Posted: 01 Jan 1970, 01:00
okay, it's in the wrong list but hey
Silver machine was only performed once - 10/07/93
Hope Bat doesn't mind but this is a review of his I dug up tonight, kind of sets the scene I think. Anyway, read on.
Losheim festival. Did anybody else make this ? One of the tougest and
most uncomfortable Sisters gig trips I've ever done. I left thursday
morning and only got back last night. Losheim itself is tiny, on a
back road up in the hills and generally the middle of nowhere. It is
served by one bus from Metzier which doesnt run on a sunday so there was no
way of getting back to civilization after the gig. It was also bloody cold
and we nearly had one person get hypothermia sleeping on the street afterwards.
Not nice, not nice at all. I hope I never have to do another gig there as long
as I live.
The festival itself was very small. I dont know what I expected, but there
can't have been more than a couple of thousand people there at most. It was
just a small open air stage set up at one end of a sloping grassy field
beside a lake about 25 minutes walk from the town. I was stunned when I saw
the size of it, though the PA set up was as good as much larger gigs. In
fact the sound in general was excellent. I dont really have much of a clue
as to who most of the first bands were since they seemed to put them on in a
random order. Some sounded o.k., but most were pretty dire. Special mention
must got to the reggae band for being one of the worst acts I've ever seen
on stage. The sound of the bottom of a barrel being well and truly scraped.
The Manic Street Preachers were as average as ever and we basically spent
most of the day catching up on 2 days sleep and consuming large amounts of
bier. I have to say that I did actually really enjoy Throw That beat In The
Garbage Can and Phillip Boa And The Voodoo Club, but everybody elses keeps
telling me that they were dire, so I'll have to assume that it was just the
effect of the afforementioned bier.
And so we finally get to the Sisters. The first time I've seen them headlining
this year and doing a full set. This they did do, playing for about an hour and
three quarters. The opening of the set was Comfortably Numb / Some Kind Of
Stranger and we got all the usual mix of things throughout the rest -
including Giving Ground and Flood II. Eldritch was in a fairly chatty mood
with the crowd, playing the same trick with the Corrosion intro that he did at
Zeebrugge. "O.K., what do you want to hear ?" he asks the crowd, people shout
back and he waves them quiet "One at a time please" he says. This has no
effect of course and after a few more exchanges he gives up on us "We know
what you need" he says, adding "Though you may not like it" - and we get
This Corrosion. Towards the end of the set he seemed to become obsessed with
the "She says anytime" couplet from Flood II (in a similar way to "Out of the
sky" at Reading), inserting it into songs all over the place. He introduced
Temple Of Love as "This song is called 'It's grim up north, but it's grimer
where you are'" and Vision Thing as 'Ghostrider' (!). As part of the encore
we got the Sisters cover version of "Silver Machine" - this was very odd,
he spent the first verse screaming "she says anytime, raise your arms", missed
the first chorus, did the second verse and chorus straight, then for the final
verse did all the words to end of Under The Gun ! I think it confused a lot of
the Germans as the didn't have a clue what Silver Machine was or who it was by.
I think that the band played fairly well - they had some girl playing keyboards
at the back (dont know who she was) and it had a much fuller sound than some
of the recent gigs. The light show was also good - it made a change to see
the Sisters after dark somewhere, rather than in daylight. My main complaint
was that it was such a violent gig from the audience point of view. I hardly
got a chance to watch the band much as most of our time was taken up trying to
stay upright and protect the girls - I'm used to having to form walls from
time to time during a gig, but we had to do it constantly for almost two
hours. The crush was incredible considering how few people there were. People
were being dragged out by security - on guy we passed to the front was
completely unconcious. Most of us have several bruises and cuts to show for it,
one guy getting hit in the face and spilling a lot of blood. Not very pleasent
at all. It was a good show, but I object to having to fight like that in
order to see a band - especially when we were all so drained from having
travelled so far. The whole thing was a bit to much hassle for my liking from
beginning to end, I wouldn't have done it for any other band. Did anyone else
make it ? What did you think ?
Silver machine was only performed once - 10/07/93
Hope Bat doesn't mind but this is a review of his I dug up tonight, kind of sets the scene I think. Anyway, read on.
Losheim festival. Did anybody else make this ? One of the tougest and
most uncomfortable Sisters gig trips I've ever done. I left thursday
morning and only got back last night. Losheim itself is tiny, on a
back road up in the hills and generally the middle of nowhere. It is
served by one bus from Metzier which doesnt run on a sunday so there was no
way of getting back to civilization after the gig. It was also bloody cold
and we nearly had one person get hypothermia sleeping on the street afterwards.
Not nice, not nice at all. I hope I never have to do another gig there as long
as I live.
The festival itself was very small. I dont know what I expected, but there
can't have been more than a couple of thousand people there at most. It was
just a small open air stage set up at one end of a sloping grassy field
beside a lake about 25 minutes walk from the town. I was stunned when I saw
the size of it, though the PA set up was as good as much larger gigs. In
fact the sound in general was excellent. I dont really have much of a clue
as to who most of the first bands were since they seemed to put them on in a
random order. Some sounded o.k., but most were pretty dire. Special mention
must got to the reggae band for being one of the worst acts I've ever seen
on stage. The sound of the bottom of a barrel being well and truly scraped.
The Manic Street Preachers were as average as ever and we basically spent
most of the day catching up on 2 days sleep and consuming large amounts of
bier. I have to say that I did actually really enjoy Throw That beat In The
Garbage Can and Phillip Boa And The Voodoo Club, but everybody elses keeps
telling me that they were dire, so I'll have to assume that it was just the
effect of the afforementioned bier.
And so we finally get to the Sisters. The first time I've seen them headlining
this year and doing a full set. This they did do, playing for about an hour and
three quarters. The opening of the set was Comfortably Numb / Some Kind Of
Stranger and we got all the usual mix of things throughout the rest -
including Giving Ground and Flood II. Eldritch was in a fairly chatty mood
with the crowd, playing the same trick with the Corrosion intro that he did at
Zeebrugge. "O.K., what do you want to hear ?" he asks the crowd, people shout
back and he waves them quiet "One at a time please" he says. This has no
effect of course and after a few more exchanges he gives up on us "We know
what you need" he says, adding "Though you may not like it" - and we get
This Corrosion. Towards the end of the set he seemed to become obsessed with
the "She says anytime" couplet from Flood II (in a similar way to "Out of the
sky" at Reading), inserting it into songs all over the place. He introduced
Temple Of Love as "This song is called 'It's grim up north, but it's grimer
where you are'" and Vision Thing as 'Ghostrider' (!). As part of the encore
we got the Sisters cover version of "Silver Machine" - this was very odd,
he spent the first verse screaming "she says anytime, raise your arms", missed
the first chorus, did the second verse and chorus straight, then for the final
verse did all the words to end of Under The Gun ! I think it confused a lot of
the Germans as the didn't have a clue what Silver Machine was or who it was by.
I think that the band played fairly well - they had some girl playing keyboards
at the back (dont know who she was) and it had a much fuller sound than some
of the recent gigs. The light show was also good - it made a change to see
the Sisters after dark somewhere, rather than in daylight. My main complaint
was that it was such a violent gig from the audience point of view. I hardly
got a chance to watch the band much as most of our time was taken up trying to
stay upright and protect the girls - I'm used to having to form walls from
time to time during a gig, but we had to do it constantly for almost two
hours. The crush was incredible considering how few people there were. People
were being dragged out by security - on guy we passed to the front was
completely unconcious. Most of us have several bruises and cuts to show for it,
one guy getting hit in the face and spilling a lot of blood. Not very pleasent
at all. It was a good show, but I object to having to fight like that in
order to see a band - especially when we were all so drained from having
travelled so far. The whole thing was a bit to much hassle for my liking from
beginning to end, I wouldn't have done it for any other band. Did anyone else
make it ? What did you think ?
??: 