The Sisters of Mercy / The Virgin Marys (live at The Roundhouse)

London
22 September 2023

So, The Sisters Of Mercy at The Roundhouse. This is a tricky one for several reasons, as you will soon come to appreciate. Last time I saw them it was also at The Roundhouse, the band were all over the place and the sound was muddy as hell. But that was like ten years ago. So I wasn’t sure what to expect tonight.

We turn up late but in time to catch the last couple of songs by support The Virgin Marys, a two-piece playing tight, spiky and fun poppy indie-punk, kind of in the vein of maybe Arctic Monkeys or The Libertines? Not really my scene, but on the strength of what we see they’re a damn good band if it happens to be yours.

So on to the matter at hand. OK, it’s like this. Of the big legacy goth bands (and yes, I know Andrew Eldritch has always maintained they’re not a goth band, but here’s the thing — musical genres for the most part are like nicknames at school — you don’t get to choose your own) the Sisters and Fields Of The Nephilim are kind of opposites.

With the Nephs, you’re 100% guaranteed a good show, but you already own everything they’re gonna play. With the Sisters, the hit ratio’s somewhat sketchier, but it’s the only place (other than bootlegs) you’ll get to hear the new stuff, because they are STILL WRITING NEW STUFF, but Eldritch refuses to record and release it. Ironically, given that the Nephs are the ones with the cowboy aesthetic, tonight we get The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The Good — the band are on fucking point. (Up TO a point, and we’ll get to that point later). We’ve got Ben Christo on lead guitar and helping Eldritch out on vocals, Dylan Smith on second guitar, and former guitarist Chris Catalyst filling in for Ravey Davey as assistant to Doktor Avalanche, handling the entire rhythm section. And of course we’ve got Andrew Eldritch, and while his voice may not be what it was, the stage presence is still there in fucking spades. I mean, back in their heyday he hugged the mic stand and didn’t really do a great deal. These days he’s a much more active presence, stalking and prowling the stage like a meth-head feline.

Visually they’re a much more psychedelic experience than they were of old, with less smoke and more cool lighting, which is a perfect fit for their “mechanoid onslaught” (as Eldritch described Public Enemy ahead of their ill-fated 1991 tour. Ironically I suspect that combo would go down a lot better today, as musical boundaries have shifted so much in the intervening three decades. I guess Eldritch and Chuck D were ahead of their time there too).

The “new” songs (I use the inverted commas because some of them ain’t that new, they’ve been writing this stuff for ages, but you know what I mean) are all excellent — they start with”Don’t Drive On Ice”, but we also get the likes of “Crash And Burn”, “Caligula” and “Here”, though sadly not “I Have Slept With All The Girls In Berlin”. In all I’d say the new stuff makes up about forty percent of the set, and that’s no bad thing.

We also get the vast majority of Vision Thing, whose slick metal is a really good fit for this band setup. I’m still not convinced by their insistence on welding “Dr Jeep” and “Detonation Boulevard” together, but they’ve been doing it for years at this point (since as far back as Sonisphere 2011 at least) so I guess that’s just how the songs are now. Plus, of course, “Alice”, “First And Last And Always”, “This Corrosion”, “Temple Of Love” — all the old-skool classics.

The Bad? Yeah, you got it, it’s the sound. Eldritch is barely audible a lot of the time apart from his sibilants, and even Christo’s not exactly crystal-clear, so it’s not just an age thing. It gets better about twenty minutes into the set, but it’s still not great, Indeed, for much of the latter part of the gig, Smith is visibly remonstrating with the sound guy (apparently the Sisters’ own, though the bizarre placement of the sound desk at The Roundhouse, tucked away in a corner to the right, doesn’t help. I’ve heard that trip a LOT of bands up, so I’m not unsympathetic). I’m thinking, “I know he’s kind of a rock dude, but don’t they usually gesture with two fingers that AREN’T that one?”, which leads to…

The Ugly. And yes, this is “the point” to which I previously referred. Smith’s (entirely understandable) ire at the sound eventually leads to his being either ushered or pushed off stage a few songs before the end by Eldritch after being handed a new guitar, which EVIDENTLY wasn’t the problem. Accounts vary on this from other people on the night, but for what it’s worth at the time it looked friendly enough to me, more like a “yeah, I get it, sack it off and go get a beer” than a “go and never darken my towels again” kinda deal. But he doesn’t come back for the encore, and will not be back tomorrow, if ever.

And yet somehow despite all this, I had a fucking great time. Dunno if it was the atmosphere, Eldritch’s charisma, the love of the old songs and the chance to experience the new or what, but I really, really enjoyed myself. However, be warned YMMV. Significantly.

-Words: Justin Farrington-
-Pictures: Dave Pettit-