Amorphis/Delain/Anneke

[elendil]

Saw this show at the good ol' Palladium on Saturday. Smaller crowd than I would have liked to see, but all concerned put up a bang-up show. Anneke played a set of covers, just her voice and a steel-string. She has a certain charisma on stage that the crowd responded well to. I enjoyed hearing her perform Iron Maiden's "Wasted Years," complete with main guitar theme. She can still hit all the high notes and embroider a melody with complete ease.

Amorphis are introverted Finns and didn't have the same crowd interaction, but they performed flawlessly. They did have some piped-in sound, which was essential at times, like the saxophone solo on... I forget now, one of the new songs.

Delain I am less familiar with. I really enjoyed _Lucidity_ but none of their other albums have truly clicked with me. In my view they need to unleash Martijn Westerholt to work the kind of magic he did on _Mother Earth_. Instead of doing the staccato, 7-string, djenty thing that everyone has been doing for a few years now, why not go for lushness? But they were completely professional on stage and did fine, especially considering they had to use Amorphis' drummer due to a visa mixup.

[LarryD]

That is a bad ass triple bill ...... I would have gone to see that if I still lived in Rhode Island ....... I don't care for the Palladium, but as you know, we don't have a choice when it comes to these types of bands..... I would have braved Worcester anyway........

Glad you got to see that show -- thanks for the scoop.

[elendil]

I'm ashamed to admit it, but it was my first time seeing Anneke live. I've lived in a lot of places that didn't get many shows, and when I was much younger, I didn't really want to give The Gathering a chance when they switched to a softer sound. Needless to say, my views on their post-_Nighttime Birds_ work (and hers) have changed. So for that reason alone I had to see the show.

I don't mind the Palladium, actually. Acoustically it's a lot better than plenty of other places I've been, including The Middle East in Cambridge, where a lot of acts tend to go. And it's much easier to get to than anything in Boston!