1997/06/13, Red Box, Dublin, Ireland

Written by Karst de Jong (karstdejong@ireland.com) for Dominion mailing list

Friday the 13th, and she turns 25 - a day full of hugs and kisses of course. Comfortably on an Ulsterbus to Dublin, and oh dear, there is this fully black clothed male sitting next to me, reading a rather scary novel indeed! I absorbed the review in the Independent, and had a thorough laugh...

Dublin is a maze: spend an hour looking for the youth hostel. On our search we had the doubtful pleasure to find large ads hanging around announcing the High Kings of Goth... tsss... After a wee snack, we walked down, avoiding any scary dressed people, which seems to be a rather big thing down south. And they say the Irish were such friendly people!

The venue of course very suitable, Enter the Batcave. DJ with funky hairdo was spoiling us with industrial noise, while even the odd Nefilim t-shirt was spotted. Let's went out, and the support act apparently wisely stayed home.

Intro tape started with some squeaking music, and under the blue light and dry ice our man appeared. Stage setting was unique, these three scaffolding things makes it all look rather Bladerunner-ish. The songs, well, let's say it was all in all an original approach to it. El seemed to be enjoying himself, although the public seemed to be a little baffled by the new angle of it all. "If you don't wake up, you're in for a good kicking & I know where your children live". Oh dear...

Three encores, but no Kylie. At one point on of the guitarist handed the guitar to Andrew, who of course refused to take it, but informed us that is was indeed his instrument. Of they went after a solid hour, to return twice, Jolene as the final throw out.

A run for the jackets ensued... Thank god for NI security <grin> Off for a wee piss me, when I return it appears that El appeared on stage, while roadies were taking it all apart. Took a wee look at the chaos, and disappeared again. He resurfaced later on sporting the Leeds t-shirt & dark glasses, chatting away, and at one point even leaning over the balcony trying to pass on a pint.

Had a great evening, t-shirt is ace. Was rather intimidated when a Missionette came up to me to tell me that the show was boring. Had to shake hands firmly... dear, dear...

So, the Sisters have definitely gone drum & bass with guitars. The lightshow was bloody amazing, Temple of Love is still a favorite, and El should stop saying "Oh yes" after every song - bit flimsy that is.

Right, off to do some shopping, and wondering why these two RUC officers were shot...

Written by Robin Colman (sisters@pandora.be), German translation was published in Head and Star fanzine

The Sisters of Mercy in Ireland. They were announced to play in one of Ireland's biggest halls, The Point (remember the Eurosong festival in Ireland). But three days before the show the promoters had to move the concert to a much smaller club called the Red Box. This reminds me a bit of the Offenbach gig in Germany last year.

I knew something must have gone wrong, it's Friday the 13th today, isn't it.

Only about 600 people showed up, isn't the Irish public interested, or was it the bad advertising campaign that did it? I saw a small ad in an English newspaper announcing the High Kings of Goth. Who cares, the location was perfect, this was Ireland, Ireland is beautiful.

I'll make this short, the gig was not like those of the days before, maybe Andrew and his voice are getting tired, maybe he's disappointed in the low amount of people that showed up for The Point, or maybe it's just me, tired of traveling all these dates. I'm glad this is the last one for now, I now understand touring is so damned tiring.

No Kylie today, Temple of Love was great, Jolene was again the public's favorite as the last song and Andrew was going "yes, yes, oh yes" after every song.

It was a great evening, Andrew tried to give away beer, the guitarist giving his guitar to Andrew, Andrew refusing it, too bad, Andrew wearing his Leeds T-shirt and real dark glasses. Just like in Manchester bad security that didn't allow anything.

Aren't' they planning to play Confide in Me anymore? And what about Summer? Only future will tell.

Off to get some rest for Philly / Athens / Dour / Vienna and Rendsburg. I hope to see them all, but I'm afraid I'll have to miss some of them this time if I want to keep my job.

Written by David Galbraith (Davidg@baltimore.ie) for The Sisters of Mercy Tours site

The concert was changed from the Point Theatre to the smaller Red Box about 3 days before it happened. The Sisters were never going to fill the Point, but the lack of promotion hardly helped. The new venue only opened a couple of months ago and is located above one of Dublin's trendier clubs, The POD, and close by several large office blocks. The mix of people who were in the bar downstairs before the gig was truly bizarre.

There was a great buzz once we went upstairs, probably helped by the fact that a lot of the audience had never seen the Sisters before (their only previous shows in Ireland were secret warm-ups in 1990). There was no support, only a DJ playing loads of Industrial stuff.

The Sisters opened up with Comfortably Numb/Some Kind of Stranger (Kiss the Carpet seems to have been dumped) and went into Come together and Giving Ground. A lot of money was put into the Red Box, and it showed with the sound and lights being superb throughout.

The set was along the same lines as the previous gigs. I don't know what War on Drugs sounded like on previous nights, but it sounded good last Friday. The highlights for me were Giving Ground, the best Anaconda I've ever heard, Blood Money, shouty, jumpy sing-alongs to Dominion/Mother Russia, Flood II, and This Corrosion, and a storming Jolene which finished off the night as a third encore. The only downer was no Confide in Me. Ah well. I'm off to check out flights to Belgium.

Written by Brian Tucker (Tuckerb@ccmail.dcu.ie) for The Sisters of Mercy Tours site

A good decision to move from the Point, this venue proved far more intimate not to mention appropriate. The atmosphere pre-gig did much to set the scene as always, nice to see non-gothically dressed people like myself as well as the leather clad-bunch.

Eldritch appeared from the gloom sporting a Motörhead t-shirt and short blonde locks to great applause: Comfortably Numb/Some Kind of Stranger the first of many great songs. What struck me most was the inter-weaving of songs, without breaks. Favorites such as Train, Anaconda, Dominion, Temple of Love were excellent, along with lesser known material such as On The Wire, Giving Ground and Come Together. The only disappointment was the absence of Alice, which could have served as a fitting encore, Eldritch screaming NO! before leaving the stage would have been a fitting climax.

Nevertheless, a great show, which surprised a few critics. Eldritch still is master of the Bowie-esque gestures. Indeed, he seemed in all too good form, waving to the crowd, posing for photos and generally putting up a great show. The Sisters can still cut it live, we all await some new recordings with patience.

Picture at the top of this page was taken by Derrick Sandford (2fiends@flash.net); full version is available here. Poster scanned by David Hlavacek (dr.komisar@post.cz).