Concert reviews

[Markus]

Lucky you, Saphi! Glad you had such a fine day.

Cheers!

Markus

[Aluqak]

Last Friday I got the chance to see Hypocrisy and Graveworm here in Tenochmetal.
Really, really great stuff. I wasn't expecting too many people for that show, but about a twice as many people showed up and created a very special ambiance. These Mexicans do really know how to treat metal bands 

I didn't know the Germans of Graveworm (shame on me), and they surprised me in a very positive way. Great presence on stage, good performance and above average sound. A really great start for a wonderful night. I think I'll try to get some of their records to catch up for my lack of knowledge.
Then the mighty Hypo hit the scene and wow!... it was not a bit short of what I was expecting. It was one of those shows where a band plays virtually every single song (or at least a fragment of what) you wanted them to play. It was that good!
If I don't call this The Show of the year is because I have two very powerful reason:
1. A Therion show where the opening song was "The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah"
2. TestAmenT + Megadeth + Slayer
But hey, these guys were really, really close to those two concerts, so now go picture!

[Loke]

  Hypocrisy was just perfect!!! Damn!!!

  yo yo yo

[Aluqak]

Last week, I had to made the painful choice between going to see Lacrimosa or Therion. And given that I got to see Therion in June and that I have never seen Lacrimosa live, I decided to drop our favourite swedes this time and go for the Goths. ... and I still cannot believe how lucky I got!
If you don't know what happened last Friday here in Mexico City, go and take a look on the official forum. I wasn't there!
Not being screwed by a f*king bastard that call himself a "show promoter" is really cool, but that's not all. The best is that Lacrimosa played three show here, from Tuesday to Thurday. The first to shows (Tuesday and Thursday) were announced months ago and were sold out quiet quickly. The third show (on Wednesday) was announced only 4 days before... and that's the show I got to see.
We were only a few hundred people, I was close to the scene, the sound was great and the band look pretty relaxed. No big crowd, not pushing at the exit, no hysterical girls screaming at your ears, and enough beer for everyone. What else can you ask for?.... well, yeah, more beer.
The setlist was pretty competent and I must tell you that Lacrimosa is really a band worth checking out live!

Sometimes you just get too lucky! And I'm still laughing... man!

[Jo Ta Erre]

Last week, I had to made the painful choice between going to see Lacrimosa or Therion. And given that I got to see Therion in June and that I have never seen Lacrimosa live, I decided to drop our favourite swedes this time and go for the Goths. ... and I still cannot believe how lucky I got!
If you don't know what happened last Friday here in Mexico City, go and take a look on the official forum. I wasn't there!
Not being screwed by a f*king bastard that call himself a "show promoter" is really cool, but that's not all. The best is that Lacrimosa played three show here, from Tuesday to Thurday. The first to shows (Tuesday and Thursday) were announced months ago and were sold out quiet quickly. The third show (on Wednesday) was announced only 4 days before... and that's the show I got to see.
We were only a few hundred people, I was close to the scene, the sound was great and the band look pretty relaxed. No big crowd, not pushing at the exit, no hysterical girls screaming at your ears, and enough beer for everyone. What else can you ask for?.... well, yeah, more beer.
The setlist was pretty competent and I must tell you that Lacrimosa is really a band worth checking out live!

Sometimes you just get too lucky! And I'm still laughing... man!

Lucky man!!!!

I remember the first time i saw Lacrimosa. It was with the Live album tour, and i must say it was a great surprise. I only had listened "Copycat" and other two songs from NB compilations before, and i must confess that i fell in love with "Alles Lüge". All was splendid, the music, the performance, the staging, the environment, the sound...but Anna´s voice...

Great band.

[Jo Ta Erre]

Well...

Three years are too long. Three years wandering through the existence, expecting for the album, and, of course, for the tour.
So, I must do something, and when tour dates appeared, I started planning the possible journeys we could do.
The first one was to London.

With three days break on jobs, I booked flights and accomodation for four people; the same four of Bergara, Bucarest, Memmingen and Paris. We arrived to the O2 Shepherd´s Bush Empire after dinner, at 20h; just when Leprous started the show. The venue was nice; looked a theatre, and had two steps. Remind me the Tripod in Dublin, with three bars, two levels and toilets on the right. The stage was very low, so if you had someone in front of you, you´ll not be able to see if there´s a piano on it.

The sound, fantastic. Not too much people. I don´t understand. Over 8 milion people in London, unique gig in Britain, and no more than 400-500 people. A pity; they don´t know what they miss.

Leprous good. Long songs; good attitude and fantastic sound. 30 minutes.

At 21:02 Sitra Ahra opened the event that we waited for so long time; Therion on stage, live again.

As we leaved home on friday, we didn´t know what would be the european leg set-list, so there is the european tour set-list, the London set-list, of course.

1. Sitra Ahra
2. wine of Aluqah
3. Typhon
4. Perennial Sophia
5. Hallequin
6. Nifelheim
7. Siren of the Woods
8. Voyage of Gurdijeff
9. Ljusalfheim
10. Dies Irae
11. Guinnungagap
12. Kali Yuga III
13. Call of Dagon
14. Clavicula Nox
15. Enter Vril-Ya
16. Blood of Kingu
17. Lemuria
18. Abraxas
19. Unguentum Sabbati
----------
20. Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah
21. To Mega Therion

What to say about that?

Two hours. Four songs from new album. Very good perfomance. Thomas played flute on three songs, Lori played the piano on Clavicula Nox. Christian Vidal executed riffs so good, and smiled, showed good complicity with Christofer. Waldemar was too serious, but i saw him smiling and headbanging!! Katarina, Lori, Snowy and Thomas form a perfect team and it´s so clear on stage. The selection of songs and their order, do not punish them and maintain good balance on the scene.

Johan is not as strong as Petter was on drums, but makes it very simple and effective. About Christofer...I do not know what to say about the brain of all this machinery that can move us and make us enjoy the music. Chapeau!

The things i think could be better:

The background curtain seemed faded, uncoloured. The decoration of the stage seemed poor. The Chris´  hat and sunglasses. How serious is Waldemar. And about the set-list, an appreciation: "The Rise of Sodom And Gomorrah" is one of the best Therion songs IMO, but live, the performing is very sparse, because most of the melody is recorded.

Anyway, a very great show.

[Markus]

Thanks a lot, JR!

I'm glad you had such a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing you.

Thanks also for the European set list! I'm glad that the witches' ointment is in now.

Cheers!

Markus

[Lucy]

Gives up her plan to learn all lyrics - sigh

[Markus]

Gives up her plan to learn all lyrics - sigh

In that case, mylady, learn two or three favourite songs completely plus a chorus or some other catchy passage from each other song.

BTW, I'm having a scary idea... Muahua. Muahuahuahuahua-hua! 

Cheers!

Markus

[Luth]

Unguentum Sabati!! YAY!!!!

That's good!!!!! v

[Luth]

BTW, I'm having a scary idea... Muahua. Muahuahuahuahua-hua! 

Cheers!

Markus

 

[Nighthawk]

1. Sitra Ahra
2. wine of Aluqah
3. Typhon
4. Perennial Sophia
5. Hallequin
6. Nifelheim
7. Siren of the Woods
8. Voyage of Gurdijeff
9. Ljusalfheim
10. Dies Irae
11. Guinnungagap
12. Kali Yuga III
13. Call of Dagon
14. Clavicula Nox
15. Enter Vril-Ya
16. Blood of Kingu
17. Lemuria
18. Abraxas
19. Unguentum Sabbati
----------
20. Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah
21. To Mega Therion

My two cents, regarding the Zagreb gig.

The setlist was more or less the same, sans "Voyage of Gurdijeff" and "Abraxas". I think. Not sure if there were any other differences, seeing as I have a terrible memory and forgot to jot down all the songs in my Little Black Book of Setlist Songs To Dance To.

Really? It was two hours long? Have to admit I didn't notice.

My legs did and started rebelling after "Loch Vostok" and "Leprous" did their leg (geddit? geddit?) of the concert. Since Therion started playing at around 10PM, and the whole show started around 8, I found myself aching and demanding chairs with wanton exuberance (sic). Nobody stopped the concert to fetch me one, so I'm writing *that* in my Little Black Book of Concert Complaints To Yell To.

Two things caught my eye, one of which was pointed out:
1) The scenery was less extravagant than last time and the curtain smallish. There was a vase with assorted roses, so I guess that made up for it.
2) No tech-monks! I was outraged. Where were the laptop-wielding monks? I mean, really.

"Loch Vostok", fluffy metal:
I was glad to see that Vuco made a comeback. (Think that joke's lost on all non-Croats :\) As vicious and heavy as they were supposed to appear, couldn't help noticing that, in the case of a trim and a shave, the bandmembers would have to carry IDs with them in order to buy beer.

Also, their hair was fluffy, apparently freshly washed. In my defense, a friend of mine noticed that particular detail. Yes, let's blame her.

They started out fun, but began tiring me by the end.

"Leprous", corporate metal:
When the guitarist needs 8 strings and the bass player has to make do with 6, there's only one genre of metal they could be playing I'm not a fan of the ill-named progressive genres (although *shivers* prog rock does amuse me). They started out tiring me and ended being surprisingly fun. If nothing else, the last song they played had a great coda. Love well-placed pauses.

Why corporate? I checked their website out prior to the concert, and it was... wonderful. Sky blue, clean, completely professional. Or, at least, it would've been if they were called "Leprous Inc". Or just being ironic.

The aforementioned friend and I joked they were "corporate metal" before they come on stage, but once they showed up, additional lulz were had. The first member to pop up his head was the solo guitarist, fashionably dressed in an elegant vest topped with a red tie. The singer sported a bow tie. I was ecstatic.

Should mail them a few suggestions. Suggestion one: bring briefcases to your concerts. Suggestion two: hand out business cards to fans.

I'm actually quite serious. It would show good humor and get a few laughs. Also, business proposals.


Oh, and there was another band, "The Rion" or something, but you probably don't wanna hear about that.

[Persephone]

Hi, so my review of SA show in Prague...

Well, over all my expectations I really met part of the band. We had a nice chat with Thomas, his daughter Linnéa - who was 18 yesterday and her boyfriend, Snowy and Lori
Unfortunatelly Lori was so ill she could barely speak... She told us that she does not feel "bad" but the voice was simply absolutely off. Snowy is also ill but it's not that bad like with Lori's voice.

So during the chat with Snowy (oh G-d, he's so thin  ) we was told that of course, cause of Lori's illness they will have to execute some songs even though he said he will have to do some of her heights. In the show mostly sang Kat - which was fine but I really missed Lori's full voice.
Still she's a great actor on the stage so it was nice at least see her!
She was trying pretty much and as I said from the half of the show she really was more suffering... still trying to hide the hard cough when playing the piano. I didn't know she does play! And another surprise was when Thomas had a flute solo in Lemuria It was fantastic too.

Otherwise I'm not sure if the place was well chosen cause the sound was not that good as I supposed (not as I experienced and Anniversary tour). Too loud drums often - so the guitars were not so much hearable. I don't know if it was because of the place's acoustic or simple bad sound....

Anyway Vidal make some very nice guitar parts...!


I also asked Snowy how he sees his future with Therion and he told me that he does not know yet really because even though he made some songs on Sitra Ahra - he's not so much fond of this album So let's see!

These are songs we did not have in comparison with London setlist:

Siren of the Woods
Voyage of Gurdijeff - I am not sure really
Call of Dagon - also not sure I felt sick during the show too (bellyaches) so sometimes I simply had to disappear - sit down and take a pill)
Abraxas
and Blood of Kingu I think wasn't there too.

Therion started playing around 21:30 and finished about 23:00. So as You see the show was shorter mainly cause of Lori's illness as it was told me.

Leprous and Loch Vostok I did not really hear cause we went back home to keep safe the signed SA vinyl x) so we came later cause above all we even did not really care much for the forebands...

Another big surprise in comparison to other shows... Christofer was talking to us He said something about how nice is it to see even after 23 years fans fond of the new album... and that hopefully Therion will stay at least another 23 years - if I understood well... he also was trying to make us sing and such....
I know he wasn't like this in last shows (Anniversary tour, GK tour)...  so let me ask - was that also in Barcelona? And other cities if You visited more shows?

As I said I was bit disappointed by the sound and also I missed Lori sooooooooo much but well - all shows can't be perfect so let's see it was great to meet the band and had some chat and nice evening!


Oh - I forgot, when we came to the hall - Leprous was still playing and - some assholes started to fight! I was afraid that if it continues Therion might say no to play... but luckily it was solved quickly even though there was unfortunately needed ambulance.

[Lasse]

Thanks for the review, Kris, I actually was very curious to see it because they came right after that to Budapest and I got to chat with Lori a lot about Prague too. Your impressions were good, she told me that she was so incredibly sick in Prague that she almost threw out while playing the piano and spent the rest of the song retching (luckily she managed to pull herself together, so nothing happened at the end). Okay, it might be a bit impolite to repeat this after her, but it seems that it was obvious for everyone in the audience...

I have to say that I'm in love with Leprous and I liked Loch Vostok too, which was a total surprise after Therion's not-so-lucky support acts before.

Lori's voice was still suffering a lot in Budapest too, but at least she could make some sound. She acted it out quite professional, but it was obvious that she grabbed all opportunities to go off stage to blow her nose, have a cough attack or simply to sit down. It was painful to watch, really, especally after hearing her raspy, sick speaking voice. I have to say that Christofer's way of organising tours is pretty disrespectful towards both the singers and the audience, 18 shows without a day off iving in a freakin' tourbus is almost impossible to do while staying healthy, and it did result in a not-so good show, you could smell that there's something wrong up there. It's just sad to see such great musicians suffering on stage, just because someone thinks "day offs cost money". They're no goddamn beginner garage band. Bah. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I don't want her to quit (call me a fanboy, but I still think she's the best thing that ever happened to Therion) and I think that she won't go on another tour like this ever again. They would have had to cancel this if it wasn't Therion and there weren't 3 other singers trying to back up for her.

I know, other things have happened in the concert (before and after) too, but this kind or ruined concert experience for me. Luckily other happenings were pretty awesome, it was really great to see Lucy and Offy again, the "extra" Croation group. I leave the rest that needs to be told for them.

[Persephone]

Lasse, partially I am glad for Your words - cause I thought that that it was only Czech audience so dull to think that did not notice she's so pretty ill - yes, it was really painfull to watch her suffering, You said exactly what I felt when watching her trying not to die while playing the piano... still trying to smile on the audience and behave bravely...

After the show I heard much voices saying - she was not singing, she's so bad and such... how bad it was for a show and... actually every show cannot be perfect, especially when the singers are so ill.

I even heard her trying to heat up her voice before the show when chatting with Snowy but then she rather probably decided to leave most singing to Kat Which was also interesting experience for me too, I have to say!

[Persephone]

Ad - the organization of the shows... yes, that's something I agree too. Lori and Snowy told me that in America there were some shows between they could have only 2 hours of sleep! Can You imagine how much tired they were? And what this makes with voice...

[Lasse]

That sounds pretty bad, luckily I didn't hear anything like that from the people, she could fake out most high parts, and some low ones were done by either Kat or Thomas (he sang the beginning of Lemuria, it was pretty interesting), so if you didn't stand in the front and seen her trying to hide her coughs you probably might not have noticed much. Also the sound was quite bad, so you could just blame that for not hearing her.

Chris also made a little speech, he said thank you in hungarian and that they didn't really have time to work on the Anniversary DVD yet, but after this tour they will actually start doing that. He also thanked for Lori to sing at all tonight, because she barely had any voice at that afternoon. Which was nice of him, but I still don't think it's the best solution.

[Markus]

Hey folks,

last night I went to the 12th "Happy Birthday Händel" here in Halle. That's a performance of the "Messiah" with a professional orchestra and soloists but amateur choirs. The choir singers actually buy tickets to perform.

I'd say the choir was not as good as last year but still good. My impression is that they were a little less synchronous this time and that they screwed up the cue on "(The kingdom of this world) is become". Also I didn't like their flat pronunciation on "For unto us a child is born". Am I splitting hairs? Still they were remarkably good for a choir this size.

The orchestra and soloists were very good, especially the basso impressed me with the strength of his voice and his convincing interpretation. I must remark, though, that some of the pieces were played a bit too fast and hectic for my taste and that I didn't like the accentuation on some passages. Then again I'm very fond of their clear, transparent, almost intimate sound and the good use of dynamics they made - daring to play at very low volume occasionally and even in the loud passages never overpowering the singers.

All in all a very fine performance and a highly enjoyable evening.

It gets a special touch by the fact that the choir consists of enthusiastic amateurs. Most come from our city and its surroundings, of course, but many have travelled here for this occasion from many European countries and even the USA and Japan. What an experience that must be for them! As I told you in the shoutbox I was wearing a suit and there might be photos of this but none that I have. This is because some choir singers took photos of the audience before the concert as a souvenir for themselves.

Conclusion: Very recommendable. Why weren't you there?

Think I might go there again next year.

Cheers!

Markus

[Lucy]

Am I splitting hairs?

Actually, I realised that it's not good to know music pieces thoroughly well. I immediately notice the mistakes.
It's great to hear that you had such a nice evening.

[Markus]

Thank you, Lucy!

You know, actually I enjoy hair-splitting so much that I do it regularly as a hobby.

Actually, I realised that it's not good to know music pieces thoroughly well. I immediately notice the mistakes.
It's great to hear that you had such a nice evening.

Nah, it's more fun to me when I know the music well. That allows me to notice the subtleties of the interpretation. And when I notice a couple of things that I would have preferred to be done differently that still doesn't mean I can't enjoy the performance big time.

Cheers!

Markus Pilufissicus