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A.A.Williams

 
2019-10-14 DE – Cologne - E-Werk
 

| Doors: 7 pm | Show: 8 pm | Tickets: 30.00 Euro + fees | SOLD OUT |

 

We are a rock'n'roll band. And a pop band. And an industrial groove machine.
We are intellectual love gods.
We make records, sometimes. We play concerts, sometimes.

I could not have described them any better ;) True words. Three (regular) records since their inauguration in 1980, the last one almost 30 years back. Hope dies last but I guess no one expects a new record anymore, even if rumors go round again and again. I guess they are only spread to support live shows and touring. And it seems to work. Contrary to their recording attitudes, THE SISTERS OF MERCY are much more often to see live on stage. Regularly one could almost say. And they do so quite successfully. The band still has a strong following, which s sells out the shows at every tour. So it happened tonight at :: E-Werk :: Cologne.

I actually have never seen THE SISTERS OF MERCY live before. It’s a premier to me. For a long, long time they were on my bucket list, but it never worked out, for many reasons. So, I gonna take this chance tonight as an early birthday present ;)

:: pics :: A.A.WILLIAMS ::

The uniqueness of this evening also goes for ::A.A.WILLIAMS ::.
This girl came from nowhere, secured a label deal with demos only and already played the Roadburn Festival this year. That means a lot. Her self-titled first EP was released in January 2019 and was highly acclaimed with references to peers such as Chelsea Wolfe Emma Ruth Rundle and PJ Harvey. Nicole Sabouné comes even faster to my mind.
The music of A.A.WILLIAMS is described as Death-Gospel. That’s fine with me. The music is rather quiet, dark, solemn, and full of emotions and spirituality, intensive, and every now and then adorned with heavy guitars. I listened to the EP before the show and wasn’t sure if the music would work on such a big stage. Well, yes and no…
The high average age of the audience made an advance to A.A.WILLIAMS. People were attentive, though, a smaller club with an intimate atmosphere would work much better for her.
A.A.WILLIAMS stood in the middle of the stage with a big illuminated A behind her. She looked lost and engrossed, flanked by bassist Tom Williams and drummer Wayne Proctor, who tried to loosen up the scene a bit. Light was scarce, the sound band and the voice of A.A.WILLIAMS way too low.
After around half of the set the sound engineer found the volume, good for the singing, bad for the bass guitar, which was from now on totally overridden. Hm.
However, the music though captivated. A.A.WILLIAMS kicked off with the wonderful Cold that reminds me a bit of The Gathering during the Nighttime Birds times. And I also immediately recognized the Post Rock guitars in Belong.
Next to the four tracks of the EP, A.A.WILLIAMS also played three brand new ones, so far unreleased and thus without titles. Seems like we can look forward to a new record to be released soon :)
The response by the audience was quite reserved at first. But with every new song the applause became louder and was even heartily, when A.A.WILLIAMS left the stage after a 40 minutes performance.
What a great voice. Check her out! Highly recommended. And next time live in a small club please. Oh wait… I gonna see her next month supporting Cult Of Luna at Stollwerck in Cologne.

Band: A.A.Williams, Tom Williams, Wayne Proctor

Setlist: Cold, Control, Belong, Terrible Friends, plus 3 new and so far untitled songs

:: pics :: THE SISTERS OF MERCY ::

I have already heard and read many things about a :: THE SISTERS OF MERCY :: show. Rarely anything good actually. Just remember the gig reviews from the 2017 tour about cancelled shows on short notice, shows completely layered in dry ice, bad lights, stroboscopes, bad sound and a band bored to tears to play old chestnuts again and again (which I actually can understand). The first response from the shows in Munich and Berlin the days prior this one were of no good words either. Okay, however, I’m prepared, let’s get the party started ;)
The show seemingly kicked off a bit earlier than expected, when THE SISTERS OF MERCY entered the stage admits billowing smoke and bathed in gloomy blue lights. They opened the show with the über-hit More. Sound and voice were scattered and made fans raise their eyebrows. I expected to hear the crowd shout back “more” as the song downright invites to do so. A fan favorite and perfect opener to heat up the audience for the rest of the set. However, before someone could start nagging, the sound engineer did his job. A good job this time, and balanced the sound well for the rest of the show. I heard several fans saying afterwards that this was the best sound in a long time during a Sisters show.
Meanwhile, the raised eyebrows were kept. Because… hardly to believe… the use of dry ice was hold on a minimum level. Yes, you could see the whole band throughout the whole show. No hide and seek play by Andrew Eldritch anymore. Instead, we got an excellent and to the point light show. Woah! The faces of the photographers in the pit spoke volumes ;) And guess what… all the lights didn’t narrow the mystery around the band any bit, much the opposite. If at all, it would be Andrews clobber. Might be comfy but doesn’t look any bit mysterious ;)

By the way, THE SISTERS OF MERCY have a new (live) guitarist: the Australian Dylan Smith (doesn’t he look a bit like Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner?), who replaces Chris Catalyst, who departed from the band in May.
And yes, the mood among the fans whipped up. Dancing people with happy faces everywhere. Many seemed to be beamed back to the good ol’ times, drawing some energy from it. Most of the fans were Goth-like dressed or wore old and worn out vintage shirts from those times long gone. Others bought the newest merch and directly re-dressed (tees 30 Euro).
Since there is no new material, we got a set of hits and every songs was quickly recognized and welcomed.
Of course, songs have changed over the times in sound, speed and instrumentation. Live played these days those songs have hardly anything to do with the “original” ones from the albums. The music live on stage has become… age-based. Perhaps a bit sedated too. No wonder, the crowd’s average-age was probably 50+. And look, Andrew Eldritch turned 60 too. So, you can say, band, fans and music grew old together ;)
As for that Andrew Eldritch performed pretty agile, roaming the stage widely or was lurking like a black panther in the fog. There was hardly any chit-chat, but when Eldritch said anything, he did it in perfect German language. By the way, does he still live in Germany?
He, as well as his mates, always tried to get in touch with the fans via eye contact, making the fans in the first rows happy, who felt addressed. Nothing a bored-to-death-band would do or even care for.

What more can I say? My very first THE SISTERS OF MERCY was rad. It exceeded all my expectations and what I heard and read before. Sure, they could have changed the setlist, as it was played almost 1:1 to previous years, and a female background singer wouldn’t do any harm either. And of course, the sound could have been sharper, and more punching, for my taste, at least. But it was great though, and the band seemed to a unity, and not an individual performance of 4 members. Many fans told afterwards that it was one of the best Sisters shows ever. So I consider myself a happy hippo that was able to be part of this concert evening :)

Band: Andrew Eldritch, Ben Christo, Dylan Smith, Ravey Davey, Dr. Avalanche

Setlist: More, Ribbons, Crash And Burn, Doctor Jeep/Detonation Boulevard, No Time To Cry, Alice, Show Me On The Doll, Dominion/Mother Russia, Marian, Better Reptile, First And Last And Always, Instrumental, Something Fast, I Was Wrong, Flood II // Lucretia My Reflection, Vision Thing, Temple Of Love, This Corrosion

 

 

story & pics © Dajana & Dajana Winkel • Photography