[flv:http://www.thesoundofindie.com/archive/2008/20080605/SOM-VisionThing.flv http://www.thesoundofindie.com/archive/2008/20080605/20080605.jpg 426 320]
With bands consistently reforming these days, combined with living in NYC, I have nearly seen every band, in some form or another, from the ’80s and ’90s that I would have liked to have seen while growing up. By 2006, when The Sisters of Mercy came through the US for a short tour, there were a still a few bands of interest to me that I hadn’t seen. Until this show, The Sisters of Mercy were tops on that list. Warlock Pinchers, 7 Seconds, Wolfgang Press, Shriekback and The Replacements still represent unscratched itches. Even though SOM are by all accounts moribund – having not released any new material in over 15 years. (Fun Fact: in the category of maddening un-satiated expectations of a new album SOM have over 5 years on Guns ‘n Roses and Axl is a SOM fan – coincidence?!?.) Even though the show was not as good as many had hoped I quite enjoyed the show and listen to the live recording fairly regularly.
One of the highlights of the show was that it was skull crushingly loud. Eldritch probably doesn’t leave things to chance and avoids venue-to-venue sound inconsistency by touring with his own PA. The sound was nuts loud to the point to of face melt — which is just fine by me. I suspect part of the reason for the volume is to jam recordings since all video I have seen of the tour clip pretty
regularly.
The show featured a bleached haired Eldritch barely visible due to non-top stage smoke, which, sadly, is something that bands don’t use these days. The set covered all albums as well as the Sisterhood ep as well as some new tracks. In case you are wandering there was no Doktor Avalanche sightings but boy, could you hear him. Again, due to spotty video, the mp3 of the track is included.
[audio: http://thesoundofindie.com/archive/2008/20080605/SOM-VisionThing.mp3|titles=Vision Thing (Live)|artists=Sisters of Mercy]
Download: The Sisters of Mercy – Vision Thing (Live Audio)
Download: The Sisters of Mercy – Vision Thing (Live Video)
Used to be a huge fan of the Sisters of Mercy in the early to mid 80s, and I actually think that the Sisterhood LP is even better; I also enjoyed the other half of the band after they splitted aka the Mission. And by the way I remember thinking that Dr Avalanche was a pretty cool name for a drummer untillI read somewhere this is how they called their drum machine !
Keep rocking
Le Baron