Sister live review

Lip-curling sleaze at the Underworld

Crowd shot
(Image: © Katja Ogrin)

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Tonight’s audience are a small but enthusiastic bunch. From those in Misfits t-shirts to hardened, leatherclad punks and hairsprayed punters in tight pants, the motley throng gathered here for metal-punks Sister reflect the musical influences powering the Swedes’ cock rock: an infectious blend of sleaze, gloss and grit that infuses Wembley-sized solos with furious Black Flag-esque riffery.

Vocalist Jamie Anderson has glass-shattering pipes, a face full of horror-punk makeup and a strutting stage presence, and he’s not afraid to get dirty. Some of his banter is a bit hammy but there’s real venom in his voice when he sneers “Fucking pussies” at the well-mannered crowd who refuse to gob on him during Spit On Me. Granted, a cover of GN’R’s My Michelle takes their 80s influences too far and the slower moments – Carry On and Would You Love A Creature – border perilously on cheesy, but otherwise, the glints of Appetite For Destruction-style danger that flash through Carved In Stone and the huge chorus of Unbeliever, or Bullshit & Backstabbing’s lip-curling, knuckledown punk, ensure that Sister’s crosspollinated sound never spills over into mere pastiche.

Dannii Leivers

Danniii Leivers writes for Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, The Guardian, NME, Alternative Press, Rock Sound, The Line Of Best Fit and more. She loves the 90s, and is happy where the sea is bluest.