Monday, October 31, 2011

Review: Within Temptation, Falconer Theatre, 25/10/2011.

Figured I'd try my hand at concert reviewing - why not.

So, after moving my exam I hurried back home 24th October so I would be ready to rock out at the (very, very anticipated) Within Temptation concert in the Falconer Theatre (Falconér Salen) in Copenhagen, Denmark the next day.
The concert was originally supposed to happen (in March!) at Store Vega, but sold out and was moved to a bigger venue: KB Hallen. Then the lead singer of the band, Sharon den Adel, got pregnant and the show was moved to October. Then, about a week before the show, KB Hallen burned and luckily the concert was moved to the Falconer Theatre.
This last piece of news was a spoonfull of awesome, since the acoustics of KB Hallen are (they're rebuilding the thing) (in)famous for being... Well, politely and politically correct put; sub par. Or you could say "awful".

I went with a couple of friends, and when we got there, we made the (in my opinion) not-awesome decision of placing ourselves at the top balcony, where we could sit (completely unnecessary) and see the stage at all times (which was what convinced me to do it).

At about 20.00 the warm-up band Triggerfinger went on stage. Although I wasn't a big fan of their music, they delivered a great show with loads of energy. I enjoyed watching them, but was impatiently waiting for the main gig. As well as most others, it seems. Sorry guys, but still - great job!

Lead singer of Triggerfinger.
Rock on!
At about 21.00 Within Temptation finally took the stage (I'd literally waited a year for them), starting out with a Mother Maiden short-film (the backdrop was a screen showing musicvideos and stuff while the band played), which didn't surprise me.Even though I'm not loving the short films, I think they made for a great part of the concert. Right after the shortfilm ended, they started off with Shot in the Dark. The band was amazingly energetic - most things are probably less energetic than Triggerfinger, but Within Temptation sure kept the energy levels up. I don't remember the exact sequence of the songs (I was busy partying with the show), but cheating a bit, it was something like this:


Shot in the Dark
In The Middle of The Night
Faster
Fire And Ice
Ice Queen
The Howling
Our Solemn Hour
Stand My Ground
Sinéad
What Have You Done
Iron
Angels
Memories
See Who I Am
Mother Earth

Encore:
Stairway to the Skies

How does she both sing like an angel and look like one?!

Commenting on just a couple of the tracks, or more:
I was a little surprised they started out with four TU-tracks in a row. Two of my friends seemingly hadn't heard the new album (why? I don't know...), so I guess it was a little weird for them, although one of them tried to sing along. It was awesome. I was, of course "singing" along through the entire concert, even though I was placed with the boring people who were just watching. Concerts like this are supposed to be dynamic and fun, it's not classical!

Then came Ice Queen - completely surprising me (not for the last time that night), going from some of the newest to some of the oldest. The backdrop showed snowy mountains and beautiful sceneries. Being a complete geek (loves it), I was thinking (the entire time) "arrrh, the sky isn't blue in the mountains when it's snowing like that" and "hmm, I wonder what kinds of moutains they are".
After this we got The Howling and Our Solemn Hour - both great tracks, followed by Stand My Ground - and the crowd went crazy. The friend I sat (sigh) next to and I were pretty much singing screaming along as loud as we could through the entire song.

Awesomesauce x 10

Then Sinéad (awesome) and What Have You Done, of course resulting in the crowd screaming "what have you done now?" as loud as possible - whenever possible.
After this we got Iron followed by, finally, Angels which is one of my through-and-through favorite tracks by Within Temptation. Might be the first one I heard, and it certainly holds a special place in my heart.
Then came Memories, a little bit of the same style, and also a track from The Silent Force. After this they played See Who I Am, and the one song I'm still the most surprised they played: Mother Earth.

Looking amazing live, just sayin'.
It was incredible to hear Mother Earth live, it's an awesome track, and people seemed to be loving it. I'm pretty biased, since I sure was (loving it, like McD loves fat people).
In the end we got a final bonus track (or encore, I guess): Stairway to the Skies. A very good song, and rather good to end on. I guess. If it has to end. Which it did.

After the concert Sharon and one of the guys jumped down and met a couple of the fans which, to me, shows that not only are they great musicians - they're also really nice and down to earth kinds of people. Unfortunately I didn't get to say hi, but I loved the show, even though I didn't think it was long enough. At all. But they played for almost an hour and a half, so in the end it's not all bad, and I guess they would be exhausted if they played for two or three hours every night. Can't blame 'em.
And in the end I prefer quality over quantity.

Great show - thanks a lot!

Sharon sang amazing and the band played incredibly well, I'm so impressed. Only thing that bugged me was the lighting - it might just be my unfortunate, high position, but I got blinded quite a few times, which was a little annoying when I wanted to see more of the great show down on the scene.
Otherwise it was the best. My neck hurt both Wednesday and Thursday, which is a record by me. More proof of a great concert!

I found a stairway to the skies in the end.
Within Temptaion, please come back to Denmark. Soon.

Finally I would just like to mention that we found a place to buy a beer (or two, or seven. Whatever) after the concert. Wasn't easy, not many places are open on a Tuesday night. Got kicked out from a couple of places because they closed hella early (1am or something, weird), but one of the places contained guys drinking Bacardi Breezer, so I was happy to get back to Sam's Bar with beer and karaokee. Insane standards for singing in there, by the way. If it's that way every night, it's like going to a fairly good concert - only a lot cheaper.

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