22-11-2007 Within Temptation

Venue: 013, Tilburg (Netherlands)
By: Wouter van de Kamp

  It had been quite a while since I last seen them in a club. Festival shows are
  always different from club shows. Counting out Parkpop 2005 (The Hague (NET)),
  Wacken 2005 (Wacken (GER)) and Wâldrock 2007 (Burgum (NET)), my last show was  on 12 April 2005.

  What would have changed and what would have  stayed the
  same? I was soon to find out. Furthermore this show was announced as a special
  show. A try out for coming Saturday in Beursgebouw Eindhoven, announcedly, featuring
  many special guests. Would this work out? I was soon to find out, as well.

  I heard from a friend living in Tilburg that the first people were already
  in front of 013 (the actual venue) at 11:45 AM. My ticket said 9:00 PM so I
  arrived some minutes after that, but found out the doors had been opened much
  earlier, because there was no queue. Hopefully the show did not start yet. I
  rushed in a little confused because of the new lay-out, but found my way to
  the hall soon enough. Nothing had started yet and there were no signs that this
  would happen in the coming five minutes, so I had time to drop my rucksack in
  the cloak room. Once I got back in it only lasted about five minutes before
  they started off with Jillian.

  And what a change in comparison to the 2005 show. For good reason they are
  the best Dutch musical export product and have won prize after prize on national
  as well as international music awards. I remember them being awarded the golden
  record for one of their singles in the 2005 show and them being enormously surprised
  by the loud and enthusiasticly encouraging crowd. Now they seemed to have become
  accustomed to it in the sold out 013. A professional show, with somehow rehearsed
  ways of playing with the, by the way very blended, crowd. Ranging in age from
  five to 55. Ranging from metal heads to fratters and everything in between.
  You name it, they were there. This also resulted in different crowd behavior.

  Where is the time that continual head banging was considered to be an almost
  obligatory occupation during shows like these? I got weird faces and even annoyed
  people who wanted to pass (why do you want to pass anyways? You’re watching
  a concert of, I assume, your favorite artist). Where is the time that, especially
  during the more metal-ish parts, moshing was considered to be a normal way of
  enjoying the show? I guess this all has gone in favour of becoming so popular.
  It doesn’t fit in anymore. Things change. Sometimes for the better sometimes
  for the worse. For Within Temptation it is definitely for the better. On to
  the show.

  They got this huge stage wide banner (15 meters in width) and as always Sharon
  Den Adel, the soprano vocalist, is the main attraction of the band. She got
  part of her fame because of her colourful gothic dresses, but what she wore
  tonight doesn’t really fit in that tradition if you ask me. So what was special
  about the music? Well not much in the first six songs or so. But then chairs
  came on stage. First a song of Sharon with keyboard player Martijn Spierenburg.
  While they drew the attention with a by the way brilliant performance, the roadies
  had time to set up the acoustic drum set for some special songs (as you can
  be seen on the, unfortunately not wholly chronological, set list). Clearly the
  sound engineer has a bit of work to do on this. The arpeggiated pieces on the
  acoustic guitar could hardly be heard. Perhaps it was for the position of the
  sound engineer being quite a way from where I stood. I found it a major deficiency
  though. Going back to the normal electric/amplified performance, something went
  wrong. I reckon it was Sharon’s in ear monitor that did not work or something.
  At least she sang out of beat and fell out of her role as a pro artist. But
  fortunately that was fixed very soon.

  The band left the stage and where I am used to huge screams and whistles for
  an encore, the crowd actually fell silent. It was illustrative of the changes
  that Within Temptation went through considering live performances. Now this
  may sound as a negative review. But I personally enjoyed the show very much.
  Songs like “Stand My Ground”, “What Have You Done”, “Deceiver
  of Fools” and especially oldies from the “The Dance EP” The Other
  Half (of Me) and from their first album “Enter”, “Restless”
  made it a brilliant evening for me. Although many visitors might favour the
  songs from their latest two releases “The Silent Force” and “The
  Heart of Everything” (perhaps not even aware of previous releases), I think
  we all got what we came for. Brilliant sound and of a brilliant band. I don’t
  know if I will go and see Within Temptation in a club again. Perhaps I will
  only see them at festivals. But without any doubt this is a great live band
  and something Holland can be proud of having brought forward.

  Jillian
  The Howling
  Stand My Ground
  The Heart of Everything
  What Have You Done
  Angels
  The Truth Beneath the Rose
  Forgiven (Acoustic)
  Restless (Acoustic)
  Memories (Acoustic)
  Our Solemn Hour
  The Other Half (of Me)
  Frozen
  Hand of Sorrow
  The Cross
  Jane Doe
  Mother Earth
  Deceiver of Fools
  All I Need
  Ice Queen

Links:
Within Temptation official