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THE MISSION |
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The Mission is one of those bands that has truly experienced the ups and downs of the industry. They started almost as a "goth supergroup" with their lead members, Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams defectors from The Sisters of Mercy, and their drummer from Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. They became very, very large in Europe and the world for combining their love of glam and hard rock with goth and psychedelic, to the point where in the early 90s, they were playing English football stadiums. Those days may be gone, but they are still every bit as good as they were then, and every bit as enthusiastic live. The band is the same lineup that played The Galaxy in October: Wayne & Craig, Mark Thwaite (guitar since early 90s), and Scott Garrett. The instrumentation was fairly sparse--gone are the days of Wayne having keyboards and 12-string guitars on stage, now it's one guitar and amp for the stringed players, and a drum kit. Backing tracks for synth and drum machines for a few songs were kept out of sight. But the sound was huge, and to the sound man's credit, exceedingly well defined (although I wish Wayne's guitar wasn't so low in the mix). Wayne's massively effected guitar sounded appropriately psychedelic, Mark sounded like the modern rock hero, Craig still gives Gene Simmons a run for his "God of Thunder" title, and Scott can do more with his stripped down, 4 piece drum kit than other drummers can do with twice that many drums. The band did an excellent job powering through songs mostly from their heyday of 1985-1992, although they did open with "Raising Cain," a later single, and played one new song in the set. They came up with new arrangements of some old favorites, but mostly stuck to tried and true versions, stripped down for the current instrumentation. Wayne Hussey is still the consummate frontman--chatty, joking with the other musicians, making eye contact and playing to those within the first few rows, moving from end to end of the stage effortlessly. He is also known for being a very giving human being, and that showed again here--he'd share his wine with an audience member who held up his cup, take requests that were shouted and written in lipstick on a napkin, joke around, etc. Even if the music is often intense and gloomy, he still was very much enjoying himself, and grateful to have an audience. Many an artist could learn how to connect with their crowd--of any size--by watching Wayne. A fantastic performance. I can't tell you about the opening bands, as the show started early, and I missed them. In fact, that is my one complaint--the Key Club had a dance night or something going on at 11pm, and so they literally killed The Mission's set at 10:25pm, before they'd finished with their traditional closing of 1969. Wayne and the boys laughed and made a joke out of it when they got the "10 minute warning" from the crew, but I guess they were really serious, to the disappointment of all. I was not happy that they killed off a brilliant show before it's time, but it's happened a few times at The Palace as well...I just wish they wouldn't do that. I'd never been to the Key Club before, and I must say, I really liked the layout, except for one thing. It seemed small, cozy, nice upstairs dining area, lots of bar space, it was cool that the bathrooms were downstairs. But they shoved the merchandise table down there too...that was a bit out of view, and didn't help sales, I'm sure. But those are minor gripes. What we left with was not disappointment over the minor details, but elation and excitement over seeing a spectacular rock show by a band that, while smaller in scale, is no less potent than ever! |