Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Thursday October 31, 2019
Photographer : Joshua South
Reviewer : Grant Ottley
Halloween, it would seem to be the perfect night to schedule a Sisters of Mercy show, and it turns out that it was! While you had the expected black lipstick & corset crowd, there was also a wider contingent of costumed malarkey adding to the colour. Well, let’s be honest, it was mostly shades of black, but it was a fairly disparate crowd to put it that way.
The Enmore was probably only about half-full when the Pinheads started (trick or treating obviously running long), but they started with intent! The Wollongong band took the crowd by the scruff of the neck and gave them a good shake. They have a vaguely Stooges vibe & swagger with jagged, buzzsaw guitars and drums that felt like an anxiety attack. ‘For a While’ and ‘No Time’ stood out to me, but these guys have plenty of good songs, and are certainly worth catching.
The room subsequently filled up during the break, and the Sisters made their grandiose entrance with ‘More’, followed with an atmospheric ‘Ribbons’, while ‘Crash and Burn’ brought the heavy. The lightshow was spectacular, adding so much that you could almost count the lighting guy as a member of the band (alongside Doktor Avalanche, the Sisters Drum Machine). Its fairly obvious where the likes of Nine In Nails drew their inspiration.
Andrew Eldritch spent a lot of time prowling around the side and back of stage in the gloom, delivering his distinctive deep grumbling, only rarely venturing into the spotlight crossbeams, content to give the guitarists Ben Christo and Dylan Smith plenty of space front and centre.
Smith is an Australian instrumentalist and composer, and is the main force behind the band, I Nation. He’s a great singer and guitarist, and from a distance bears a striking resemblance to WWE wrestler Edge. He’s a fine replacement for long-time guitarist Chris Catalyst. The two guitarists worked really off each other, and added a lot vocally. The instrumental spots also showcased them perfectly. Highlights were ‘Alice’, ‘Better Reptile’, and ‘First, Last and Always’.
The main set ended without a great deal of bombast, so the encore, which seemed like a forgone conclusion, gave us ‘Lucretia My Reflection’, ‘Vision Thing’ (Probably my highlight of the evening), ‘Temple of Love’ , ‘This Corrosion’ and its over. Everyone shuffles to the exits with a smile on their face.
Who said Goths were miserable? Happy Halloween everybody!
