First up were the support act, The Violets, and after the first song I was stunned. Not at how good or how bad they were, but because they were clearly just the Banshees circa 1979 except the singer had blonde hair, not black, and was dressed like she'd just left the office. What was that all about? I suspect some amusement was had behind the scenes about that. Moving on...
Siouxsie came on stage to rapturous applause and launched into 'Israel' followed by 'Arabian Knights', and that was the gauntlet thrown down right there and then. She is Siouxsie and has a back catalogue to die for. That established the tone for the rest of the set, mixing Banshee classics with songs from the new album and that approach worked exceptionally well, new and old songs seemlessly meshing. The only thing missing was anything from The Creatures but that might be down to the absence of Budgie.
Siouxsie strutted across the stage, arms weaving in dramatic gestures, legs kicking high, hands slapping her thighs in time to the drums, throwing back her head one moment and leaning in to tease the front of the audience the next. She knows how to work a crowd and, let's face it, everyone there last night was part of her crowd. She was in great voice and the band was tight. She looked good in a harlequin body suit kind of thing, slender and lithe, scarlet lips and black on black wild hair. Siouxsie is back and, judging from how she was last night, enjoying herself.
She was on stage for around 1 hour followed by two encores of two songs each. For such a soulless venue the sound was excellent, so full marks on that score. Highlights for me were the wonderful 'Dear Prudence' (which was preceeded by Siouxsie saying, 'do we have to do this one?'), 'Nightshift' (one of my least favourites but nice to hear it live), 'Here Comes That Day' (the new single), 'One Mile Below' and 'Sea of Tranquility' (from the new album). The set closed with a great version of 'Into A Swan' (obviously set to be her new anthem after launching the album). While waiting for the encore I joked that she'd come back with 'Hong Kong Garden' and guess what happened? O yes, the marvellous 'Hong Kong Garden' opened the encore (I bought the single 29 years ago) followed by the spectacular 'Spellbound'. I had a big grin going on during those two songs, singing along not quite word perfect. A second encore treated us to the moody 'Swansway' and 'Hello, I love you' (the Doors song). I hung on hoping for a third encore but when the lights came on I took the hint. Phew.
Siouxsie was triumphant.
The audience was an interesting mix of old punks and former goths since she is a luminary in both camps, a surprising number of smartly dressed women, a smattering of wierd and wonderful haircuts and piercings (I liked the woman with a huge mass of lime green hair in the middle of the crowd) and the usual mob of fat, middle aged, drunk men getting too boisterous in the name of their own enjoyment at the expense of everyone else (especially unpleasant when they smell of stale sweat and beer). At such a gathering of the clans I suppose that's to be expected.The venue is awful, a warren of little corridors and steps up and down all over the place, bar staff disinterested but still expecting a tip (the best tip I'd offer is serve your customers with a smile). The lighting was rubbish, loads of lights at the back of the stage and only twelve (I counted 'em) pointing at the stage so we saw lots of sillouettes of Siouxsie prowling the stage but not much of her. I've now found a venue even worse that the Shepherds Bush Empire (but at least the floor wasn't sticky...).
Be that as it may ... Siouxsie was fab.
I'm *so* looking forward to seeing her at the Roundhouse in a few weeks time (where I'm upstairs seated so should have a great view of her antics on the stage).
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