What an epic night it was. A large fan of both of the only acts to have played, October 1st was a grand night. I am not being over boisterous or exaggerative when I say the performance and choice of tracks was highly satisfactory. I had arrived to The Vic Theater quite early, as I had the opportunity to interview one of the founders and lead singers of Amaranthe, Jake E. His interview will be posted shortly here at We Love Metal. Back to the concert portion of the day, when I had arrived there was a small gang of people waiting at the doors, so my arrival was at a perfect time. The venue itself is pretty big, much larger than the previous venue I had been to, two weeks ago. For those in the area, for future reference, there is nothing but annoying meters parking all over the area. Unless you want to park blocks and blocks away on a side street that might not have meter parking or permit parking for that matter, I definitely and utmost recommend getting dropped off or public transportation. As I had a bit of a challenge in finding parking, since these meters only accept quarters and credit cards, my card was maxed out (I know, im stupid), who in their right mind would carry almost $20 worth of quarters to feed these meters, not to mention that the meters only charge you for two hours at a time. There was no way in hell I was going to feed the dam meters every two hours and come in and out of the venue, so to make matters simple, I parked in a public lot for $10 for the night, definitely worth it and gave me peace of mind for the night. What felt like hours and hours that had passed by literally, I had met up with Fred, whom I met at the Delain/Xandria show a few weeks ago, as he is also a large fan of the female symphonic scene. After many long hours, the doors opened at 7PM and everyone was let in like a hoard of hyenas, but not without a security pat-down of course.
Once inside, we made our way to the front, and awaited for Amaranthe’s arrival. I had not noticed but after looking behind me and up, I saw there was another floor for the last minute people to go upstairs and watch the excitement from above. The final hour seemed like forever, but once the stage set-up music died down, lights went out, nothing but darkness and immense screaming from the fans. An entrance that put goosebumps on me, sirens and air raids went off, and within thirty seconds, the red lights started going off like alarms and that is when the energetic
Swedish Amaranthe appeared on stage kicking off the night with a new song, Digital World, off of their upcoming album, Massive Addictive. The track, hence it not being released yet, was an upbeat way to kickstart things, and the fans were still going nuts, yet no one knew the song. Minutes later, the first track that Amaranthe had put out as a band, Hunger. A killer track, it got the audience finally going, as well as me singing along the chorus. Invincible, was the next track on the set-list, of course this is another one of their headbanging anthems. Everyone in the crowd was bouncing up and down, just enjoying the immense energy this track gives off. One of the heavier tracks that Amaranthe boasts, 1,000,000 Lightyears, it was time to fly through space and time in a world from afar, as this melodious rich track kept the energy going. By this time, my voice was starting to dry up from screaming, the audience was craving more. I got goosebumps from their next track, being a major fan of Amaranthe, those who keep up with them closely know of the their next track, Trinity. As they released it the day before, it is currently their freshest track yet and I think of of my all-time favorites, both lyrically and instrumentally. When they announced they were going to play it, I went wild, it’s a track I can’t get enough of.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMBNkPUPwYU[/tube]
The intensity factor coninued as they played the track, Afterlife. What else can I say? The track is vivid and unreal. After all this energy, adrenaline and more, the mood slowed down and got a little more intimate, as their first ballad, Amaranthine, took over the stage momentarily. The audience calmed down, as we watched every member put on a wonderful presence on this track. This is one of those tracks, that I believe can cater to most. While the intimacy faded, it was time to turn up the amps, get that adrenaline pumping again with the first single of their new album, Drop Dead Cynical. Once more, the crowd jumped up and down with the music, I almost felt the ground shaking, it was that intense. The only track to have been played from their debut album, the track, Call Out My Name, I found an interesting way to separate the older fans from the newer ones. Another endorphin-rushing track, it’s a little different in style than their newer material, which isn’t bad at all. Unfortunaly all good things must come to an end and the final track of the night from Amaranthe was played. The Nexus drained all my energy, I gave it my all, my voice was starting to crack from the emotion, excitement and energy that Amaranthe sparked from the crowd. Oh man, was a set, one of the best sets out of any band, period.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM7mfYHKb98[/tube]
It was now time for the other and main act of the night. Within Temptation, was ready to go. After many, many moments and my legs were starting to get tired, the darkness revealed itself once more, and a video projected itself on the stage. It spoke of dragons, and dangers and that is where ‘Paradise‘ landed with the group behind it. The energy from the audience was noticably wilder, and somehow I found myself energized again, singing and waving the horns, by the end of the track, the intensity from the crowd was vivid. I was thinking, hell if the mood was gonna be this intense throughout the set, this is going to be one hell of a show, thats for sure! Let’s continue the epic night with the track, perfectly titled, Faster. Lead vocalist, Sharon den Adel, really knows how to let out those high notes. One of the tracks, that always gives me goosebumps, Let Us Burn, kept the mood going. The video that accompanied the track on stage, was epic and amazing. The next two tracks, In the Middle of the Night and Fire and Ice, are not tracks, I am too fond of, so I’ll go straight to the next track that I enjoyed. Eerily and sympohnically rich in essence,it was time for our judgement in Our Solemn Hour, which set the ambience for the moment. Before the next track could commence, Sharon took a moment to talk to the audience about current matters in our world. Today you see Religion pushing people away from each other, and causing wars and fights and more, and you see all these rights that people are defending rights such as civl rights, independent rights, female rights, etc, and trying to live and make the world a better place rather then becoming enemies and hating one another. Instead if we took the time to talk to one another, give everyone a chance, become closer to one another, we can all learn from each other, and make this a prosperous life. Her intellectual stimulation set the tone for the next track, Stand My Ground.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZAQ_FseHQY[/tube]
In their latest album, Hydra, they did a cover of Summertime Sadness. Another track I am not fond of, at least the girls in the venue enjoyed the track. Sharon knew the men weren’t going to be happy about it, but she joked about it, glad to see she has humor. A more subtle track, a fusion of Rap and Goth Metal, And We Run, kept the flow of the night going. As rapper Xzibit was not present, they used the screens to project his parts of the track. Overall, a more mellow track, with intimate emotion. Once more, it was time to get endorphins rushing and get a little ‘Dangerous‘. This was probably the last track that I personally went wild for, for the night, both because my energy was running low, and the other tracks were a little more tame, which only signaled the night was coming to a close. The remaining tracks of the night included Angels, End of the World, What Have You Done, and Mother Earth. An encore occured of course, there was no surprise there, and the final encore tracks of the night included, Covered By Roses, an acoustic rendition of Sinead, and lastly the final track of the night, Ice Queen.
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJVtOqgZaY8[/tube]
Overall, the night was full of energetic moments, much better than my previous concert, though both were still good, this one was slightly better on the scale. In terms of who was better between both bands this night, I would choose Amaranthe, for having an intense set-list. Perhaps the next time they roll around the states on their next tour, they will be headliners. One can only hope…..But nonetheless I ended my night with an autographed poster by Within Temptation, and a badass shirt I bought from Amaranthe. Did I mention I got to hang on Amaranthe’s tour bus for a little bit? Oh man, I love what I do. Stay Metal m/
The Metal Alchemy 