Supports: Petter Carlsen, The Ocean; Venue: Alpheus, Rome (Italy)
By: Lara Cappelli
“We’re Here Because We’re Here” is the English band Anathema eighth album, which took them over five years to be completed. Their tour reached Italy in four dates: Bologna, Rome, Roncade and Milan . On the 12th they played in Alpheus, Rome.
| Much to the public surprise, Anathema guitarist Daniel Cavanagh walked the stage way earlier then he was supposed to. It was to introduce the first artist who was to open the night, Petter Carlsen from Alta, northern Norway. This tour with Anathema gave him the chance to reach many countries for the first time and Italy was one of these. For this occasion he had no band with him, but only his guitar and, of course, his voice. Nevertheless, the audience was incredibly involved by this only two elements that, combined together, managed to convey his music purity at best. Especially for the song “You Go Bird”, where Peter asked the audience to sing the refrain, the chorus created was so loud that Peter himself was nearly speechless, so much that he finally described that night as “a night to remember”. Petter is definitely an artist to keep an eye on as he showed to be long on talent. |
| Up next were the Germans The Ocean. When Petter Carlsen said that that would have been a night of contrasts, hardly anybody in the audience got what he meant. When The Ocean entered the stage though, it was all finally clearer: the band in question is an Hard-core/Metal band. Actually you didn’t even have the time to realize it that you already found yourself in a totally different atmosphere compared with the earlier one. Slight moshpits were kept alive by the band stunning stage presence and (eventually failed) attempts to crowd dive. The public that was so quite and calm fifteen minutes earlier, totally changed now, drove by the band involving energy. The Ocean were acclaimed by many, but not so appreciated by the ripe-aged part of the audience that seemed confused by Anathema choice of picking such different artists to open their shows. The Ocean music is very experimental, spiced with some orchestral background and growl vocals alternated with clear ones. Because of the loudness of the other instruments though, the clear vocals were almost unhearable throughout the whole show which is a pity as that might have get them to obtain some more approvals. |
| Anathema story is definitely a peculiar one. They first started as a Doom Metal band and lately gave this genre up to totally turn over a new leaf and devote themselves to Alternative Rock. Tonight the setlist was filled with both old and new songs that retraced their career into this genre: with a succession of older songs, they finally got to nowadays and played their whole new album “We’re Here Because We’re Here” for a total of a two-hour-and-a-half show. By doing that, the band basically made sure not to disappoint anyone in the audience, always delivering something unexpected. The band tried big time to find a sort of connection with the public too, which made the atmosphere very intimate. Thus, in my opinion the top of their shows stands in the atmosphere that is set within the band itself: singer/guitarist Vincent Cavanagh, bassist Jamie Cavanagh and guitarist Daniel Cavanagh, as you might have noticed, are all brothers and that’s the same with singer Lee Douglas and drummer John Douglas. That sets up a familiar atmosphere everytime they walk the stage; every member is connected to the other which is doubtlessly something pleasant to see. As a result, the audience was completely mesmerized by the show and the atmosphere in general and adapted their attitude to the kind of song played; from the chorus of “Judgment” to the quite singings during “Are You There?”, played acoustically by Daniel during the encore. Many in the audience had high expectations for tonight’s show and I guess quite all of them were satisfied with the final outcome. |
Links:
Petter Carlen MySpace
The Ocean MySpace
The Ocean Official
Anathema MySpace
Anathema Official
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