Supports: Livingston; Venue: Melkweg, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
By: Elvira Visser
Tonight it was finally time for the Finnish cello metal heads to play in the Netherlands again after more or less three years. But before this band would rise on stage it was up to the band Livingston to entertain the audience in Amsterdam.
| When Livingston was entering the stage not everyone was inside the venue and people would still arrive. It was a Wednesday evening so many people had to work before this gig. In many cases the support band is nice but well most people come to see the head liner. Livingston was ready to show the audience that they are one of those support acts that does entertain the crowd. Livingston is a band from London, which has members from South Africa, Germany, Italy and the UK bring a nice mix of poprock. Pop rock where the guitars flirt with progressive tunes and where the band likes to add a little African sounding drumming. This all with a little rough edge. Nice, very nice. Which you can notice as the audience starts to clap along and when singer Beukes tells he can speak a little Dutch. When he does shows his slowly Dutch skills the tone is set. The last songs they play the audience listens to them. Especially the last song Livingston played had a great flow. From a nice beginning to a bit slower half to an exploding end. This band deserved a well earned applause and showed the audience that there is more then cello’s. |
| After the release of their ninth album “7th Symphony” it was time to tour Europe again. The band has come a long way. In the beginning of Apocalyptica around 1996 they played covers from Metallica. They had then released their album “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos”. Back then they combined the classical sound of the cello with the great songs from Metallica. Since that period Apocalyptica wanted to play their own metal songs. If you listen to their albums you can hear the progress they have made and with their new album they really show you that they found a way to really play some trash influenced metal on the cellos. And so there was this evening where the audenience came for the well known covers from Metallica, the sing along songs from the previous albums and of course their lastest work from “7th Symphony”. The band started with their appearance in a lot of smoke and light mixed with darkness on the stage. They brought the audience not only a great musical show but also an amazing lightshow. They started the gig with “On the Rooftop with Quasimodo” which is a great song to start their gig, it has a nice flow that makes you scream for more at the end. It is great to see how Apocalyptica has been evolving, not only their music and the light show but also the stage décor. Where Mikko was a contribution to the show he now really is part of the show, with his transparent drum kit which creates great light effects. |
| Apocalyptica seems to be in a hurry, one after another without much time to breath. The fourth song they played was “Master of Puppets”and from that moment on the audience had gone wild. Apocalyptica kicked in some sing along song with “End of Me” and “I’m not Jesus” where singer Tipe Johnson from Leningrad Cowboys takes the lead. Then “Refuse/Resist” from Sepultura is where you can headbang before the guys sit down and ask the audience for some beautiful moments with them. They played “Beautiful” where Mikko accompanied them on a cello. During “Sacra” the audience got completely silent and when a plastic cup felt down you could hear it fall on the ground. Chills. Follewed by “Bittersweet” it was then again time to play some metal with “Last Hope”, “Bring Them to Light”, “Seek and Destroy” and “Inquisition Symphony”. The crowd could go wild here, sing along on the Metallica cover and “Inquisition Symphony” is simply amazing work when these cello guys play it. Maybe still the hightlight of the show. Where at previous years Perttu Kivilaakso was more or less stealing the show today it was Paavo Lötjönen and Mikko Síren from behind his drums. While all the guys brought energy on stage. After their encore they came on stage with little lights on their cello’s, to play us the last of their set to end it with the amazing “Hall of the Mountain King”. Leaving a more then pleased audience. What a great show! |
More photo’s of this event can be found at Photographic Retentions
Links:
Livingston MySpace
Apocalyptica MySpace
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