Veridia
The ‘Worlds Collide’ tour
Deena Jakoub (vocals) / Brandon Brown (guitars) / Kyle Levy (drums and percussion) / Unknown fourth player
I knew absolutely nothing of this band other than a few tracks that I had heard on Spotify. They’re from Nashville and have been around for a few years now, supporting Evanescence five or six years ago. Veridia were the support band for the first half of the ‘Worlds Collide’ tour, starting out in Munich on 9th November and concluding in Brussels on 22nd, whence their place will be taken by Smash Into Pieces for the remaining ten dates.
Veridia took to the stage at 7pm, leaving it at 7:29pm and they struck me as very much an Evanescence-lite, with crashing guitar chords and punchy vocals. It was alternative-rock with a grungy feel and not a few pop hooks in there. I’ll be honest though – whilst they were certainly competent, they weren’t really my cup of tea. The undoubted high point of their necessarily short set was the beautiful ‘I’ll Never Be Ready’, written by singer Deena Jakoub for her dying father; for this, she was joined on stage by Amy Lee on piano and vocals, and that was really very, very good. The rest – including two tracks from their new album, ‘Pain Reliever’ – pretty much washed over me.
The audience warmed to them, and Jakoub certainly got the crowd in receptive mode, something that I suspect she was particularly good at all through this leg of the tour.
Such was their impact on myself – and obviously many others this night – that I wouldn’t be at all surprised were this band to rise quite high in the rock world. They have a hard-working ethic and promote a style of rock which is very much on the rise at this point in time. And jolly good luck to them, too say I. 🤟
Setlist: Blood Diamond; Feed the Animal; Poppies; Still Breathing; I’ll Never Be Ready (with Amy Lee); At the End of the World; I Won’t Stay Down
Photographs from the London O2 gig, 14th November 2022 and © Robert Sutton/MetalTalk
Evanescence
The ‘Worlds Collide’ tour
Amy Lee (vocals, keyboards, piano) / Troy McLawhorn (lead guitar) / Tim McCord (rhythm guitar) / Emma Anzai (bass, backing vocals) / Will Hunt (drums & percussion)
I have followed the fortunes of Evanescence from when they pretty much broke into the music scene with their worldwide multi-platinum album, ‘Fallen‘, back in 2003. Very similar in style to Within Temptation it came as no surprise when a tour was planned which paired up both bands as co-headliners. But the Covid pandemic scuppered the original itinerary, meaning that the long-awaited gigs from Spring 2020 didn’t finally take place until late 2022 – but Mrs. P and I were there! Throughout the tour the two bands had agreed to alternate the headlining spot and on this occasion the night which had started with a competent performance from VERIDIA, saw Evanescence centre stage in second spot between 7:55pm and 9:12pm.
Their setlist was pretty much the one that they had used throughout this first half of their European tour, although I was pleased to discover that they would play ‘Lacrymosa’, a song which had been in and out of the setlist thus far. (Aside: Lee has recently said that the original ‘Lacrimsa’ by Mozart is her favourite piece of music bar none, hence her adaptation on ‘The Open Door’ album). I have never pretended to be any kind of expert where Evanescence are concerned; I own only two of their albums, the aforementioned ‘Fallen’ and ‘The Open Door’, so much of what was to come was new to me. The sound and style were, of course, pretty similar throughout, but it would be unfair of me to point out what I thought went well or otherwise because I simply didn’t know how the songs were supposed to sound. However, of the new (to me) stuff I will say that two songs really did shine – ‘Far from Heaven’ and the wonderful ‘Use Your Voice’.
And so, to the body of work with which I was familiar. ‘Going Under’ was the song which really got the sell-out crowd involved, singing out the refrains at the tops of their voices. This is quite obviously something at which Amy Lee is a past mistress! It was also noticeable how many and loud were the female voices singing back at the band – no surprise there! ‘Lacrymosa’ followed but, whilst it was a pleasure to hear it performed live, it was a shame that there were no choral effects as per the band’s original. But this was where Evanescence scored over WT – as far as I could tell, they didn’t rely on backing tracks, just effects. The music spoke for itself, and for me, that was good.
There followed powerful versions of ‘Call Me When You’re Sober’ and ‘Imaginary’, both warmly received by the appreciative crowd, but nothing would compare to the end of the performance when we were treated to glorious renditions of the beautiful ‘My Immortal’ – with Amy’s plaintive appeal, “Please don’t make me sing this on my own” – and the classic closer, ‘Bring Me to Life’ both from the ‘Fallen’ album.
The band were great. Lee’s vocals were on top form as she belted out song after song, hitting every note to perfection. And then, of course there was her keyboard work, alternating between the electric keyboard at rear stage right and the grand piano which occasionally rose and disappeared from the central dais of the stage. The rhythm powerhouse of Will Hunt on drums and Emma Anzai on bass and backing vocals (special mention! 👏) kept the performance thundering along, whilst the “chopping” guitars of McLawhorn and McCord crashed their merry way throughout the set.
Extra praise is also due to the audience who were supportive throughout. There was a very obvious divide in the crowd, as you would expect with two bands co-headlining, but they sang, responded and applauded on cue. The ‘groundlings’ packed cheek by jowl down at the front obviously had a great time and it was a fabulous sight to see all the phone lights on during ‘My Immortal’ and other emotive songs.
The light show was effective without being spectacular, and there was also a video screen display, although I have to confess that we were denied a good view of this because of the position of our seats in the circle to the left of the stage. Our view was obscured by the band’s lighting rig and also the venue’s suspended speaker system, both of which certainly put a damper on our evening. On a couple of occasions Lee sang from the very back of the stage at the centre and we simply couldn’t see her at all. Note to self: never get a seat at Leeds again unless it’s central. Oh, and remember to wear a jacket – the air-con is bloody freezing!
In conclusion, although Evanescence wasn’t the band that I had gone to see, I thought that they were excellent and gave a belting performance. I’m so glad that I caught them.
And then the stage was cleared for the final act of the night…
And here’s an online review of this gig at Metal Express Radio
Setlist: Artifact/The Turn (taped intro); Broken Pieces Shine; Made of Stone; Take Cover; Going Under; Lacrymosa; Lose Control / Part of Me / Never Go Back; Far from Heaven; Your Star; End of the Dream; Better Without You; Call Me When You’re Sober; Imaginary; Use My Voice; Blind Belief; My Immortal; Bring Me to Life
The following photographs are all © Mick Burgess and can be viewed bigger by clicking on each one.
And here’s a sew-on patch that I bought around this time…
Within Temptation
The ‘Worlds Collide’ tour
Sharon den Adel (vocals) / Ruud Jolie (lead guitar) / Stefan Helleblad (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) / Martijn Spierenburg (keyboards) / Jeroen van Veen (bass guitar) / Mike Coolen (drums & percussion)
How many people have been introduced to fantastic bands by the husband of their boss? Not many, I’d wager, but that’s exactly how I discovered WT. Having heard music coming out of my classroom before school, during lunchtime, and after hours at the school where I worked, my Headteacher boss knew that I liked prog and symphonic metal. Then, one morning around 2009, she appeared in my room with a package: “John says that you might like to try this. There are a couple of CDs and a DVD of the gig in that one package. He loved them.” And so it was that I came to borrow and experience WT through their fabulous 2008 ‘Black Symphony”‘ gig at the Ahoy Theatre in their home country, the Netherlands – and what a gig it was! I was instantly hooked and set about hoovering-up whatever I could find of their catalogue. Soon, CDs of ‘The Heart of Everything ‘, ‘The Silent Force’, ‘The Unforgiving’ and, of course, my own personal copy of ‘Black Symphony‘ were added to my collection and, in recent years, I’ve also bought ‘Resist‘ and the download-only stuff from ‘Don’t Pray for Me’.
The only thing left to me now was to actually get out and see the band live – not easy when they don’t tour the UK that often. And then there was Covid-19… I actually bought the tickets for the gig back on 27th November 2020 as a birthday present for Mrs. P in October 2021… re-scheduled for April 2022… re-scheduled to November 2022… And here we were at last, probably my most eagerly anticipated gig of the last two years.
For this tour, WT were co-headlining with Evanescence; the bands had alternated headlining duties each evening, and so it continued at this gig as WT took to the stage in prime position. Beginning at 9:39pm with a taped intro of Leonard Cohen singing ‘You Want It Darker’, there followed another tape of ‘Intro’ from ‘The Silent Force’ album and then we were straight into things with the immensely powerful ‘See Who I Am’. Covering a number of albums and coming right up to date with their newest single, ‘Don’t Pray for Me’ (does anybody actually buy singles these days?), WT’s setlist ran to almost eighty minutes. High on pyrotechnics, visual effects and clothing changes, the set played out pretty much as I had expected. I had been instantly disappointed when it became apparent that they were not going to play the brilliant ‘This Solemn Hour’, but I consoled myself in getting to hear the brilliant ‘Stand My Ground’ performed live.
It was never going to be on a par with the magnificent ‘Black Symphony’ because there was no choir and no orchestra, but the band tried hard. There was a distinct reliance on backing tracks: den Adel used recorded backing vocals and many of the keyboards lines were recorded, notably the start of ‘The Reckoning’. But I guess that this was necessary in order to create the fulsome sound of their material.
‘Faster’ and ‘Paradise’ rocked along at a cracking pace before we slowed to ‘Angels’, one of two songs which saw den Adel suspended from on high, singing one of her most operatic compositions. The backing vocals for this song, it should be noted, were lifted from the album and were synchronised with on-screen visuals of the singer, Tarja Turunen of Nightwish. The excellent ‘Stand My Ground’ followed and with that song came the first inkling that, in many peoples’ eyes, this was definitely the lesser of the two major acts on offer tonight. Whereas Amy Lee had experienced no difficulty whatsoever in getting the audience to sing refrains and choruses – loudly too – Sharon den Adel struggled all the way through to get a similar response. It also has to be said that all through WT’s performance people around me were getting up from their seats and not returning. It was obvious that many had headed down to the ‘pit’ to join the ‘groundlings’ packed cheek by jowl in front of the stage, whilst others might have headed for the last buses on a Saturday night (it was quite late by now). Some, I fear, simply headed for the exits in boredom. I had speculated to Mrs. P after Evanescence’s set as to just how many people would go after having seen “their” band – I’m afraid ’twas ever thus when you have a co-headlining tour.
After an explanation as to why, ‘Raise Your Banner’ saw den Adel flourishing a large Ukrainian flag, and then touchingly conversing at length with a ‘groundling’ who was obviously from Ukraine. The songs continued at pace, den Adel changing her costume on two or three occasions mid song during instrumental passages. Some songs were introduced with a backstory – ‘Supernova’, ‘Don’t Pray for Me’ – whilst others were just launched into with aplomb. The pace at which some of the songs ran – ‘In the Middle of the Night’, for example – was breath-taking, and all this as flames shot towards the roof while strobe-lights and coloured lasers rotated about the auditorium lighting up all and sundry. Epileptics would not have had a pleasant time!
There were no encores for any of the three bands on offer this night, so tight was the scheduling, so the band simply played through to a natural ending with fan favourites without the farce of leaving the stage, milking applause and then returning. As I’ve said earlier, Sharon struggled to get the crowd involvement that I am sure she would have liked for ‘Ice Queen’, but nevertheless she continued enthusiastically to the closer, ‘Mother Earth’. And then there was just time for photographs with the audience behind them (which will no doubt surface on their website at some point in the future) before leaving the stage just after 11pm.
As I mentioned in my review of the preceding performance earlier in the evening, our – cold – seats were not the best. Sitting in the circle and round to the left our view was obscured by the venue’s suspended sound system although, thankfully, by now Evanescence’s lighting rig had been dismantled. Nevertheless, it was difficult trying to see any of the video projected onto the large backscreen. The band also had a large movable circle with things projected on it which we failed to gain the benefit of. Not that our seats were in any way discounted as being of a ‘restricted view’ you understand…
And so, an evening that I had long anticipated had come and gone. I can’t deny that I was slightly disappointed – the over-reliance on backing tracks diluted the performance slightly. But the sound was good, no doubt helped by this. And I had seen one of my favourite bands, an opportunity that I doubt I will get again so, I think overall it was a positive experience.
Right… you’ll have to excuse me… I’m off to play my beautiful vinyl copy of ‘Black Symphony’…
Setlist: You Want It Darker [Leonard Cohen – taped]; Intro (The Silent Force – taped); See Who I Am; Faster; Paradise (What About Us?); Angels; Stand My Ground; Raise Your Banner; In the Middle of the Night; All I Need; The Reckoning; Supernova; What Have You Done?; Don’t Pray For Me; Ice Queen; Mother Earth
And here’s an online review of this gig at Metal ExpressRadio
The following photographs are all © Mick Burgess and can be viewed bigger by clicking on each one.
And here’s a sew-on patch that I bought at the time…
The music, however, was good. I enjoyed the set even though I had read that previous gigs on the tour had been “flat” and “rubbish live with a plodding set and lifeless renditions of the classics. Ian seemed to be in a strop and moaned constantly.” Clearly you can’t please everybody. Highlights for me were, of course, the three aforementioned songs together with ‘Soul Asylum’ when my mate 
And one fun memory will be Astbury constantly kicking away the monitors at the front, throwing the mic stand to the floor and also his tambourine which, after the first couple of chucks, soon began to fall apart with the little silver cymbals falling out intermittently until there couldn’t have been more than three or four left!
Gigs'n'Stuff 