Sisters Of Mercy/Blaqk Audio – The Greek Theater, Los Angeles, Ca 10/24
By Jeffrey Easton
Heavy music in the 80s was not defined by one genre, it came from all areas: thrash, heavy metal, death, glam and gothic/industrial.. So many bands passed through and so many nobody remembers but you could never forget about the Sisters Of Mercy. The Sisters had a profound effect on the music scene. They were influenced by several diverse bands but the influence they had on the music scene that came after was profound. No matter the scene, gothic, industrial or metal, cues were taken from Andrew Eldritch and his bleak vision.
Opening the evening was Davey Havok’s’ creation, Blaqk Audio, a long running electronic duo that pushes the envelope of Davey’s’ creativity outside of AFI. Featuring Jade Puget pushing the sounds, also of AFI, they pushed through six albums of on the edge material that the Greek dove into. Opening with Stiff Kittens from the debut album Cexcells, the stage was Daveys playground. Davey is a profound live artist and tonight was no different. The set was comprised of darkly laden album cuts that took cues from the synth wave artists that paved the way for them. The Viles, Bitter For Sweet, A Distant Light, Davey plowed every ounce of himself into the notes as they dropped from Jades deft fingers. Davey had the crowd on his side all night and before the show closed, he expressed his love and admiration for Sisters and the notes of First To Love poured over the Greek and the crowd lost it over the huge breakout hit.
As the last notes of Blaqk Audios’ set still echoed over the Greek, the erection of the Sisters set began. The Sisters of Mercy still hold sway over multiple generations of fans and still without a new record since 1990. Andrew Eldritch has been at the helm of this masterful touring machine and with his core of guitar players, Ben Christo and Kai, a brilliant Japanese axe slinger, they dominate the stages they destroy, still. Despite the aforementioned no new record since the brilliant Vision Thing, The Greek was packed as if they were witnessing Sisters touring in 1990. As the lights dimmed and the strains of Doctor Jeep/Detonation Blvd, The Greek Lit up and with the appearance of Andrew, that sealed it. On a personal note, that was me as well, having been a huge sisters fan since the late 80s and playing their stuff loudly to the detriment of those around me. Hidden in the darkness of the backlit stage, Andrew slithered through the intense set of material that took me back to my era, watching MTV in my nothing to do hometown and being transfixed by the works they created. Hearing More conjured the apocalyptic video they created and cementing my long standing fandom. As I watched Ben and Kai push the set to deafening levels, Andrew led the works from the darkness, still dressed in black and bejeweled with dark sunglasses, some things never change. The night ended with a few tracks that came to define them, Lucretia My Reflection and This Corrosion, hearing these, I was a kid again, speeding down one of the back highways blasting this stuff and here I am…decades later…still doing the same thing. Some bands and what they put out fade away and others are timeless, they stay in your veins and never bleed out.
Sisters Of Mercy Official Site
Blaqk Audio Official Site
