Disqus - Latest Comments for Steve Local

Re: Land of the Dead

Steve Local — Sat, 24 Sep 2005 15:36:15 -0000

Come on then, where's your review? ;-)

Re: Sisters Of Mercy - Nottingham

Steve Local — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:21:59 -0000

"I can appreciate the urge to play new material, but when the lead singer isn't introducing anything to the crowd, and when you've not released an album for nearly ten years, it gets quite tedious."

Not sure I agree - I saw Gary Numan do something similar the other week. The difference is that Numan pulls it off because he's still a thoroughly decent performer.

Personally I've got no problem with groups playing completely new material - after all The Fall used to regularly play sets almost entirely composed of new songs, though that's now a thing of the past - if it's good enough they'll hold your attention. I'm sure the problem was really that the Sisters were basically just rubbish :)

Re: Sisters Of Mercy - Nottingham

Steve Local — Thu, 11 May 2006 10:44:16 -0000

Nigel Drumm. What a lovely name. I might change my name to Steve Autoharp.

My question to you is this, though, Nigel: if there's so much smoke that the group is hardly visible, and the vocals are mixed so low as to be inaudible, is there any point going?

Personally I'd rather stay at home and consume a large quantity of beans on toast, and then spend the rest of the evening farting in the bath.

Re: Sisters Of Mercy - Nottingham

Steve Local — Tue, 16 May 2006 06:43:43 -0000

"Before i went i read up on Andrew Eldritch and his opinions towards live shows, personally i got everything i expected, and it was great."

I'm going to be on shaky ground here, as I'm a Fall fan, and I'm forever warning people that go to gigs with me that "tonight night be crap..." However, despite the obvious fanboys, Fall fans tend to be a reasonably pragmatic bunch. If Mark E Smith and his merry hired hands are having a bad night, most of us will usually say as much.

I wonder if the positive reactions to such an evidently poor Sisters gig is symptomatic of the whole goth dressing-up rigmarole? Not that I have anything against dressing up per se, but it strikes me that being a full-time Rocky Horror type these days isn't so much a statement of being "dark and dangerous" as it is an exercise in terrible, terrible nostalgia.

"Ooh, wasn't it lovely in the mid-80s when frilly shirts were so much cheaper?" "Ooh, I like that group, they remind me of Nephilim in their heyday".

There's a strong element of pretence in it, isn't there? Again, I've not necessarily anything against that. After all, we all pretend to be civilised to people we can't stand on a daily basis. But consider this: if the "let's pretend" element becomes so all-pervasive that it becomes possible to view a filthy lump of coal as a shining jewel, simply because it fits in with the lifestyle code are we not straying into the territory of dangerous, delusional cults?