Sisters of Mercy – Manchester Academy

Or HOW much dry ice have I just breathed?

(No pics, I’m afraid – they’d have all come out as clouds of smoke anyway)
It must be at least ten years since I’ve seen Sisters of Mercy in concert – I know I missed the ’97 tour, so when the “Smoke and Mirrors” tour was announced, I got a ticket pretty damn quickly.

Tonight was quite fascinating – almost a timewarp in many ways. Looking around the audience, it was obvious that the great majority had been listening to the albums when they were first released, and they were here for much the same reasons as myself. One amusing side-point I noticed was that while the women all seem to be in much the same Gothy outfits they were in ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, the men have changed styles to accomodate nasty things like hair-loss and so on. Where they would have been in the full quiffs and “outrageous” hairstyles, now there’s more of a tendency towards Matrix-style clothing, long leather coats and (of course) shaved heads. Age marches on.

The support act were one I’d never heard of before, OceanSize – not bad at all. It took the audience a while to get into their stuff, but by the end I think it was generally acknowledged that they were pretty good, and will probably be headlining their own gigs before long. They’re very like a slightly heavier, bassier version of Muse.

Then we get to the main attraction. The venue fills up with dry ice (and I do mean fills – you could hardly see the bar at the side), the lights go on, and the drum machine kicks in. I don’t think the singer was actually completely visible at any time in the concert – any time visibility looked like becoming an issue, zap, out blew more dry ice.

They didn’t play anything new, it was all the old stuff that everyone knew already – but that was what they were there for. No-one was complaining at all – we were there to see the Sisters play, and that’s what they did. Very few favourites were left unplayed, and it was a stunning concert. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now – how long ’til my hearing comes back?