The Sisters Of Mercy – The Ritz, Manchester, October 17th 2015 – Review 
First up, the venue was great. Not too big with a fantastic view of the stage from most places in the auditorium. Also the audience didn’t seem to contain any idiots – Just fans who were there for the actual music and the visuals of course. The three of us were stood near the front left, downstairs. – Handy for the bar! 
Like most Sisters fans (and I’m a big, big fan) I like the old stuff and have followed the band since the early 80s. First song I ever heard by ‘these guys’ was Body Electric on the John Peel show on Radio one. You know in the days when you could tape record a song from beginning to end with no voice overs from the DJ. – Great stuff. I later borrowed the 12-inch of The Temple Of Love from a mate which was absolutely awesome and soon saw the band play live on The Old Grey Whistle Test. These two things sealed my love for The Sisters from then on. Fair to say, I’m now about 70% human and 30% a product of their record label, Merciful Release! – Yep, I live and breathe these post-goth hipsters! 
When I say ‘these’, of course, I’m referring to Andrew Eldritch, the lead singer and general ‘boss’ of the band along with Doktor Avalanche, the ever faithful drum machine together with a succession of guitarists over the last 35 years. 
I’d not seen the band play since Leeds about 4 years ago, or thereabouts, so was very eager to watch them at The Ritz in Manchester, last night, at the time of writing. So were they any good? 
The Voice 
Eldritch has always been a bit hit and miss when singing live (in my opinion) and last night was no exception. One good thing however, was that relative to some other gigs I have seen, they had the mixing level on his voice loud enough. His singing style has altered quite a bit since his gothic days and instead of the deep melancholic vocals of times gone by, he often opts for a fairly nasal American – deep south approach, which I have to admit, I don’t like. He can still do the old timbres and indeed does. I think he’s got a really pleasant voice when singing softly too, which he mixes up with the loud screams and strong deep stuff quite effectively. – He’s certainly not boring. 
The Bass 
What bass? – Unfortunately, The Sisters no longer have a bass-guitarist in their line-up. – Rowan Atkinson’s Black Adder character, would have said that this is possibly the worst decision since Olaf the Hairy, high chief of all the vikings, accidentally ordered 80,000 battle helmets with the horns on the inside! Why have they done this? – The bass as Andrew Eldritch once said himself is what defines The Sisters. OK – It’s a free country and it’s up to him if he wants a different sound these days, but a bass sequencer, as is currently used, does not come up with the goods. There is simply no expression in it. Every note played, sounds the same as the previous and as a result, it just doesn’t ‘rock’. Come on Andrew, please get a human bass player. 
The Guitars 
There are 2 lead guitarists. Ben Christo and Chris Catalyst, both members since about 2005. They seem fairly good and fill out the songs pretty well. The main problem for me is the way they present themselves visually on stage. I’m being picky now, but Ben seems to be too busy posing (in a very cheesey way) and although Chris is fun to watch (being a bit of an entertainer) his comic movements are a bit too much and seem to take the p*ss out of the performance. I think both guys need to just be a bit cooler really, when they’re playing. – Sorry! – Maybe take it a bit more seriously. – But that’s just my opinion. One thing I didn’t like was the melodramatic strums that look like something from 70s glam-rock a la The Sweet or Wizard! – Maybe they should wear silver glittery jump-suits! – I think they probably do from time to time. 
Drums 
Ah – Doktor Avalanche eh? – This is no longer an actual drum machine. Instead Eldritch programmes the beats into a software sequencer, Cubase I believe for any (fellow) techno-heads. ‘The Nurse’ operates this behind the scenes on a couple of laptops from what I’ve read. Hmmmm. Somehow this ain’t as sexy as using a real drum machine, such as the Roland TR-808, that they used to use. – You know, the one with all the claps and tambourines. Apart from his charismatic singing style, one of Eldritch’s talents has always been his ability to program great catchy and sometimes intricate rhythms using interesting sounds. This along with the bass has historically defined the band. The current set up seems to use a pretty good Kick drum, but with quite a monotonous snare sound that is present on every song. The rhythms don’t seem as complex either. I’d like to see The Sisters dust off the Roland again personally, or maybe the Oberheim DMX that they later used when they played their famous gig at The Albert Hall back in 1985! I could almost listen to the drums from those days on their own and still enjoy it. – Yeah – I’m that sad! 
Visuals 
Eldritch was wearing a hoody last night. I’ll say that again… Eldritch was wearing a hoody last night. Why? – I’m not saying that he should go back to sporting a wide-brimmed hat and a Fagin-esque coat (although that would’ve been ace), but come on – A hoody? – Eldritch is meant to be (and is) weird (in a good way) and I’d personally like to see him dress the part, but this is subjective of course. At least he still wears the shades! 
The light show was pretty impressive and it’s good to see the band using the smoke machine in ‘overkill mode’. – The latter is a must and goes with Andrew’s sinister voice. 
Songs 
The best played song was ‘Valentine’ and the guitar chords really stood out on this. It was reminiscent of the original to some extent. The worst song was The Temple Of Love, mainly because of the backing vocals in the chorus. They were sung fine, but they were harmonically higher up pitch-wise and too loud relative to the main vocal. They made the song sound really cheesey and I was cringing at that point. – Shame, because it’s a bloody good song. The main fast lead part that everyone is familiar with was played on (very) muted strings and possibly as a result, the sound was dead. Interesting that the band played a Red Lorry Yellow Lorry cover. I’d have like to have heard Jolene (but you can’t have everything). 
Overall 
I’ve been a bit harsh in this review and overall I enjoyed last night’s concert. I’m only being super-critical because the band means so much to me. They were still a million times better than any other act I’ve seen in recent years. (Nick Cave came a fairly close second, but for vastly different reasons). 
It’s good to see The Sisters still performing live after all these years. I just wish they’d release another album! 

Action List for Mr Eldritch 
Get a bass player. 
Lose the hoody. 
Invest in a retro drum machine. 
Take it easy on the cheesey choruses. 
Sing more in your old sinister/deep style. 
Write more songs. 
Release an album. 
Oh.. and save the world! 
Written by Alan Brookfield, Warrington. 18th October 2015.

sok igazság van benne:-)