Project Description

The Sisters of Mercy

@ The Gov

27/10/19

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Colin Reid

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Despite not having made a record for the best part of 3 decades and with no visit to Australia since the 2012 Soundwave tour The Sisters of Mercy’s 2019 visit was highly anticipated and  pulled a very near full-house to Adelaide’s The Gov on a Sunday night.

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This is a band that commands a reverence and a devotion from their fans. To describe their music purely as Goth is to underestimate and not fully understand their complexities although it was true that not only was the majority of the audience clad exclusively in black, a fair selection was also sporting jet black dyed hair and lipsticks of various deeper shades! This wasn’t unexpected and in a note to self I’d decided that the previous nights Sonic Youth shirt wasn’t going to cut it– what did I have in black that was suitable? In the end I decided to go slightly tongue in cheek wearing a viva Las Vegas casino shirt. It wouldn’t matter if nobody got my joke, it was going to be dark and smoke filled in the venue!

Dark and smoke filled was the understatement of the year. The smoke machine kept the stage totally opaque throughout the gig with the haze only punctuated by piercing blue searchlights that illuminated the band members in glimpses like ghostly inhabitants of some subterranean world or a Greenland shark caught in the lights of a deep-sea submersible!

This version of The Sisters is bolstered by the addition of Australian born guitarist Dylan Smith of whom founding member Andrew Eldritch has described as giving the band a new lease of life. The chemistry between Smith and existing guitarist Ben Christo is obvious. They work so well together as they prowl the stage, dove tailing through the wall of industrial strength guitar sound.

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The opening set is an unrelenting powerhouse through 15 tracks. There is barely a break between songs and no crowd interaction vocally yet the connection is so strong between band and audience. Often it struck me that Eldritch almost seemed like an orchestral conductor presiding over the events on stage. The crowd swayed and rolled in time with his direction and he acknowledge our contribution to the performance with a bow. He leads us ever onward through a masterpiece of industrial, electronic art.

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It is a howling, relentless almost unbearably powerful heavy industrial strength symphony that swirled and snarled through the crowd, demanding a response.  The audience are connected sonically to the band and have been transformed as part of a hypnotic, euphoric trance. With arms raised the black clad crowd becomes a swaying and swirling throng.

The regular set closes out with a towering version of Flood II and we await in anticipation the encore. We are not disappointed as Lucretia My Reflection, Vision Thing and Temple of Love drive the crowd to new heights before the evening is closed out with a stunning rendition of This Corrosion. All that is left is for Eldritch to gather his band members together, they jointly take the crowds applause and the gig ends with the darkness holding no fear only jubilation.

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Finally, I must give mention to Subtract S as they were a very good support band. These guys were awesome and are clearly very accomplished musicians. Unfortunately due to restrictions placed on the photographers on the night I don’t have any pictures but will be making sure I grab some the next time I have a chance to see them.

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Check out Jarrod Henry‘s interview with Andrew Eldritch here

Check out Colin Reid‘s gallery of the show here

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Follow The Sisters of Mercy 
Website | Facebook  | Twitter 

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AMNPLIFY – DT