Revamp – Tivoli de Helling, Utrecht – 7th September 2013

revampSeptember 7th saw the second of two CD release parties from Revamp, to celebrate the release of their second album, Wild Card, which had just been released on Nuclear Blast. I bought a ticket, sorted out travel and headed over for what promised to be a great gig.

This was my first time at this venue, so it was a pleasant surprise to find the bar took cash, whereas most Dutch venues have a token system where you buy tokens from a machine before exchanging them for drinks.  The venue was well laid out, and had good sound and lighting.

The night opened with My Propane (www.facebook.com/mypropane).  The sound was far better than at the previous night’s show so it was a lot easier to focus on the music, and I did enjoy their set.  Their opening with the guitarist playing before being joined by the rest of the band was particularly impressive.  They had an alternative rock sound and put in a good performance.  They have an album coming out in the next couple of months which should be worth a listen.

Next up was Revamp, back with their new album now that Floor Jansen has finished her touring commitments with Nightwish.  The band kicked off with the two guitarists coming on stage and opening the show withe the guitars duelling as the start of the song  (The Anatomy of a Nervous Breakdown: On the Sideline) before the rest of the band joined in, then Floor came out to huge cheers.

Tonight’s set is based unsurprisingly around the new album with all the songs from the album getting played tonight.  On the album Floor does clean metal vocals, operatic vocals and for the first time, growling vocals, and at the previous night’s show she demonstrated that she can handle all three styles in a gig with ease, and once again tonight she makes it look easy Towards the end of the set Floor introduces Epica’s Mark Jansen who joins them to perform the male growls on “Misery’s no crime” before leaving the stage.  After another song, he comes back out for “Disdain”, before the show closes with “Wolf and Dog”.   With both Floor and Mark doing Growls it was clear that despite Floor only recently having learnt the vocal technique, she’s already giving experts like Mark a run for his money.

Predicatably it’s not long before Revamp are back out to do an encore, which includes the song “Sins” which is only available on the download version of the album as a bonus track (which is annoying for those of us who prefer CDs).
Despite the lighting being less impressive than at Dordrecht, tonight’s gig did manage to run without technical problems, and if anything the band seemed a fraction more polished than the previous night, which is hardly surprising as this is still only the 3rd gig they’ve played this year, so it’s bound to take a couple of gigs to get back into that natural rhythm.  Definitely another great gig, and I really look forward to seeing the band again at MFVF (Metal Female Voices Festival) in October just before they start their European tour with Kamelot.

Setlist:

The Anatomy of a Nervous Breakdown: On the Sideline
The Anatomy of a Nervous Breakdown: The Limbic System
In Sickness ‘Till Death Do Us Part: All Goodbyes Are Said
Wild Card
Kill Me with Silence
Precibus
I Can Become
Sweet Curse
Amendatory
Distorted Lullabies
Head Up High
Infringe
The Anatomy of a Nervous Breakdown: Neurasthenia
Here’s My Hell
Misery’s No Crime
Nothing
Disdain
Wolf and Dog

Encore:
Sins
Disgraced

About Ant May

I spend half my life at gigs or festivals and the other half writing the reviews and editing photos, and somehow find time for a full time job too. Who needs sleep - I've got coffee.