New York [6 March]

[Obviousman]

WHAT'SSSSS UP NEW YORK????

The City that never sleeps..... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seems the New Yorkers on here are doing quite a good impression of a sleeping NYC though

Thanks for the pics and the review, davedecay!

[davedecay]

i'm not a New Yorker, just a crazy Pennsylvanian. i got home at 2:30am, wanted to see how the pix turned out, and uploaded the best ones.

i have more, but they are often dark and blurry. my digital cam isn't the best. if you want to see the mohawked guitarist, let me know, i have a decent one of him from above.

hope my review wasn't too negative, i really liked the show, the sound was mixed just loud enough that i didn't need my earplugs.

also, The Warlocks were right up my alley. sort of a cross between shoegazers like Ride and old Echo & The Bunnymen. their merch girl made reference to Primal Scream and Spacemen 3/Spectrum for comparison. they have 2 drummers (perhaps to make up for The Sisters having zero?) and a female bassist, at least i think she was female, hard to tell in all that fog.

[Badlander]

Thanks for the review, I kinda liked it. About the new songs : I truly love Susanne, Summer, Crash and burn, Top nite out, and Slept. I have more mixed feelings about War on drugs and Will I dream, and Romeo down stands somewhere in between.

As long as you don't give us any "They're way past their prime, blah blah blah" kind of crap, there's no need to be insanely optimistic about every little move they take. No need to be a maniac.

[Booslham]

Well......
Mr. davedecay.... Hats Off To You!!!!
You are the hero of the day!!!

New Yorkers are making quite a bad impression on their city's motto!!!
They're sleeping...............

I know how it is driving from New York to Pennsylvania. I've done it several times.

Where is that guy, stefansonic???? (when you need him)?
I was getting tired of seeing his picture... now I am waiting for him.. to pop

[EvilBastard]

Fabulous to see some of you last night - don't be strangers now, y'hear, specially that preppy Corpy
Nick - if you manage to get hold of an extra short-sleeved large t-shirt at the other gig, let me know and I'll sort you out with beer tokens

[bshowers]

War On Drugs and Will I Dream? would make ok b-sides. I like Romeo Down a bit more... I think of it as a modern day refugee from the Reptile House EP.

[Booslham]

Hey....
You EvilBastard!

So you come on here... to tell everyone that it was nice seeing them last night??????

No reviews... No set list... not a word about the show???

The New York Attitude... Ladies and gentlemen, Boys and Girls!!!
It goes perfectly with the smell...

Looking forward to DC and Philly

[EvilBastard]

Hey....You EvilBastard! So you come on here... to tell everyone that it was nice seeing them last night?????? No reviews... No set list... not a word about the show??? The New York Attitude... Ladies and gentlemen, Boys and Girls!!! It goes perfectly with the smell...

I am in complete agreement with DaveDecay, as it goes. Great gig, loadsasmoke, shame the 2 a**holes behind us decided to have a bitchfight at the end.

And we like the smell, thanks - it's why we don't live in Florida. Like the man says, it's a small world and it smells funny.

[The Drowning Season]

Do you have a setlist?

I've read the reviews but could someone please post last night's setlist?

[davedecay]

i didn't jot one down, sorry. saw people asking for them from the stage hands afterwards.

[Corpy]

Fabulous to see some of you last night - don't be strangers now, y'hear, specially that preppy Corpy

That's racist, innit! My shirt is as beige as my soul!

Warlocks were nice and ambient, too bad the crowd barely roused itself enough to clap. Singer had Robert Smith hair.

We stood right up front, about three or four people back from middle of the stage, and the sound was absolute crap. Couldn't hear a thing what's-his-face sang during the first song, and the rest was so-so. Not much interaction with the crowd--made one presumably pithy comment near the beginning but it was lost in the reverb. It was hard, even, to make out some of the songs they were playing--the newer ones tended to sound like walls of noise with no vocals until about halfway through or so. The songs I remember are (not necessarily in this order):

Romeo Down
Dr. Jeep/Detonation Blvd (?)
We Are the Same, Susanne
On the Wire/Teachers
Crash and Burn
Alice
Will I Dream
Giving Ground
Dominion/Mother Russia
Slept
Lucretia
Neverland
Top Nite Out

I can't remember the first song. Bad fan! Anyway, the new guitarist, the one without the appendix, I think, provided some serious eye candy. And I counted no fewer than three fights, but when it's prissy goth boys pulling each other's hair it's not even worth watching.

Not bad, then.

[spug17]

They opened with "First and Last and Always," and also played "Flood II," "When You Don't See Me," "Temple of Love," "Anaconda," and closed with a killer version of "Vision Thing."
--everyone now says it was a bitch fight between two goth kids that broke out during Vision Thing -- i couldn't see too well, so i thought it was a mosh pit! hehe. i know they suck, but i thought that kind of action spiced things up nicely.

All in all, i had a great time -- i thought the "new" songs were quite good! And I was very pleased to see the Sisters truly rocking out more -- for years Eldritch has made the claim that they're a "rock and roll band" in addition to the industrial groove machine...and last night they lived up to that! Way to bring it!
They were a welcome change to the "planned" riffage of the more industrial and 80's tunes...of course it's all classic Sisters, i'm not knocking it, it's good to see something of a change in dynamic.

i also enjoyed how they re-did some of the older songs -- i'm not necessarily a fan of shortening things, but they did abridged versions of "Temple," and "Lucretia" -- it almost seemed to me to be their way of playing the songs, with a sort of *wink wink* - not pandering by giving in to their bigger hits. they like to throw the audience a curve, and i like that. When "Lucretia" stopped, i enjoyed Andrew's teasing little stance and words. They played just enough to satisfy (and man, when it kicked in with full guitars it was great!) Well done!

and i LOVED seeing Andrew confront the crowd and crack a smirk here and there. all his little quips and teases were great too!

One thing that always upsets me is the crowds at these types of shows (that feature a high goth contingent).
While the crowd last night provided ample cheering and applause, the enthusiasm during songs was sort of drab -- people were barely moving. Hell, there was one person next to me that barely bopped her head or moved a hair -- i never even saw her clap or crack a smile.

I mean, you pay $50 for a ticket, would it kill anyone to actually show that they're having a good time or enjoying the music?! Especially when you have some pummelling rhythms, and two guitarists doing their damnedest to rock out and bring things to life....the best part of a high energy show is when the crowd feeds off what's being played, so the band can then feed back off it, and everyone's pumped.

It's fun to rock out, people. Show some enthusiasm!
Though I was standing on the side of the stage with the muscley guitarist in the tanktop (don't know his name), and I did see a good group of you guys going nuts -- cheers!!

and one point, said muscley guitarist was looking into the crowd and it appeared that he saw something and had a good laugh from it...what happened!?
He seemed quite friendly as well -- at one point he noticed someone asking for a guitar pic, so took the one he had and handed it right to them mid song. Nice!

It's always good to see the band having a good time. I hate when people take things too seriously. There's a time and place of course....but it's all for fun, right?!

p.s. Does anyone know what that instrumental riffy jam was that the two guitarists did at the start of the second encore?? it was pretty sick.

[Badlander]

One thing that always upsets me is the crowds at these types of shows (that feature a high goth contingent).
While the crowd last night provided ample cheering and applause, the enthusiasm during songs was sort of drab -- people were barely moving. Hell, there was one person next to me that barely bopped her head or moved a hair -- i never even saw her clap or crack a smile.

Well, it's always been a problem with goth events. They just don't wanna ruin their hair style. My little brother saw Christian Death Valor circa 97 : the show was okay but those damn' dark little things in the audience just wouldn't show one tiny bit of emotion. You gotta look all intense, you see ?

There's a real funny indie comics about (among other things) NY goths : "Oh my Goth !', by Voltaire (Sirius).

And thanks a lot for the excellent reviews.

[lachert]

Great, it was bad move to remove one of the best new songs but I understand that Romeo is back?

[bismarck]

Well, first things first I guess. Set list is standard:

FALAA
Ribbons
Dr Jeep/Det Blvd
Crash + Burn
On the Wire/Teachers
Susanne
Giving Ground
Summer
Dominion
Slept
Alice
Anaconda
WYDSM
Flood 2
--
Neverland
Lucretia
--
Top Nite Out
Temple
Vision Thing

And now the show:

Someone mentioned earlier in this thread that the venue reminded him a bit of the Old Ritz when it was downtown, but a bit smaller. For those of you who have been to the Old Ritz and want to know what this venue is like, it IS the Old Ritz, now renamed Webster Hall. So perhaps we've all gotten a bit bigger. It's an imposing brick building in the middle of the block, probably 5 stories high overall. I got there around 6:45 with plans to meet some Heartlanders around the corner for a drink. When I passed the venue I saw that there was a line already forming outside so I got in it. Once I had secured my place enough to ask the young goth couple in front of me to hold it for me, I went 'round the corner to alert the Heartlanders to the line. About 7:45 we all joined up in the line and got in to the show with no Will Call problems whatever. The actual hall is up 2 flights of stairs. The Sisters' merch stand is just past the entrance to the hall. I went there first and got a couple of tshirts. Asked if there was anything besides clothing - books or magazines or CDs or buttins I ended up with a great spot just right of center against the front rail - directly in front of Chris - where I remained through The Warlocks and all through The Sisters.

The Warlocks were actually pretty good. Their sound has been described in other posts here well enough. I'll just add that they had as much smoke as The Sisters did, and you could not see them either. The bassist seemed to be a pretty hot woman but, again, it was hard to see. I was reminded of something I'd read somewhere about The Sisters first experience with smoke machines. I am half-remembering this, so forgive me if I get the story wrong, but as I recall, they were opening for another band whose stage manager said, "hey, we've got a smoke machine tonight, you want some?" The Sissies liked it so much that the rest is history. Who knows, maybe the same thing'll happen with The Warlocks...

The goth couple I was after in the line ended up right next to me during the show against the rail. Sally, the young woman, was extremely friendly and curious about which songs the band would play. She was disappointed when I told her they were unlilkely to roll out "Logic" and shocked that they would probably skip "This Corrosion."

So after Warolcks finished, there was a pause of about 30 minutes or so during which AndrewS and Eva (both dedicated dominionites who I had the great pleasure of meeting that night) introduced me to Ben Christo, who was charming and seemed very sweet and, like Chris Catalyst, extraordinarily young. He was just hanging around the audience and seemed to know Eva from previous gigs. It was funny when the two very ill-tempered Italians behind me shhhushed him... I guess he was making too much noise for their liking. Anyway, soon thereafter the lights dimmed, the smoke machines hissed, and the crowd went a bit wild as the walk-on music started. It was the same walk-on music from 2003, incidentally.

My first, overwhelming impression as the good Doktor thumped out the opening beats of FALAA was that the sound was waaay too low. If I had been listening to my stereo at home I would've turned it up quite a bit. The Warlocks sounded great and loud, so I know it wasn't the sound system. Something seemed wrong. I mentioned this to Eva but she seemed unperturbed... was I imagining this? I know the vocals always sound low in the front rows because the PA speakers are usually positioned behind the 3rd row or so (and way above), but this problem was about much more than just the vocals. I could have and hear ordinary conversations without shouting... was I going to be disappointed all night? The vocals were indeed low in an already too-quiet mix. The only sound I heard with appropriate volume was Chirs's guitar, but that was because I was listening to his amplifier on the stage. Ben, on the other side of the stage, was virtually inaudible. hmmm....

Well, the FALAA riff was a hybrid of the original Marx riff and the uninspired one that took it's place some time ago. Although I could barely hear it (Ben played it), it seemed cool, but I found myself wishing for the original riff. It's just never been improved upon in my opinion. Andy sounded good and seemed energetic enough. He hopped around and coiled himself up like a lithe little snake. He's a small man but he commands the stage. He was in good form. He gave a little extra attention to the lyric, "...and it seems like 25 years....", which was fitting for the occasion. The crowd went wild after the first song. I had my doubts about this crowd: it was about 1/4 fully goth, with makeup and crushed velvet and the works, about 1/4 long-haired rock and roll fans, and about 1/2 normal people like myself. But they were very tame during The Warlocks. Now they livened up a bit.

Ribbons was a favorite and the crowd was moving. The first "new" song, Crash and Burn. confused the crowd a bit but it's such a stormer that people started moving and dancing anyway. In my opinion it's the 2nd best of the new songs, and I was thrilled (if unsurprised) to hear it. Chris does the backing vocals and his voice is excellent - maybe te best backing vocal the band has yet had. But more about the new boys later.

On the Wire surprised some, I could tell. It was great. Susanne suffered from the lack of a live bass-player. I love the Doktor, but in my opinion he should handle only drums and synths. I think the lack of a bass player is a huge problem for The Sisters. From Craig Adams onwards, the bass has always been such an important part of their sound, and it always made the rhythm section come alive, even without a drummer. What else is there to say? The band needs a live bass player. I know that such an addition would mean an extra salary, and I imagine that that's why the Doktor has been tasked with bass duties, but it seems such an enormous oversight that I can't help but be saddened by it. It seems that, for a man who so consciously refers to rock and roll cliches in his music, and whose band claims to be nothing more or less than a great rock and roll band, Andrew Eldritch displays a shocking misunderstanding of what makes rock and roll so powerful by employing an entirely automated rhythm section. I love the Doktor; I just wish his burden were lightened.

Giving Ground. Great.

Summer is my favorite "new" song and one of my favotire Sisters songs of all time. It was great to hear it live again and this seemed to be a particularly inspired version. I'll be curious to hear the recording of the show to see if it was as great as it sounded last nght. If it was, it could be one of the all-time great live versions of the song.

Dominion got the crowd moving as usual. Everyone knows it and everyone wanted everyone else to know that they knew the lyrics, if you know what I mean. Everyone sang it and everyone loved it.

Slept seemed somehow different from previous live versions I've seen. Can anyone confirm that? The chorus was the same as in 2003 but the verses seemed different. It was good but not great, as usual.

Alice: another crowd favorite. Despite rumors of a new intro to the song, it sounded rather standard to me. Andy was in fine form for this one, as for Anaconda. Call me old-fashoined, but I would like to hear the old "she will she will she will she will" backing vocal rather than the new-fangled "she wii-ii-iiill". But it was great. When You Don't See Me was good, and Flood 2 was good. The band bowed and left.

Between the sets a small fight broke out in the very center of the front rail as a very large fellow pushed his way to the front. He angered some effete goths (and would've angered me, too, with that behavior), but he stayed there anyway and spent to two encores belting out the lyrics to all the songs and shouting, "We need a new Sisters' album!!" Andy passed his ubiquitous bottle of red liquid to this guy after the first encore, which he then proceeded to drink all of.

First encore was Neverland and Lucretia, which was trotted out in 2003-fashion with a low-key open and a sudden burst of energy about a minute into the song. I think the new version works f**king great! It's far superior to the album or single version and the crowd adored it. I think, frankly, that the song *had* to be reworked to become a guitar-driven number rather than a bass-driven one for reasons already mentioned, and I think it is all the better for it. It has a much more modulated feel to it now: highs and lows or energy rather than the plodding, even-keeled energy of the album track. One of the best songs of the night... and that's saying something from someone who does not love the original vinyl version. By this time in the show Andy seemed to realize that New York's no-smoking laws were made to be flouted, and he was smoking on-stage finally. He even passed a cigarette to some dude in the front row. I was smoking thoughout the show and no one bothered me.

Second encore: Ben and Chris took the stage and plowed through Top Nite Out, the guitarists' song. OK, about the new guitarists. I've had the plesure of seeing a few lineups of this band: Hussey/Adams; Bricheno/Bruhn/James; Pearson/Varjak; and Pearson/Sheehan. Now I've seen Catalyst/Christo. I think, honestly, that this is the best guitarist combo the band has seen. These guys are just great. They hop around the stage, showing their youth and enthusiasm. Catalyst plays power chords like no one else. Christo's influences seem to be Iron Maiden or Judas Priest or Bon Jovi, and it makes a great match to The Sisters' sound. Catalyst is so animated and fun to watch, I spent more time watching him that I did watching Andy. With the addition of these two young lads, The Sisters of Mercy have completed their transformation from goth band to Industial-Heavy Metal-Groove Machine. I'm serious, these guys are great. I hope to god that if there's a new album or single, these two fellows play on it. Because of them, the band seems young, re-invigorated, fresh, heavy, and - above all - fun. Kudos. I am so happy with these new additions that it makes the prospect of this being the goodbye-tour seem that much more tragic. The rest of the US and Europe is in for a real treat.

Temple and Vision Thing finished out the set. Temple had none of the original guitar part intact (as it has not for years now). I realized last night what most of you have probably known for years: the live version of Temple is actually just the "extended" portion of the song from the 1983 12" single (which made it on to SGWBM and is now probably the only version many people are familiar with). Vision Thing was introduced with, "Good morning, America!" and was great. Ben and Chris hammed it up like an '80s hair-band, thrashing their guitars in unison, right next to eachother, banging their heads. Andy sung his heart out, bowed at the end, and the show was over.

Unfortunately the sound problems were never remedied and the entire show seemed to me as if it was played on "5" when it ought to have been played at "10" (or "11"). This, to me, was a HUGE disappointment. I have been vacillating about going to see the band play Philly tomorrow, but I think I will go in the hopes that they can get the sound right this time. This is rock and roll: we want it f**king LOUD please! We want to hear our ears ring for days afterwards!

Did I mention that there was a lot of smoke on-stage during the gig?

I have a few pix as well as the original set-list that I will post on this thread later. If I think of anything else I will add it here.

See you guys in Philly: Francis, Eva, AndrewS, Spencer, etc.

Trevor

[EvilBastard]

Excellent Review, Trevor!
I'll be honest, I can't remember much of last night - must be whatever they're putting in the smoke these days...

[Obviousman]

Extensive reviews, lovely

[davedecay]

nice observations & review, Trevor.

Electric Factory in Philly will probably be boomy in sound, due to the size & dynamics of the place - it's an old warehouse, for chrissake.

[Bill Hicks]

Really nice review. Many thanks.

[magicmonkeyman]

agreed...superb review...ta

[spug17]

Sir, you've summed up my thoughts even better - i wholeheartedly agree!

but damnit, i couldn't even find the merch table! which sucks, cuz i've wanted a Sisters shirt for the past 8 years now.

[davedecay]

Sir, you've summed up my thoughts even better - i wholeheartedly agree!

but damnit, i couldn't even find the merch table! which sucks, cuz i've wanted a Sisters shirt for the past 8 years now.

spug,

there's another post (Las Vegas perhaps?) with a pic of the merch table.
you want i should get you a shirt in Philly?
let me know... as long as you wouldn't stiff me!

[Booslham]

I have to say "Thank You Trevor."
No one could have done it better.

The merch table pic is in Ft. Lauderdale thread.

[dtsom]

other gig whit a fight. a gig is for enjoying it not for fighting....

[CommodoreRock]

The crowd went wild after the first song. I had my doubts about this crowd: it was about 1/4 fully goth, with makeup and crushed velvet and the works, about 1/4 long-haired rock and roll fans, and about 1/2 normal people like myself. But they were very tame during The Warlocks. Now they livened up a bit.

Someone mentioned in another thread that they would like to see the hipsters adopt The Sisters as they have Joy Division. It would be nice to have less of a goth contingient. Nothing against them. They are his bread and butter and, for the most part, very snappy dressers. I just think it would warm Andy's heart to look out and not see a sea of black. For my part, I wore blue jeans, white sneakers and a grey sweater over a bright red tee shirt which peeked out through the collar. To be fair, in my younger days I've been known to don the black and do the old punch/kick at The Bank, and I'll always remember those days fondly. I still love the classic goth and new wave bands, but the scene has gotten way too insular, and I usually try to do my best to look as ungoth as possible, especially at shows of bands who tend to draw a gothy crowd.

The first "new" song, Crash and Burn. confused the crowd a bit but it's such a stormer that people started moving and dancing anyway. In my opinion it's the 2nd best of the new songs, and I was thrilled (if unsurprised) to hear it. Chris does the backing vocals and his voice is excellent - maybe te best backing vocal the band has yet had. But more about the new boys later.

Is Crash and Burn the song that almost sounds a bit like KMFDM? If that is the one, I really did like it alot.

Between the sets a small fight broke out in the very center of the front rail as a very large fellow pushed his way to the front. He angered some effete goths (and would've angered me, too, with that behavior), but he stayed there anyway and spent to two encores belting out the lyrics to all the songs and shouting, "We need a new Sisters' album!!" Andy passed his ubiquitous bottle of red liquid to this guy after the first encore, which he then proceeded to drink all of.

Why does it seem to be the case that the Sisters seem to draw a few bad elements to every show? Every time I've seen them since 1997, while the crowd is generally good, there always seems to be a few unruly or violent types. At Roseland a few years back, this one bald guy in a black leather "Cenobite" type fetish skirt thought it was fun to slap women in the back of the head. He was told to cut the crap several times before eventually, it turned ugly and somebody hit back. The same guy drunkenly fell up the stairs leading out of the venue at the end of the show, taking several people down with him. I'd expect this kind of idiocy at a Motley Crue, Ozzfest or one of those bad Brooklyn metalcore shows, but I thought The Sisters would attract a slightly more refined crowd. I'm don't mean it should be lifeless, I just mean I'm surprised at the violence I've experienced and that I've read about here.

Unfortunately the sound problems were never remedied and the entire show seemed to me as if it was played on "5" when it ought to have been played at "10" (or "11"). This, to me, was a HUGE disappointment. I have been vacillating about going to see the band play Philly tomorrow, but I think I will go in the hopes that they can get the sound right this time. This is rock and roll: we want it f**king LOUD please! We want to hear our ears ring for days afterwards!

It actually sounded better to me than many of the shows I'd seen in the recent past. My first time seeing the Sisters was at Dark Harvest in 1997 and they sounded good at the Electric Factory. But then I saw them a few times at Roseland and the sound was aweful. So compared to that, it was better than I expected. I was in the back for most of the show and then moved to the side bar. It really sounded fine to me after what was, I will agree, a shaky start. Maybe I just got used to it though. Or maybe I'm just getting old, and the volume was just right for me?

But with regard to the show, I enjoyed it. I did get the impression that many in the crowd did not however. I'm not really sure what their gripe was. People were saying things like "I paid $45 for this crap" and "What a ripoff." One guy toward the end began shouting "You suck!!!" Now I never got to see any of their 80s or early 90s shows other than a bootleg of the Reading Festival 1991, so I can't make that comparison, but I can say that the show was no worse than any of the shows I saw since 1997, and in many ways better. The only thing I can guess is that they are fans who have never seen a live Sisters show and had perhaps different expectations about what it would be. I don't know. But I was a satisfied customer.