 | | The Mission (pic: Andrea Ostholt) |
Looking like the Bono-Goth, Hussey heads up this rejuvenated, entirely re-jinked, line-up. After dabbling with various projects in semi-retirement, The Huss gathered a new band of erring, derring-doers to herald the millennium (or something along those lines anyway). 2007 sees the Goth clichés put to bed. Always more a classic rock band under those hats and overcoats than a set of desperately arty, aloof avant-gardists, old flames Fabienne and Serpents Kiss are sheared with a hard, metallic sheen - literally dusted down compared to their reverb-laden 80s recordings.  | | The Mission (pic: Andrea Ostholt) |
There’s scant evidence of the Eskimos (their human-pyramid-building devotees), though one lady appears borne aloft, to Hussey’s delight, on closing encore Tower Of Strength. Even before the puzzling inclusion of sappy single out-take Hands Across The Ocean, classic Severina is dispatched second song in, symbolising eyes centred dead-on new horizons - or was it a reward for the early birds who stood through David R. Black’s simpering support? Hussey’s lyrics were always more Ronnie Dio - elves, wizards and wonderstruck mumbo-jumbo belted out with the beseeching bellow of a man in mortal fear of the Mormons coming to reclaim him - than the Leonard Cohen heights of Nick Cave or, whisper it, Eldritch himself, but sing-a-long-a Wayne sessions Wasteland and Deliverance remain an awesome live experience, strident and passionate. Waving a Liverpool flag and swigging wine, Wayne walks off delighted, no doubt confident that the audience have witnessed an unwarranted renaissance. |
