Siouxsie

Siouxsie Sioux is quite simply an icon. Her male counterpart could be said to be Robert Smith, and she is absolutely on a level par. Name any other post punk 70’s band bar The Cure, to have been so consistently brilliant all through the eighties, the nineties with Banshees and The Creatures projects and even, in Siouxsie’s case, into the noughties with her solo stuff. The wonderful thing about the Siouxsie and the Banshees was having this incredible singer come poetess fronting a delightfully odd but highly original rhythm section of Steve Severin and Budgie, and then having changeable innovative guitarists along the journey like Smith himself, McKay, Pirroni, Valentine Carruthers and the truly great John McGeoch.

The importance culturally of Women in Rock is only now being explored and assessed, with Siouxsie Sioux being at the very forefront of the movement with her stance on mental illness, sexual abuse, outcasts of society, animal rights all hidden away in her lyrics; her stage persona, so strong of fortitude and defiance, able to magnify her beliefs and causes, help setting a template for women to be at the forefront of all cultural and artistic paths, feeding our bodies and souls.

Anyway, Siouxsie after a 10 year hiatus is back on tour. For the moment she is playing three gigs in Europe, and tonight’s gig in the rather plush Teatro Arcimboldi in Milan is the third one. At the moment only another 13 gigs have been announced including a headline show at the Lattitude Festival in July and two final gigs in London come September at the Troxy Club. So anticipation and delight does not cover it !

She enters with a four peice band clad in a silver jump suit with hood and trainers. As beguiling and magnetic as ever she stands proud soaking up the rapturous applause. For many of the audience, to share time with her is a dream come true . The band go straight in to “Night Shift” followed by “Arabian knights”both on the 1981 ‘Juju’ album. Goth rock is in the house!

The positive notes of the evening are Siouxsie herself who sings “live” warts and all and it’s a pleasure to hear the real singer on stage in this age of auto tune. Because of this she is so endearing and nostalgia abides especially when she does her trademark moves albeit more sensual than sexy. The setlist is great with a selection of Banshees songs guaranteed to please and tracks from her wonderful 2007 solo album ‘Mantaray’, plus a track from The Creatures catalogue, “But Not Them’.

The less satisfactory element to the show is that it is just a Siouxsie experience. The band are good, professional musicians but there is no blood and guts, no nuance, so the sounds for each song are similar most notably in the drumming, and where Budgie would be both daring and innovative tonight’s drummer is steady but safe. Indeed the band are not even introduced to the audience such is their presence on stage obviously necessary but not really a blessing. There are backing tracks used too for string and horn arrangements which add to the sterility of some songs.

Still “Dear Prudence”, “Cities of Dust”; well we can all name our favourites, are just too enticing to not get involved. The encores “Spellbound” and “ The Passenger” see the crowd leave their seats and storm to the front to scream and holler at Siouxsie. It’s not a perfect evening but she is perfection. I think these European gigs are warm up concerts in a way to get the adrenaline flowing and live chops cooking. If the band can become more involved it will make the summer shows, especially the outdoor festival ones, a great place to be. But Siouxsie is a legend whatever and no lip service can ever change that.

Setlist
1. Night Shift
2. Arabian Knights
3. Here comes that day
4. Kiss them for me
5. Dear Prudence
6. Face to face
7. Loveless
8. Land’s end
9. Cities in dust
10. But not them
11. Sin in my heart
12. Christine
13. Happy house
14. Into a swan
15. Spellbound
16. The Passenger