Let’s Do The War On Drugs Earlier in the week I…
Earlier in the week I went to see The Sisters Of Mercy at The Forum in London. A much misunderstood and often maligned outfit, the Sisters are one of the few bands to travel with me from the experimental carnage of my adolescence all the way through to my slightly befuddled arrival at the gates of my fourth decade. I've often wondered if this means I'm actually an emotionally arrested teenager at heart, but I think it's actually more to do with developing a particularly sophisticated world view at an early age. Or probably both.
Anyway, the Sisters have always been a delirious proposition live, given their combination of playing super-loud super-fast amidst swathes of dry ice and emitting razor-sharp intelligence and humour in roughly equal proportions. Usually the Sisters get lumped with the terminally naff Goth bands of the early eighties - but really they're the direct descendants of Suicide, the Stooges, Velvets and Motorhead, with a bit of Bowie at his most outrageous mixed in for good measure.
I had fears that perhaps I wouldn't enjoy the gig because I might suddenly discover that, mid-gig, I'd Grown Up. After all, this is the band that hasn't released a new album for 10 years and are constantly accused of living off past glories. However, once the lights went down, the balloon went up. The sheer roar of adrenaline coming from the stage made me realise that the Sisters are still as vital as ever, as capable as Underworld or the aforementioned Mr Bowie and transporting me to a place that's quite wonderful without any need for a prior trip to the chemist.
The recent release of Underworld's superlative live album Everything Everything makes me think the Sisters should do the same, if only to showcase the way they've revamped and revitalised their classics and moved on to new territories. Given the absence of a studio album for a decade, a live one is even more unlikely, but we can but hope...
The link at the top goes to the official Sisters site, which is packed full of dry wit disguised as information about the band. There's also the excellent unofficial site The Sisters Of Mercy Tours.
