Blog Dec 5 2008 Sisters of Mercy and Hypernova
TITLE: Foggy Sonic Forecast (file under “Music”)
Tuesday was an unusually foggy night in Los Angeles, something I’ll partly
attribute to legendary Gothic rockers The Sisters of Mercy [http://www.thesisters-of-mercy.com]. The band rolled into town for a concert at the Henry
Fonda Theater armed with enough fog juice to fill an airport hangar—a show
staple since the band formed in 1980. Although the only original member left is
singer Andrew Eldritch—unless you count the band’s thunderous drum machine,
dubbed Doktor Avalanche—the younger members that Eldritch handpicked for
this latest incarnation of the band were tight and played aggressive live renditions
of classic Sisters songs like “This Corrosion,” “Alice,” “Flood,” “Ribbons” as well
as unreleased songs like “Summer.” The black-clad faithful still show up to any
Sisters gig to writhe in layers of fog and lights before their dark-rock god who
hasn’t even released a full album since 1990’s Vision Thing, but I’m beginning to
wonder why, and the confused looks on some of their faces suggest that they are
too. Sure, fans expect to look up at a glowing white wall of smoke on stage at a
Sisters of Mercy show instead of, you know, seeing a band perform, but in the
past one could actually hear Eldritch’s fearsome baritone slicing through the
gloom. The last few times the Sisters have played in L.A. Eldritch has been
barely audible over Doktor Avalanche and company. Although all the Sisters of
Mercy albums still feel relevant and are genre classics, Eldritch’s voice is clearly
shot—at least live. If you go to a concert and can’t see the band through all the
fog or hear the singer over the drum machine, you might as well sit in your
steamy bathroom, play the CD and save 40 bucks.
Before the stage filled with fog for the Sisters, relatively unknown opening band
Hypernova [http://www.hypernova.com] surprised everyone by upstaging the
lead act. The Iranian quartet used to perform secret underground gigs in Iran
during a time when playing rock music could result in public flogging, prison time
or harsh fines. Hypernova wisely moved to Los Angeles and recorded their first
album, Through the Chaos, before relocating to New York. Their sound is
reminiscent of dark alternative-rock favorites like Interpol and She Wants
Revenge, all of which have been clearly influenced by bands like the Sisters of
Mercy. But where a lack of vocal power and too much smoke left the audience
feeling disconnected from the latter’s performance, Hypernova seemed genuinely
thankful to be able to play without persecution and drew the audience closer. The
lyrics from their song “American Dream” show not only where they are going, but
where this genre of music must go to endure: “I know that I'll never go back home
/ To the life I had, the life that I had known / They put me on the cover of their
magazines / Scarlet skies and broken dreams / They promised me that we would
change the world / For better or for worse / All I wanted was to rock and roll / All I
wanted was to see the world / The happenings on the streets / And mingle
with the kooks and beats.”