This was the second of two nights at The Roundhouse for The Sisters Of Mercy on the bands current tour with their current line-up of Kai, Chris Catalyst, Ben Christo and of course Andrew Eldritch.
We arrived early enough to see all of the support set by Oversize the 5 piece grungy shoegaze band with super indistinct vocals that were at no time clear and easy to understand, so I may have imagined the subjects they sang about, the 5 not very oversize blokes, who opened sounding like Soundgarden fronted by Thom Yorke with, very down tuned guitars and a bit of a sludgy sound to sing about the Sky. That Feeling seemed to be about some sort of toe jam fetish, but I couldn't make out what he was singing about, the bass player struggled to stay in time with the drummer whose timing seemed to wander all over the place.
Shockingly when the singer spoke between songs, he was louder and clearer than when he was singing or pleading for us to Help Me, I think he wanted a whip round so they could buy an oversize bar of Toblerone. The riffing got heavier, I think they mentioned someone putting a Bullet In My Brain as they needed more of an Architects influence. The songs blended into one long riffarama where the main thing that stood out about them was the magnificent hair of the guitarist playing stage left. They seemed to get decent applause but left me rather cold and disinterested sadly.
After the break when the curtain fell The Sisters of Mercy stalked onto the stage and Chris Catalyst fired up Doktor Avalanche, they launched into Lucretia My Reflection that had Andrew Eldritch singing lead vocals far more clearly than he did two years ago. Crash And Burn had some good, twisted guitar from Kai as Andrew Stalked the stage growling the vocals.
Don't Drive On Ice was when they switched the red lights on as if we were careening towards impending doom rather than a very tight and taut set, Ben Christo's guitar drove it on and his harmony backing vocals set off Andrews Gruff yet clearly enunciated vocals superbly.
The Roundhouse went mad for Alice this total classic sounded rejuvenated and as good live as it has at any point in the 40 years, I've been seeing the band live. Dominion really got everyone dancing with a version that was on point as it bled into Mother Russia almost everyone was singing along with them.
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I Will Call You was the first of the songs I didn't recognise, but it kept the pattern with some fiery keyboards and Kai's flashy guitar parts. Rock & A Hard Place got everyone going, Andrew seemed to be enjoying himself posing in front of the Klieg light. We Are The Same, Suzanne had more feeling than last time, it was great to hear Andrew really singing.
Quantum Baby sounded decent as one of the newer songs, Ben was working hard at the backing vocals while Andrew gave us his equations. Giving Ground is something Andrew isn't exactly known for, but this song makes up for his own intransigence. The chanted chorus of I Want More feels almost like a football chant.
Andrew brought out the romanticism as he pleaded shall we dance while singing But Genevieve while Doktor Avalanche provided the massive beats. Something Fast went by in a blur leading into Flood II with all its recriminations.
The dark lord was at his lightest for When I'm On Fire the band seemed to be happily grooving together, ready to go On The Beach that had a decidedly poppy edge to it, before they closed with the dance floor epic Temple Of Love that sounded imperious before Andrew thanked us all for coming as he said goodnight.
The eventually came back for an encore and opened with a short version of Never Land that led into a brilliant version of Vision Thing that had everyone dancing and singing with them, before they closed the show with This Corrosion that guaranteed most of the audience would have the song stuck in their heads for days after, it was a great way to end a truly great Sisters of Mercy set, for once I didn't hear anyone moaning about how bad the gig was afterwards.
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