Lacuna Coil & Bullet for my Valentine Concert

Continuing my concert series, I had booked tickets to see Lacuna Coil and Bullet for my valentine on the 18th of November. This time attended with Marcos, Jeffery and Cristina [a girl from Guatemala]. I really went only for Lacuna Coil and their singer Cristina Scabbia's beautiful vocals, but Bullet for my Valentine turned out to be quite OK as well.

The only problem at this concert was that Lacuna who was an opening band, played for a mere 15 minutes and then left. Also it was held at 013 and the drinks were quite expensive there as usual. It was nice, however, listening to the live music of this band that I grew up on. I didn't get much pictures though, since it was a bit dark, and I was not that close to the stage, I did get some videos, but they're a bit large to upload.

For more pictures, see:

• Lacuna Coil Concert

Concerts: Epica & Kittie

We have an autumn break in The Netherlands for one week in October. Everyone on campus has something planned: some are traveling [Valencia, Spain, etc]; some visiting friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, or family; and some even going back home to visit. However, I am stuck here, with no motivation to travel alone, no girlfriend to visit, and family and home is too far to visit. So my plan was to stay here, catch up with studies, apply for jobs, and go to concerts! I attended two great concerts this weekend.

I had to go to Eindhoven for the first performance on Friday 17th; this band was Epica, a Dutch band newly introduced to me, but whose style and genre of music I appreciate very much: Gothic-symphonic-theater style like Nightwish. They were quite impressive, with the beautiful red-haired vocalist Simone Simons. The 'epic', operatic, medieval melodies, the contrasting screaming of the male singer, and brutal guitar support all blended together just made this band stand out to me, and it goes right up there in my list of favourites!



The second band performed on Saturday 18th, I traveled to Amsterdam to see, I met Marcos there, and we had some pre-fun going to a whiskey bar that had a menu of 1001 whiskeys, and then it was on to the concert! The band was one that I grew up listening to and appreciated ever since they appeared on that morning on MTV with their song "Charlotte"; I still remember that day, and the video, and how impressed I was with this all-girl band growling up the stage! Kittie is the name of this Canadian "female-Korn" band. I must admit, their performance wasn't as impressive or I should say "dramatic" as these bands like Within Temptation and Epica, but then again it's a different style of music. Also, some of the original members that I was obsessed with in my teen-years have left the band. Nevertheless, they impressed me with their intense growls, rough riffs, mosh-pit-inducing-music, and grungy-attractiveness of course. The DJ opened their performance with a song by Lords of Acid.



For more pictures, see:

• Epica Concert
• Kittie Concert

Somewhere back in Time

I have been in Europe for a while now, and I, unfortunately, haven't been to any concerts [metal/rock or techno/trance for that matter], due to time, money, or unavailability. This Saturday, the 16th of August, 2008, I attended an Iron Maiden concert [Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008] at the TT-circuit, Assen, The Netherlands; with guest bands: Lauren Harris, Kamelot and Within Temptation: it rocked! This for me was a real privilege, since I know Iron Maiden won't be around on tour much anymore, and also, well I grew up on their music, and recently came to worship Within Temptation!

The venue was well organized, with food stalls, toilets [with soap dispensers], alcohol, and 27,000 high-teenagers, kids, and veteran seniors muzzled together. They even organized special buses and night trains for the event. The concert was amazing and epic; it started off with Lauren Harris [who was a bit queer], then to the powerful strings and chants of Kamelot [whose female singer played no role at all, but was hott nevertheless], then the serene voice of Sharon den Adel coupled with the wicked riffs of her Dutch band Within Temptation. I can't believe I saw her [so hott!]; with her funky hand-movement dances. Their performance was truly blood-crawling and goose-bump-inducing with the way that they brought the crowd into their performance to accomplish the operatic chants of some of their songs like Ice Queen, followed by heavy melodic distortion.

And of course the grand finale: Iron Maiden. The thoughts of my ticket costs quickly dissipated, as their show emerged to be spectacular, with not only the classic music and reminiscent vocals but with several lighting, pyrotechnic, and prop stage-effects. They maintained their original stage decor and band theme of the Egyptian style, with varying album art images in the background. There were [at different points in time] two mascots of the notorious Eddie [one mummified, and one futuristic robot: the Eddie featured on the somewhere in time album cover], and one of a goat devil [very creepy since it's head and hands moved, and was brought on for the song "The number of the beast"].

What was even more creepy was that a Lunar eclipse was taking place exactly at the moment the band was playing. Now, the vocalist, Bruce Dickinson, claimed that it was unplanned, but somkehow with so many of their songs linking to the mysteries of the Moon and darkness [Moon Child, Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, Fear of the dark], one must wonder...

For more pictures see:

• Somewhere Back in Time

I have videos, but they're too much to upload [maybe I'll put some on youtube soon]