbling, but if I had a complaint with his singing, it was the lack of dynamic range when it was called for.

centurionofprix wrote:I LOVE the confidence (or whatever it was that he lacked the last few years) with which he goes to loud/melodic parts nowadays, like in I'm A Police Car there. I for one like the mumbling, but if I had a complaint with his singing, it was the lack of dynamic range when it was called for.

I think he did that last year as well in some places, and I just think the tours 2006 to 2012 were too big for his voice to last them, so he didn't dare to go full on. But I agree with you here, I like that he tries now, it's very evident!

DocSommer wrote:....plus check out the sharing forum...

I did ... ... and in fact, in your recording there was no shortened harmonies ... ... so this was an effect of where I was standing... ... The guitars just didn't get fully through there ... swallowed in some overall loop ... doesn't matter for it couldn't spoil my pleasure, anyway ... ...

@Chaotican
I think the loudness effect has technical reasons. The sound during the band before The Sisters was massively vibrating, especially in one track, but that didn't leave any effect on my listening capacities, or maybe it did *see above ... ... No, honetly, ringing ears after any concert seems to me a thing of decades ago, no matter what band, Motörhead included.
As to the vocals, singing is an art, and art usually takes a lot of work. What Andrew did with his voice when records were still recorded was a masterpiece of expression and precision. If you increase the speed in any action you undertake, precision might suffer, in particular when it turns into hurry. Then expression will suffer as well. Expression is, IMHO, also a question of what sense one can make of things, also affecting precision. New songs always make sense ... ...

@Euphoria
Basically agreed. But in 2010, there were the great gigs at Leamington,, Lokeren, M'era Luna Hildesheim and in Sibiu ... wonderful vocals, although quite grim in Romania ... ...
During the Sisters XXX Tour vocals improved with every gig, maybe due to the training effect and some increased motivation like Japan, Australia, New Zealand ... ...

Although i enjoy every gig in the recent past (joy, smoke, energy, atmosphere), I always wonder why their drum patterns still sound like it's '92.

Depeche Mode can re-arrange play songs from ages ago in a way it has that certain refreshed 21th century mood. Why can't The Sisters? It's always that same snare drum sound with a very little set of extra's.

I really like it they did I'm a Police Car, but another band would call this version 'in progress'.

Would you call this an industrial groove machine too?

Re: the voice of
He is more apt to sing in tune these days.

Btw - I noticed that no one mentioned an Andrew spotting, but I'm about 96% sure I saw him while the first band was playing. I was over on the left (the Ben side, which is where I usually hang) and saw him near the front, by the VIP entrance. I wanted to validate and get a closer look but it took awhile to get into proper stalking position and by then, he was gone.

I'm usually dreadful with recognizing faces, but I think I actually nailed it this time, which makes me very proud. (I've been known to fail to pick out family members in a crowd.) if it was him, he was looking around and smiling and nodding.

DocSommer wrote: Von did a lot of pressing his voice and if he tries that it does sound like a drunken pirate sometimes -arrrrrgh

Bad thing is, there is nothing to laugh about that. The angry drunken pirate seems to having taken over voice command, hopefully only for a one off, a bad mixing day, but ...

MortaR wrote:

Being645 wrote:Thanks for this ... ... Temple of Love, nicely measured ... ... it's such a great song with endless potential ... ...

Grrr

Hihi ... do I hear a deep purring underneath or should I take care for my fingers now? ... ...

I would indeed like to use it in the SistersWiki, if you allow for that ... ... of course a NO will be accepted without complaint ... ...

...and so the long, (very) slow decent into nothing continues

The girls are more like a bad Karaoke act with backing tapes and bad vocals. No new songs, disinterested crowd and milking it for every last cent they can

Pays the girls bills I suppose and keep Von in supplies whilst the poor fans spend their annual disposable income allowance on a dying light that does not even rage

They are like a touring , analog streaming service with poor content and no character

deirfiur wrote: Pays the girls bills I suppose and keep Von in supplies whilst the poor fans spend their annual disposable income allowance on a dying light that does not even rage

Yes he does it for the money nowadays which he has admitted several times ("ka-ching", "don't like touring" etc.), no they don't play anything new since 2009, but no, the fans are *not* poor because they can nowadays check youtube and preview what they're buying, which might even mean that most fans seeing them nowadays accept these fact and *still* go see them because they like them enough.
Is that sad? Certainly not more sad than moaning about a situation that has been clear for everyone for several years, waiting for something that will never come, maybe even buying tickets for events they know they won't like?

Whoever says anything, deeds and facts talk. Last Saturday in Tienen showed that the band had a strong and committed fan base and that they were, indeed, fantastic live. However uncomfortable it was to be almost crushed to death merely out of this love, I was all goose bumps hearing the crowd sing together and be in ecstasy. Those who were there know it… and those who were not will never feel the same looking at the recorded vid.

Ah yes - I had similar goosebumps watching two drunks fighting outside my local pub