Thursday, 23 November 2023

The Sisters of Mercy, Barrowlands, Glasgow. Thursday 23rd November 2023


This gig was originally scheduled for Wednesday 22nd November at SWG3 but got switched "due to phenomenal demand" when the original night sold out so quickly. A wise move as they managed to fill the Barrowlands too.

I'd never seen them before live yet still felt nostalgic when I heard they were coming to town. You see, back in my youth, in the late '80s, I used to play the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. I had a character called Sloan, a fixer who owned The Rainbow's End, a nightclub in a seedy part of Night City, where bands such as the Ghosts of Elvis played regularly. Sloan had a mohawk, a kaftan and a way with the ladies. During these sessions, The Sisters of Mercy became our regular background music while we roleplayed hacking into Corporation data fortresses, taking out security details and assassinating high-profile targets for profit. We were street punks with lofty ambitions. Not everyone survived.

Anyway...

I had low expectations for this gig after reading the recent tour reviews. The guitarist had been sacked mid-set during one gig and feedback suggested Andrew Eldritch's vocals were not up to scratch. But you still go along and judge it for yourself.

The Virginmarys were on support duties. No messing about. Two blokes on the stage, one with guitar, the other on drums. Their punk rock sound could have been distilled from the spirit of Dave Grohl in his more shouty days. I enjoyed them. At least this time, they didn't burst my eardrums, figuratively speaking.

A colleague had warned me I might not get to see the band given the copious amounts of dry ice the band were known to use on stage. That didn't happen so much tonight. They varied the lighting and colour scheme with dry ice evident but not overpowering. I liked the music, helped in part thanks to the crowd around me being really up for a good time. They were a mix of young ones, old rockers, punks and ladies with coloured hair, tattoos and black lipstick. They danced, whistled and shouted out the lyrics. It was hot and sweaty.

Andrew Eldritch made no effort to engage the crowd, never once mentioning the city name, giving us a solitary thank you at the end of the set. His vocals were as I expected, growly and muffled. The two guitarists seemed content to play their part, the new replacement happily bouncing about, even once knocking into Andrew, triggering a tense moment when the singer waited for an apology. I sensed another imminent sacking. But the band played on and Andrew got on with it. No choice really when the drum machine and bass are playing from a laptop. Not much room for improvisation.

The set was different to what I expected with more of the well-known songs mixed in rather than being at the beginning and end. I had a good night. 

I also got to meet the real-life Sloan, with his mohawk (but no kaftan) and cool, stylish girlfriend, straight from my Cyberpunk character sheet. It felt like I was back at The Rainbow's End nightclub watching the Ghosts of Elvis again. Afterwards, he told me how much he loved the band and how this was his first time seeing them, having always missed their tours while working abroad. I wanted to ask for their picture for this blog but bottled it. It would have been difficult to explain why. Nevertheless, here they are. 


Ticket Price: £48.20 (after fees, and souvenir ticket) from Ticketmaster. Face value: £36.50. 

(performance: 1hr 20 mins)

Setlist 

Doctor Jeep / Detonation Boulevard

Don't Drive on Ice

Ribbons

Alice

Summer

Dominion

I Will Call You

Marian

Giving Ground (The Sisterhood cover)

Eyes of Caligula

More

But Genevieve

I Was Wrong

Here

When I'm on Fire

On the Beach

Temple of Love

Encore:

Lucretia My Reflection

This Corrosion

The Virginmarys


There's always one tit
who pushes in before the main act




He wasn't singing 'I'm a little teapot'









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