I went to see the TSOM this past tour, and found myself scratching my head, for several different reasons. One, I have been more or less OBSESSED with the Sisters since I first discovered them, and there was a feel of dreaded disappointment; a feeling I fought hard mostly from fanboy devotion than anything else. The sound was muddled, at times horrible, inaudible and mixed way too low at others. However, there are ALWAYS moments of shear brilliance and what rock should be when you see the Sisters. Sadly, the enchantment began to wear off after another round of monotonous drum machine beats and hard metal guitars bashing out decade old hits and unrecorded gems. I felt kind of like in 2006 on the 'Bite the Silver Bullet' tour, when I wondered how many times they could churn out a three minute version of an eight minute song, and rush through their setlist. I could not, however, say the show sucked.


It's the nature of the Sisters as an entity of rock history now, and their place (or lack of place) in a music industry that never really moved with them- forward. The Sisters embody frustration for those devoted to their idiosyncratic form of pop: they refuse to release records, even though they have more than enough material for it; they have the chops to put on absolutely mindblowing shows, but choose to bury it beneath dry ice, poor sound, and apathy. Their shows, anyone can tell you, range from the ecstatic to the excremental in quality, sometimes in the same gig, or one after the other. As they pounded through Dominion, I pondered walking out and didn't feel sad (and that makes me sad) because I felt I wouldn't really miss anything and I had seen this before from them. I felt the same way during Summer. And then Flood II. And then Something Fast. And Vision Thing. And then it was over, and I was frustrated because I felt like I had been tricked again, suckered into bed by this charming entity that is the Sisters. And they left me with a disconnected phone number and a disheartening realization that Eldritch and company really can't continue on doing music the same way they've been doing it and still be the Sisters as we remember and love them. I felt the same way in 2006. "The Sisters are a joke now." I wrote. It is something the 2008 me returned to often during the show, but also the excited 16 year old fanboy was side-by-side with his jaw on the floor. I came to the conclusion that the Sisters are like that friend you can't give up on. Or maybe that's just bullshit. It's the Sisters, man. Take them for what they are, or don't. I choose to.

Edit this setlist | More The Sisters of Mercy setlists