Yesterday was my birthday and in a glorious bit of serendipity we had tickets to go to see one of my favourite bands, The Sisters of Mercy.
“Sisters”, as they’re known, are basically singer Andrew Eldritch and a drum machine known as Doktor Avalanche. Guitarists cycle in and out, but Eldritch is the body and soul of the band. I’ve been listening to them since a friend looked at my all black aesthetic and gave me a mixtape (remember those) with some of their music on and said, “You’ll like this.”
He was right, and Sisters music has been a regular part of my musicscape for 30-plus years. So seeing them on my birthday was too good an opportunity to miss. So good, in fact, that I resold the tickets I had to the big Evanesence gig that was also happening last night, to make room in my schedule to go to see Andrew Eldritch and his pals.
I did approach the night with some trepidation. We’ve seen Sisters a couple of times in Vancouver, and the last time was without a doubt the worst professional gig I’ve ever been to. The audio quality was atrocious. So bad, it was impossible to recognize the songs. Last night’s gig was in a better venue, The Orpheum, (a fantastic theatre, that first opened in 1927) so I was hoping that would help.
The support band was Blaqk Audio, an “American electronic music duo, formed by current AFI members Davey Havok and Jade Puget.” I’m not a big electronic music fan, but there’s overlap with early Sisters music so they were a good match, and they sounded good, once the mixing desk had got things evened out.
After a quick break to grab a ludicrously expensive T-shirt, my wife and I excitedly settled into our seats for the main event.
And it was… good. The music was great, the crowd were lively and the two annoying people near us were shut down by people without a fight breaking out.
But… the mix was not the best. Andrew Eldritch’s vocals quite often got lost which made following their new, unreleased material much harder. Whether it was because his voice isn’t up to the task any more or some other technical reason, I’m not sure. But it’s a complaint you find online a lot.
I wear earplugs to gigs nowadays to protect my hearing (it was my 55th birthday, after all). They’re not super-expensive custom fitted ones, but they’re a bit more sophisticated than the regular lumps of plastic you can get from London Drugs (or Boots if you’re in the UK). They work really well and let me avoid the post-concert ear ringing without muffling the music.
And in the case of The Sisters of Mercy the earplugs actually improved the sound quality. In fact, towards the end of the gig I pushed them a little deeper than I normally would, and they filtered out most of the treble, and I could hear the vocals much better. The brand name is dumb, but they’re worth checking out if you’re in the market for a less damaging concert experience.
I can’t see anyone who isn’t already a fan going to a Sisters gig and coming away impressed, but as hardcore fans, we both really enjoyed the gig. They played a lot of their big songs, including our favourites, and the crowd was lively. You don’t really need to hear the singer when everyone knows the lyrics, anyway. Right? Right.
So all in all, a great birthday night out, and I suspect we’ll go to see them if they make it back to Vancouver again.
