The Sisters of Mercy • The Proud Villains • Appearing at Aragon Ballr….
The Sisters of Mercy • The Proud Villains • Appearing at Aragon Ballr.... As a writer and a person in general, I spent a lot of time, not always comfortably, looking back on past choices, discoveries, and early drug-related derailments during the past three COVID-constrained years, like many of us did. In 20/20 hindsight, I can easily see that I have made a few blunders during my chaotic, always colorful 46-year career. However, let us say that there is one thing I have always I am incredibly thankful to have had such life-altering revelations as that transcendent Goth-rocking album, along with the rest of their limited but impressive catalog (its quantum-leap 1987 followup Floodland, a Tony James-backed 1990 Goth/metal mashup, Vision Thing, plus an early-singles-and-EPs anthology, Some Girls Wander By Mistake). However, mortality is always on my mind now that I have almost died three times since 2017 (do not ask; thank God I am still here). When you add in other similarly creative bands from the heyday of post-punk, such The Psychedelic Furs, Echo and the This sails for reasons that I still do. Naturally, uplifting Sisters of Mercy performances, such as their visceral concert at San Francisco's Kabuki Theater when guitarist and frequent composer Wayne Hussey was still with the group before he and bassist Craig Adams left in 1986 to form The Sisterhood, then The Mission, came along with all that frequently somber lockdown reflection.
