Paradise Lost Tragic Illusion Tour- Glasgow 31/10/13

Neil Henderson 7 November 2013 Event Reviews

Halloween 2013 finds me back in Glasgow joining Sheila for Paradise Lost’s ‘Tragic Illusion’ tour to celebrate the bands 25th year in the music industry. For this short tour of the UK the band have brought special guest Katatonia from Sweden and Lacuna Coil from Italy to join them on all their dates.

Unfortunately because it was halloween tonight’s gig had the very early start of 6pm! because at 11pm the regular Jellybean nightclub show started and Paradise Lost had to be off stage by 10pm to allow for the changeover from rock gig to nightclub. Gigs that start early especially this early tend to suffer from a poor turn out especially for the opening act as people either haven’t finished work or are still travelling to the venue when the doors open. This thankfully didn’t appear to be a problem for opening act Katatonia as there was a good size crowd arriving when they took to the stage just after 6pm.

In fact the band took to the stage so sharply after the doors opened that I was still downstairs getting my photopass sorted when they walked onstage! Katatonia were playing a special set to on this tour as it was the 10th anniversary of their breakthrough album ‘Viva Emptiness’ though not in order of the album as they opened with the final track of the album ‘Inside the City of Glass’ in fact they were playing the album backwards! Regardless of which way the band was playing the album Katatonia were getting well received by the swelling audience.

By the time Katatonia got to ‘Ghost of the Sun’ there was a good number of their fans at the front jumping around and fist punching the air in time to the music. There was some mutterings as the band left the stage that the sound wasn’t very good but I’m more inclined to think this was caused by the strict time limits the crew were working as the sound did improve during the course of the night. Personally I thought Katatonia were good and I would like to see them again maybe were the time constraints are not so strict and with maybe a little more volume to give their music more kick.

Setlist:

Inside the City of Glass
Omerta
Evidence
Complicity
Walking by a Wire
One Year From Now
Wealth
Burn the Remembrance
Will I Arrive
A Premonition
Criminals
Sleeper
Ghost of the Sun

After a quick change over it was time for Lacuna Coil another band who I was seeing for the first time tonight, though I had seen Cristina Scabbia singing with Paradise Lost at the Golden Gods in London earlier in the year. After the end of the intro tape Lacuna Coil hit the stage and launched into ‘I Don’t Believe in

Tomorrow’ with half the band in make-up in keeping with the fact it was Halloween an Andrea Ferro’s mic sporting a large blade attached to the end of it. ‘Kill the Light’ also from Dark Adrenaline followed and the audience were clearly in the mood to party with Lacuna Coil.

During the break between songs Cristina informs the audience that they have recorded the follow up to Dark Adrenaline an will be back next year to play headline shows throughout the UK which went down very well with the audience. ‘Without Fear’ is sung in their native Italian and after a brief explanation about what ‘Intoxicated’ is about the band launch into one of my favourite songs from their set.

All too soon they are at the end of their energetic set and it is time for Spellbound to close the night and as the band leave the stage to plenty of cries for an encore, which sadly due to the time constraints they were unable to do. Finally getting to see Lacuna Coil live had been great fun an hopefully I’ll see them again when they return to these shores with their new album. Sadly a few technical gremlins reared their ugly head (well it wouldn’t be Halloween without them now would it?) in the shape that the volume level between Cristina and Andrea was a bit off with the later being too loud and Cristina being too quiet at the start of the set.

Setlist:

I Don’t Believe in Tomorrow
Kill the Light
Fragments of Faith
Heaven’s a Lie
The Game
Our Truth
Upsidedown
Without Fear
Swamped
Intoxicated
Trip the Darkness
Spellbound

After two great support sets it’s finally time for the main band Paradise Lost, who I have had the pleasure of seeing a few times over the years, everything from small club gigs to huge open air festival appearances. They have always delivered a great set and I expect tonight’s show will be the same, though a very different set list to what I have come to expect from the band as they celebrate 25 yrs in the music industry.

Opening with ‘Mortals Watch the Day’ from 1992’s Shades of God just proves the point that PL are going for a journey through their extensive back catalogue to give the fans something unique an very special on this tour. ‘So Much is Lost’ and ‘Remembrance’ follow . The hallowed opening chords of the classic ‘Gothic’ are up next and goes down well with the sizeable crowd.

The next part of the show is the Paradise Lost that I know, ‘Enchantment’, ‘Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us’ and ‘Tragic Idol’ all follow and the band are on great form tonight a newly dreadlocked Greg and the ever energetic Aaron making short work of their various guitar parts. Nick too seems in jovial spirits when asking for a moshpit as long as we could still do it after following the band for 25 yrs and seemed genuinely impressed when the crowd did produce a very good moshpit as requested for ‘Never for the Dammed’.

All too soon it’s the last song of the main set an when the lights dim at the end of ‘Say Just Words’ the bands exit from the stage was so good that many people didn’t in fact realise they had actually left the stage!

The encore starts with a track from the very first album ‘Rotting Misery’ which shows just how much the band has changed over the past 25 years which I found fascinating as I had never heard it before. ‘One Second’ and ‘True Belief’ follow before the final song of the night ‘Over the Madness’ closes what has been a great set of music that has covered their whole back catalogue in just an hour!

The main gripe of the night was that PL’s set was too short, but as they say it’s better leaving the audience wanting more than having nothing more to give them. It was a good night of rock music with all three bands playing well and though there was a few sound gremlins they didn’t detract too much from the overall enjoyment of the night and I can’t wait to see all the bands in the future on stage.

Setlist: