Overall Rating:

3 out of 5

Sisters of Mercy, Palladium, Worcester, MA 11/1/08, November 2, 2008
By reynoldswriting

"In the late 80’s early 90s one of my favorite bands was The Sister’s of Mercy, considered one of the first British goth rock groups. With hits including “This Corrosion” and “Detonation Boulevard” I often describe them as “angry music you can dance to”. I have all their albums and saw them first in the 90s at a downtown Boston club called Avalon where they played with Nine Inch Nails. The two groups together put on a high energy, truly rockin’ performance. Since then, I’ve kept my eyes out for their next US tour and was very excited when I heard about the November 1 date in Worcester, MA. I bought tickets immediately!

I predicted that the concert would have an over 40 crowd and I was correct. It was an equal mix of men and women, dressed in variations of black attire. By day, many likely wore business suits, golf shirts and khaki’s, For the concert, they un-earthed their black jeans, black tees and leather jackets. I personally layered on twice the eye make-up worn in my day to day, dug out my black anarchy symbol tee shirt and had my “old english script” M necklace on. I was ready for some goth action.

The opening band was Hypernova, which were surprisingly good. I would describe them as modern goth rock, high energy, danceable, with definite influences of Sister’s, Bauhaus and some electronica. The band’s sound was very tight and the lead singer had a unique look. I googled the band name after the show and found out they were an Iranian indie-rock band based in Tehran. Tehran is pretty far from Worcester! Their song “Fairy Tales” on their my space page is definitely worth a listen. http://www.myspace.com/hypernovamusic

When it was time for Sister’s to come on, the stage filled with dark smoke. The crowd was ripe with anticipation. And then….disappointment. The music itself sounded decent, but you could not hear the lead singer, Andrew Eldritch. Also, the band members stood in place almost like singing statues.
The first song started and ended and the crowd barely reacted. Second song, third song..the same. At that point, I dragged my guest and we rushed towards the front of club, thinking if we were closer to the band, it might sound better. It was actually worse. Instead of crazy goth dancers in the front, people were standing around chatting and a few were even texting their friends. Texting during Sister’s, one of the inventor’s of Goth!! Unbelievable. With nothing to lose, I went and complained to the sound man. Others followed. No change.

Here we were… the stage was still filled with dark smoke so you could barely see the band. The little that you could see was not very exciting- as the band members were not moving from their marks. And, you could barely hear the bands’ vocals. A recipe for disaster and disappointment.

Letter to Andrew Eldritch: We loved your music in the 80s and 90s and want to love it now. But smoke and incoherent vocals will not a fan base make or maintain.

My guest and I found a way to “cope” with the grand performance, which was by drinking more alcohol and people watching. Always a good combination.. I guess we’ll have to wait for the next 80’s band to tour.. Bauhaus, Depeche Mode… who knows."

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