Wednesday 26 October 2011

Within Temptation

Yesterday it was time for the long-awaited concert with symphonic metal band Within Temptation. There has been some troubles with this concert. The date was first set in March at Store Vega in Copenhagen, however at the end of last year the singer of the band announced that she was pregnant and thus the entire tour was moved. My concert was moved to October 25th. Soon the venue was sold out and to be able to get more people to the concert the venue was changed to KB Hallen (where I previously have seen both Nightwish and Disturbed). However about a month ago there was a fire at KB Hallen and for some time I was worried the concert would get cancelled, but instead they changed the venue again to a place called Falconer Salen.

When we got to the right place (after a very nervous (on my part) walk from Copenhagen Central Station to Falconer Salen) we discovered that the new venue was a real fancy place. Big glass walls and everything. We got inside, payed for wardrobe, bought our tour T-shirts, got something to drink and entered the hall. I had read nothing about a support, for a moment I though there was none. But turned out that there was. It was a three-piece metalband called Triggerfinger. Although I remained unimpressed by the music I was throughly amused by their performance and I looooove their image; three men properly dressed in suits. The singer/guitarist had a backslick, the bassist was bald with sunglasses and he never said a word, the drummer was as hyperactive as drummers are supposed to be (as was the singer/guitarist). I liked their performance, but I probably won't listen to them again since I didn't enjoy the music. A live band through and through.

The support played for about 30 minutes, then we had to wait another 30 minutes while the crew fixed the stage and then they got on. I haven't listened much to their knew album. It's different from their other stuff and I wasn't overly impressed with it. But this tour was to promote that album and thus I knew they were going to play songs from it and in the end it wasn't that bad. I actually came to like a few songs. Albumwise (newest first) these are the songs played (may have missed one or two):
The Unforgiving:
Shot in the Dark
In the Middle of the Night
Faster
Fire and Ice
Iron
Sinéad
The Heart of Everything:
The Silent Force:
Mother Earth:
Mother Earth
Ice Queen

I loved that they had a huge screen at the back of the stage that either showed the official music video or a videoclip made for the song. The screen also gave away which song would come next. When the intro was shown/played for Stand My Ground I swear the ceiling lifted. This was the only song where Sharon told the crowd that we could sing along if we wanted to. And if we did! Wow. Same thing happened when What Have You Done started. It was perfect. They were very good at getting the crowd going and there was always loads of arms up in the air, heads banging and people jumping up and down or singing along. All of those make for a perfect concert experience. One of the best made-for-concert songs was Our Solemn Hour. All those "Sanctus Espiritus" were perfect as crowd chants. What Have You Done was second best, the crowd really screamed "What have you done now?" everytime that line showed up in the lyrics.

Any song I'd wish they'd played, but they didn't? Maybe It's the Fear or Hand of Sorrow or The Cross... Would Deciever of Fools be a good concert song?

I'll end this post with the two videos that made me like Within Temptation back in 2005 (especially the first one):
Stand My Ground

Angels

4 comments:

  1. Jag fastnade aldrig riktigt för Within Temptation under min symphonic metal-period av någon anledning, men jag är ett stort fan av Sharon Den Adels röst. Hon gör en grym insats på det Ayreon-album hon är med på, till exempel :)

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  2. Nja jag har aldrig riktigt fastnat jättemycket för Within Temptation, men jag dömer aldrig ut ett band med hyfsad musik förrän jag sett dem live ;)

    Sharon är riktigt bra på de låtar från Avantasia som hon är med på också.

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  3. You forgot Stairway To The Skies ;)
    I totally placed myself in the wrong place, but some of the people I went with were a little ill and not crazy concert-goers like me, so I just rocked out like a crazy person in the top balcony. Pretty much on my own from time to time, but I still had a blast!
    Sharon is amazing live. I wish they played longer.

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  4. Ah yeah I was sitting on top balcony on my very first concert back in 2006 so I know all about that. Me and my friend were going crazy and singing all the songs while the other people stared at us for being so crazy. (Can mention that this was Lordi and it was in 2006 so they had just won ESC so there were kids and parents there...)But being on the balcony was not my choice at that time :P I was 15 and my mum wouldn't let me stand in the crowd xD

    I was surprised they didn't play longer. I got out of the concert hall thinking only 10.30?! But in one way it was good cause otherwise we wouldn't have gotten home before 2am ^^;

    Sharon was really great live :) I kind of rediscovered WT after that concert...

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