PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
When I arrived outside the venue it was clear that tonights show was either sold out or pretty close – the queue was enormous. Once inside it was pretty packed and was already getting quite warm even before the support band came on.
Tonight’s support act (and indeed the support for the whole of Lacuna Coil’s European tour) is an American band – “This is she”, who come from Los Angeles. They’re a four piece band – drummer, guitarist, bassist and singer, and also use synths a lot. Musically it’s electro-rock. On CD they’re definitely a pop influenced rock sound, but live they have a slightly heavier feel. Despite not being as heacy as Lacuna Coil they went down very well with the crowd and certainly sold some copies of their EP after their set. I’d certainly recommend that if you’re going to any of the Lacuna Coil tour dates that you get down to the venue in plenty of time to check out This is She.
Lacuna Coil had suffered from technical problems at the previous nights gig, but thankfully everything worked perfectly tonight.
The band took to the stage wearing masks over their mouths, like wild west outlaws, but within seconds Cristina has pulled hers down to start the vocals to “I don’t believe in tomorrow”. Right from the start you’re blown away by the sheer energy of the band, and vocalists Cristina and Andrea in particular – they’re constantly in motion, running around the stage, headbanging, singing and generally burning off more calories in each song than most of us do in an entire day.
On this tour the band are missing two members – their bassist and their drummer. A stand-in drummer has been recruited for the tour, but the bass parts have been recorded and are played as a backing track. This does mean the band have more space to move around, and they take full advantage of the extra space, and having the bass parts played back from a laptop rather than from a live bassist on stage doesnt seem noticable – indeed one person I spoke to hadn’t actually realised there was no bass player on stage.
On this tour the band are doing things slightly differently. Instead of one long set followed by a short encore, they’ve split the show into three sets – the first part being their usual sort of show, then after a short break an acoustic set follows, before a second break takes us into the final set – another full electric show. While I loved the acoustic set, having the breaks and the acoustic set did kill the energy in the crowd somewhat – perhaps if they’d done the acoustic set as an encore after a full normal show it would have worked better – who knows.
Lacuna Coil are definitely on top form right now – their latest album was excellent and tonights set includes seven songs from that album, along with some material from earlier albums. I really love their version of the Depeche Mode song “Enjoy the silence”, but the set tonight was so strong that I didnt feel at all disappointed that they didn’t play it
This is she setlist:
Ghost
Grow up
Peaceful acceptance
Disobey
Misery
Brace myself
Nobody is ok
Lacuna Coil setlist:
Electric set:
I Don’t Believe in Tomorrow
I Won’t Tell You
Kill the Light
Senzafine
Heaven’s a Lie
Self Deception
Entwined
To the Edge
Give Me Something More
Acoustic set:
Falling
Closer
Within Me
End of Time
Shallow Life
Electric set:
Our Truth
Upsidedown
To Live Is to Hide
Fragile
Swamped
No Need to Explain
Survive
Trip the Darkness
Spellbound
My Spirit
