Early birthday present yesterday – my first Sisters of Mercy live experience at the Astoria. They were dreadful though – so much smoke that you couldn’t see the stage at all and a sound mix that left the guitars and vocals inaudible behind the drum machine and bass. We were trying to guess the songs from the drum beats, until they got to the chorus and the audience sang along – “Anaconda? Alice? Mary had a little lamb?”, audience starts belting out “hey now, hey now now, sing this corrosion to me…”
“This is shit”, observed Jon. “Let’s get drunk.” And we did. Oh yeah.
Still, I got to sing along to Lucretia My Reflection and Alice. And I got to sing Run to the Hills, which went quite nicely with the beginning of one song. No idea what the hell Mr Eldritch was singing.
Later, we retired to the Intrepid Fox. They have a barmaid with beautiful red hair and an AC/DC t-shirt, which cheered me up no end. And I got to wear the black t-shirt with a naked lady on the back. It fits so few social occasions nowadays, and usually sits, neglected, in the wardrobe.
Update: in response to Christine’s rather snippy comment below, here’s the gig discussed on Heartland. Reviews vary between ok and dismal, but nothing to write home about. Quote of the night, which I’d forgotten, from Eldritch: "I’m sorry, I can’t hear me either." in response to chants of "Turn it up!" from the crowd.
What a load of rubbish.
There was nothing wrong with the mix at all, are you seriously trying to tell me that the Sisters’ front of house engineer can’t mix the band he has been touring with for years?
Sounds to me like you don’t have the faintest idea of what you are talking about, yes the smoke machine was belching out smoke, like it does at all Sisters’ gigs. But as for not being able to hear the guitars or vocals, try cleaning your ears out.
Another area where you prove you have no idea of what you are talking about is your choice of pub. Anyone with half a brain goes to the Crobar, for that is where we drink after work. Yes I work at the Astoria, and yes I know for a fact that the Sisters didn’t sound at all like you described.
Now kindly run along and leave stuff like this to adults, please.
Chris, you do realise you’re replying to something I wrote two and a half years ago, right?