[random] In illusion comfort lies

Ah... just got back from seeing the arrogant-but-talented Andrew Eldritch and his current incarnation of The Sisters of Mercy... Oh, and Doktor Avalanche, of course. Wouldn't be The Sisters without the good Doktor. It wasn't the best show I've ever seen them do, but overall I'd give it a solid B+. The opening act was a weird fit - the former lead singer for The Catherine Wheel did a solid solo set of material from his new album, and closed with "Black Metallic". He was good, but not what the crowd was there for, and not what had been advertised (I wonder what happened to The Warlocks - I'd heard some of their samples online, they'd have probably been pretty good. Of course, maybe that was the problem... Andrew does not like to share the spotlight.). The sound sucked intermittently, there was way too much fog (setting off the fire alarms towards the end of the show), but it wasn't a bad set, with lots of 'old' and 'new' ('Vision Thing' counting for most values of 'new') - there were a couple of truly new songs, so maybe he is finally coming out with a new album! Ouch. Okay, I think I strained my sarcasm gland on that one... I do have to ask what the fuck was up with the crowd? Man, that was one of the uglier crowds I've been in for a while - there was a lot of pushing & shoving, and Seattle isn't usually like that, even when you're right in the thick of it. That's the closest I've come to brawling in a club in, like, more than a decade... On the cool side, since it was an all-ages show, there were a bunch of parents with their kids there - most of the kids looked to be around 8 or 9 years old. We were really close up to the stage, and towards the end, a mom came through with her little girl who promptly got (somewhat cramped) red carpet treatment - she got right up to the front, wound up on some random guy's shoulders - she got to see it all, all through the last couple of numbers and the encores. She even scored some guitar picks - both guitarists saw her, and one reached over and expressly passed the picks to her. That was probably the best part of the night ;-) Youth - so wasted on the young...