In Flames / Lacuna Coil / Chimaira
27 December 2004
Hammersmith Apollo
This was the third gig this year where the filming of material for a DVD resulted in us being unable to obtain a photopass, and hence was to be the third gig which would escape review. However, as with last year`s finale, Iron Maiden at Earls Court, I thought it was worth a few words to wrap up Rockers Digest`s 2004. All the photos with this review were taken with a throwaway camera, hence why they`re crap!
With all three of the filmed gigs, the simple fact is if you want to know what they were like, buy the DVD when it comes out. The first of these gigs was a last minute invite to attend the Europe show at the Hammersmith Apollo. This actually turned out to be one of my top 5 gigs of the year. Europe are much heavier live than on record and put on a great show.
The second was last weeks Arch Enemy, The Haunted, Dark Tranquillity & Nightrage gig at The Forum which was also part of the Hammered at Xmas season. From the start I had given up hope of catching Nightrage. Due to work we were unable to get there early to join the queue and having waited it out in the pub we arrived with Dark Tranquillity already playing. Apparently the queue was so slow that friends who had queued had still only caught two songs by Nightrage.
The whole evening the volume was extremely low with it easy to talk to people whilst bands were playing, which was very distracting when it was other peoples conversations you could hear over the bands. Dark Tranquillity bore the brunt of this with their intricacies hardly audible. The Haunted fared better and a one minute silence with devil horns a loft was a fitting tribute to Dimebag. Still, The Forum is probably my most loathed venue in London and unless you were down the front it was difficult to see much. Arch Enemy came on and quite frankly I was bored and by this point pretty pissed off so I didn`t even stay for the whole set.
For tonight`s gig at Hammersmith, again, an unwillingness to stand queuing in the cold coupled with an apathy for seeing either Koma or Caliban meant the appeal of the pub and meeting with f(r)iends won over.
When we did get in we discovered Koma hadn`t played and Caliban had cut their set short due to technical problems.
A short word about each of the bands we did see then. Chimaira`s set commenced exactly as we entered the hall. I don`t know what they started with as I didn`t recognise it and vocalist Mark Hunter, now without dreadlocks, commented that it was an obscure track to start with. Cleansation was much more recognizable and kick started some action down the front. There were a lot of Chimaira shirts about tonight and the band got a good response.
Chimaira have a pretty brutal live sound, not dissimilar to Pantera musically, but with gruffer vocals. Whilst I was nodding along to The Impossibility Of Reason, I noticed those around me unfamiliar with the band were not. As the band played a song I didn`t know, This Present Darkness, I realised if you were unfamiliar with the songs the sound meant it was difficult to pick out any hooks. I`d quite like to see Chimaira again in a smaller venue as I did enjoy the songs I knew.
Chimaira songs played included:
Cleansation / The Impossibility Of Reason / The Dehumanizing Process / This Present Darkness / Powertrip
I was at Lacuna Coil`s debut UK gig, supporting Moonspell at The Underworld seven years ago. The band looked nervous that day despite the thin crowd, but they had a wealth of strong material with only an EP to their name. However, since then for me the band peaked with their In A Reverie debut album and it`s been downhill since, with simpler songs lacking depth.
However, it seems I`m in a minority as the band continue to rise, but tonight for the most I was bored. The band no longer lack confidence and appear to have picked up some stage moves whilst on Ozzfest. The Slipknot style bending over headbanging seems to be a particular favourite which the band do in unison.
At one point Christina could be heard to be singing whilst her mouth wasn`t moving, hence some backing tapes were used. What saved the set for me was an acoustic interlude and a glorious run through of My Wings from the debut album.
Lacuna Coil songs played included:
Humane / To Live Is To Hide / Entwined / Heaven`s A Lie / Tight Rope / My Wings
In Flames rocked! I`m a big fan of the band to start with and was pleased that once again they didn`t disappoint. This was never meant as a proper review and with that in mind I got down to jumping around and enjoying myself.
The sound was good and there was a good mixture of material including an awesome cover of F**king Hostile in memory of Dimebag. In Flames set wasn`t without technical difficulties, though thankfully unlike Caliban`s terminal problem it was just the big In Flames logo amusingly just lighting up "In".
Anders Friden did mention that they were filming the gig, though the amount of cameras didn`t match the set up filming Europe, nor distract from the performance as they did for Arch Enemy. Oversized Marshall amps bearing the In Flames name and plenty of pyrotechnics added to the performance.
In Flames songs played included:
Pinball Map / System / Episode 666 / Embody The Invisible / F**king Hostile / Behind Space / Cloud Connected / Dial 595-Escape / In Search For I / Clayman
So, 2004 turned out to be the year in which I saw more gigs than any other, with a grand total of 48. At those 48 gigs I saw 138 bands. With 17 gigs already lined up for 2005, it`s looking like its going to be another rocking year. Happy New Year to all and keep it loud!
LINKS:
In Flames
Lacuna Coil
Chimaira
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