1999/10/14, The Chili Pepper, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA

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

Just back, jet-lagged and generally knackered so I'm not going to do a proper review.

The weather at Fort Lauderdale was unbelievably vile: 20 inches of rain in one day thanks to a bastard hurricane parked off the Cuban coast. "Sunshine State", my arse. The Sisters crew and, to a lesser extent, the band were pretty tired after the 40 hour non-stop drive from Vegas to Atlanta a couple of days before, and there were some complaints about the size of the stage at the Chili Pepper - far too small to get a decent lighting rig up, and Jurgen was bothered about the acoustics. The place must have been a near sellout, though - there was a healthy sized crowd in there by the time Tube was on. I can thoroughly recommend Tube - banging Techno of the Drum'n'Bass variety and he really should get over to England where this sort of thing goes down well. Frank's a top bloke as well.

The Sisters' tiredness was evident early on in their set, with the songs competently performed but lacking the usual savage cutting edge. Both this and Orlando gigs I saw were good, solid Sisters gigs, but didn't make the quantum leap to the blistering performances you get about 20% of the time. Actually, quality is usually more reliable at the one-off Summer festivals. Still, there is always a moment about 3 or 4 songs in where the lights, the smoke, the noise, the sheer presence of the band about 10 feet away, all combine and I realise I'm enjoying myself. That's why it's worth spending 8.5 hours on a plane to get there - you forget what great entertainment the Sisters are. And there's no (metaphorical) hangover the next day, in both the cold light of day and in the frenzy of the gig the Sisters live thing is an unqualified success. The crowd livened up with Temple and a minor moshpit developed, rare for a US gig (I find US audiences somewhat reserved compared to European). Susanne was a clear highlight at both gigs, and Will I Dream, with the rather splendid temporal shifts in the lyric of the three verses, is beginning to grow on me. Bei Mir is rather more lively than I was expecting, but didn't make an immediate impact. One idiot gets up on the stage. Regular Sisters giggers wince - there is surely no more dangerous place on the planet. Sure enough, there's a blur of cold steel and he ends up in the photographer's pit. "Don't worry, you can tattoo the bruises tomorrow...". Ah yes, I prefer my on-stage Von machine nasty and sarcastic.

ASN: the phrase went "this one probably had his bruise tattooed".