I Will Call You
Ribbons
Don’t Drive On Ice
Alice
But Genevieve
First And Last And Always
Dominion / Mother Russia
Summer
Marian
More
Giving Ground
Doctor Jeep / Detonation Boulevard
Eyes Of Caligula
Something Fast
Crash And Burn
Vision Thing
On The Beach
When I’m On Fire
—
Lucretia
Temple Of Love
This Corrosion
It’s always a good opportunity to visit Amsterdam. Especially when attending a concert in the legendary Paradiso, which happened to be a church many moons ago. What a perfect fit, though the Sisters have played the venue before.
But then, this gig, the third of the tour, was greatly anticipated. At the start of the tour, the first at the London Roundhouse, guitarist Dylan Smith was escorted off the stage during the encore. Quickly, rumours about tensions between him and the guitar techs emerged. Whether true or not, the Sisters were down to a three-piece on night two with Ben Christo as the sole guitarist. So talks before the gig at the Paradiso were mainly about if Dylan would be back on stage, pardoned. Some people claim to have seen him at the venue. Being a Utrecht resident, it’s not that far-fetched. Also there were speculations on Chris Catalyst, nurse to Doktor Avalanche, picking up the guitar.
But first, The VirginMarys. Their high-energy set dripped of powerful chords and intense drums. Completely unimpressed by the ill-fated tour start of the main act, the duo consisting of Ally Dickaty and Chris Birdsall took the audience on a wild ride … well, „Just A Ride“ which also was played that night. They launched their opening set with the latest single „The Meds“. „Look Out For My Brother“ also was a great song played that night. Overall, great band, very intense. Go see them!
Then, the Sisters. Turns out all rumours were false. The missing rhythm guitar had some effect. The extra layer of „intensity“ was missing, but surprisingly, it freed up some space for Ben Christo to showcase his incredible skill on the guitar. Also, Andrew Eldritch’s voice was clearer in the mix. This resulted in some interesting renditions of various songs. „Summer“ was outstanding, „On The Beach“ was spheric, „When I’m On Fire“ still was manic. Overall, a great performance with one man down. It does however not diminish the fact that the missing guitar adds to the current signature sound that makes the Sisters unique. As it turns out, the band would eventually fix this with the addition of Esprit D’Kai, or „Sister Kai“ as he shall henceforth be known. Also the band would have to fight with various issues as the tour left Amsterdam, with the abortion of the Berlin concert, as well as cancelling the performances in Köln, Wiesbaden and Lisbon.
Before and after the show, it was nice to connect with so many different people. A big „Hi!“ to Eggi, Andrew, Simon, Alexander, Bert, Oliver, Sabrina, Ingo, Jens, Alexa, Martin from New Zealand … so many people, what a wonderful time.
Oh, you probably would want to see some pictures. Here you go. Please ask if you plan to use them somewhere. I want to know.
And since you’ve scrolled this far…