1997/07/12, Dour festival, Dour, Belgium

Written by Oliver Duke-Williams (oliver@geography.leeds.ac.uk) for Dominion mailing list

Summer was excellent. Perhaps it's just that it's easier to assess the song properly when you know what's going on, but I thought it had improved markedly since Manchester. A strong version of War On Drugs as well. The only real concern would be that the band still haven't been able to remove whatever it is that is stuck in the volume control, preventing them from turning it up to the required level. Everything louder than everything else may or may not be seen as an ideal policy, but it would certainly be nice to be able to hear than band properly above the people bellowing along out of tune to This Corrosion.

After the initial excitement of the earlier gigs had receded, I began to worry about the state of the band, my nascent doubts nurtured by Ade's deliberations after the Manchester gig. However I'm pleased to say that Dour reaffirmed my faith: a great performance by a band palpably enjoying themselves, with the strength and development of the new songs being very a encouraging sign that Andrew has a keen interest in the Sisters being a band with a future, despite the slings and arrows cast his way by EastWest.

Oh, it's just occurred to me: am I correct in thinking that Under The Gun was left out of the set, or is that just wishful and beer addled thinking?

Written by Chris Sampson (Chris@cgs123.demon.co.uk) for Dominion mailing list

Excellent gig. The band were tight and mistake free. Summer stood out as the highlight for me; the new songs continue to improve with each performance. Jolene was in splendid form as the third encore, and Corrosion was superb again. The Belgian gigs are always good fun: it does the heart good to see the Sisters pulling crowds of 20000.

Big thanks to Sven and Sophie for giving us a lift from the airport.

My lasting memory of this gig will be me and Pete French, very drunk, storming the stage at 3 AM and playing air guitar to three very bemused stage hands. It seemed like a good idea at the time. How was your hangover, Pete? Mine was a doozy.

Rock and Roll.

Written by Pete French (pete@ohm.york.ac.uk) for Dominion mailing list

Chris Sampson:
> Excellent gig yesterday. The band were tight and mistake free. Summer
> stood out as the highlight for me; the new songs continue to improve

Agreed - excellent gig, plus the best version of War on Drugs played so far if you ask me. 3 encores too - could have done with being louder, but maybe that was due to regulations about the proximity of nearby housing. I think that's one of the best played gigs they've done this time round in fact.

> My lasting memory of this gig will be me and Pete French, very drunk,
> storming the stage at 3 AM and playing air guitar to three very bemused
> stage hands.

We did????? Oh god, we did didn't we - I'd forgotten that, and from what other people have said it sounds like I made a right arse of myself. Subsequently discovering I'd pitched the tent next to the all-night techno session and then having to drive all day yesterday didn't help. I still feel fragile, but have stopped seeing colors on the road as I was for the last hour of the return drive.

> Rock and Roll.

Indeed - to the extent that I have been persuaded that doing Rendsburg is a superb idea. I would seriously advise anyone else out there still in two minds about this to go for it.

Written by Wim Vandeputte (wvdputte@reptile.rug.ac.be) for Dominion mailing list

Boy, what a treat...

The lightshow was eh... mindblowing. The band was at their best (3 encores). Summer/War On drugs (what? no Confide? I want my money back!).

It was really worth the trouble we went into. I changed my mind, although I'm quite broke, I'm going to try to make it to Rendsburg. I advise everybody who hesitates to really go to either Vienna or Rendsburg, better both. You'll not be disappointed!

I met "the usual faces", but also missed a lot of others who probably went.

I know this isn't a review, I just had like 5 hours of sleep, now where is my breakfast?

Written by Sven Togni (togni@pandora.be) for Dominion mailing list

Belgian press really slaughtered Sisters and Front at Dour. They used words like Passé, Old guys, bands over the top, festival with a great name, etc.

But the fans were there, with about 14.000 for the Sisters. I have to admit that Front really sucked, they even didn't came back for encores...

Other great performance on Sunday was Type O Negative

Picture at the top of this page was taken by Wim de Nooyer (wiscel@zeelandnet.nl); full version is available at http://people.zeelandnet.nl/wiscel/som/dour.htm.