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themission byMunichVampire13Backstage, Munich, Germany
4th May 2023
The Mission - “Déjà vu Tour” 2023 - Support : Wires & Lights

THE MISSION had to postpone their tour three times in the past years and in autumn 2022 drummer Mike Kelly left the band, so the Munich crowd was glad that the band finally made it to Germany. The audience lined up in front of Backstage Werk in a long line, when I arrived.


Wires & Lights

Wires & Lights are a Berlin based band focusing on Post Punk music. I arrived quite late at Backstage, so I only saw the last few songs of their set. The band did a solid job warming up the crowd for THE MISSION and looking at the merch stand, it seemed that they won over some new fans tonight. https://wireslights.com/

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The Mission

THE MISSION are a Gothic Rock band from UK, founded in 1986 by former members of THE SISTERS OF MERCY. The band kept touring and releasing records over the decades and has a very dedicated fan base. http://www.themissionuk.com

Music & Performance
When WIRES & LIGHTS left the stage, THEMISSION’s crew took over and rebuild the stage instantly. THE MISSION are perfectionists and so the crew checked everything on stage, before giving the signal for the show to start. The crowd in Munich was a pretty mixed one, tonight. You could see Gothic girls, rockers, a few guys in Wayne Hussey’s 80s style, famous from the epic video for ‘Severina’ and even a guy in blue jeans and a striped shirt made it to the show tonight. Everybody had come to hear and dance to THE MISSION and their music.

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At 21:20 the band came on stage, to the dramatic orchestral sound of Tadeus (1912 - 1998) loudly greeted by the fans. Wayne Hussey is one of the most charismatic guys in the scene and instantly got a grip on the crowd, when the first tunes of ‘Beyond the Pale’ became audible. To be honest, the first thing I did when I entered the media pit, was taking a picture of the setlist. THE MISSION have a habit of changing their setlists during the tour and I was glad to see ‘Severina’ and ‘Wasteland’ on tonight’s setlist. People danced to ‘Hands Across the Ocean’. The band interacted a lot with the crowd for their standards and drummer Alex Baumer was introduced as the newbie, who was in Germany for the first time. Given the fact, that he only joined the band last autumn and THE MISSION have a vast catalogue of songs to choose from, I must admit, that he did an amazing job. THE MISSION had designed a setlist with songs, that consisted half of songs from ‘Gods Own Medicine’ and ‘Carved in Sand’ and songs from other releases from all decades. One could say it was a fans favourite setlist and it seemed that band and crowd enjoyed the evening in Munich alike.

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My personal highlight was ‘Severina’. Hussey’s voice has aged in grace and thus it doesn’t matter that the vocals are not so high pitched any more, the crowd in Munich sang along anyway. After ‘Never Again’ I went to the back of the venue to observe the crowd and enjoyed a wonderfully illuminated performance of ‘Butterfly on a Wheel’. What happened next, can be only called a blast, although the vocal effects were a bit too overdosed occasionally. We are talking ‘Wasteland’ on a version that lasted almost 8 minutes with Simon Hinkler, Craig Adams and Wayne giving us a really great guitars during the opening action, giving the crowd a small pause to cheer until Wayne’s vocals kicked in and some fans threw confetti they had brought, Munich sang and danced along as one. ‘Deliverance’ marked the closing or the first section, but of course THE MISSION had brought some song for the encore. The highlight of the first encore was ‘Like a Child again’ and after ‘Belief’ the band left the stage, to come back for the second encore that started with ‘Tower of Strength’.

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THE MISSION said their goodbyes to Munich with a cover of ‘You'll Never Walk Alone’ and after the last tune faded, many in the crowd expressed the hope, that THE MISSION will consider touring in Germany again, for everyone had enjoyed tonight’s show a lot.

Setlist
01. Beyond the Pale
02. Hands Across the Ocean
03. And the Dance Goes On
04. Met-Amor-Phosis
05. Naked and Savage
06. Severina
07. Stay With Me
08. (Slave to) Lust
09. Never Again
10. Butterfly on a Wheel
11. Wasteland
12. Deliverance
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13. Let Sleeping Dogs Die
14. Like a Child Again
15. Belief
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16. Tower of Strength
17. You’ll Never Walk Alone (Rodgers & Hammerstein cover)

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 9
Light: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9.3 / 10

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Pictures of THE MISSION by Munich Vampire / Pictures of WIRES & LIGHTS by Helge Roewer

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