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Another co-headlining tour hit the roads and stopped at Colognes Live Music Hall. As opening act was Opeth announced, but due to the fact that the bands record label couldn't give support, the band had to cancel the tour. Too late to get a tour opener.... So local bands took the chance to play. In Cologne and also Frankfurt a band from Saarbrücken opened... Flowing Tears! The youngsters signed with Century Media and will be the support at the tour of Therion and Voivod. The band with female singer Stephanie played almost songs from their coming album Jade. More about them later on. The sextett from Saarbrück presented gothic rock and fitted pretty good in this event. Most of the fans were a little puzzled, coz they expected Opeth. The six-piece took over the job in Frankfurt and Cologne. Due to the fact that I didn't know their music and haven't seen them before, I can't tell a lot about them... Just that I liked them! Flowing Tears will be on tour with Therion and then I'll know their album and I'll be able to tell a little more!
After a break it was time for Netherlands famoust The Gathering! Many fans been confussed, coz it looked like The Gathering been headliner and that My Dying Bride didn't play... Wrong! A co-headlining tour and the Dutch been happy to play before the British who promote their latest studio album. For the quintet it was just a possibility to get out on the road. The band started with Liberty Bell and soon the Dutch enchant the audience. The light show created a special atmospere. Anneke van Giersbergen is the focus of attention and the light flooded the stage in different shades of blue or green and a yellowish white spot focused on Anneke. The band built a perfect playground for Anneke and did a perfect job. After all this touring and all the shows they played in Holland they are a solid union. They played most of the songs which are at Superheat, songs like: Nighttime Birds, Eleanor or Strange Machines fascinated most of the viewers. A few desparatly waited for My Dying Bride and didn't got turned on by The Gathering, but that wasn't the fault of the Dutch fivesome. It was one of the best shows I saw from The Gathering ever. Personally I missed a few tracks especially Leaves. Hopefully they'll play it next time! Anneke seemed to enjoy this a lot, also the band. Her look had changed, not just a different hair cut... Anneke looked like she was just fallen in love... There was a special glanze in her eyes, it seems like she was shining bright from the inside. She danced, she rocked, she whispered, she shouted and talked with the people in the first row and she enjoyed every second. An amazing set to support the live album Superheat which is great, but couldn't transport the special atmosphere you feel at the live shows. The encore included Marooned and finished the set after 80 minutes. (CE)
The Gathering was already a big portion of emotions, but now, it was time for the masters of sad music, My Dying Bride. As I never saw them before, I really wondered about how their melancholic hymns would sound live and I most wondered about how they would play their songs without violins and with a new line up. But the first song She Is The Dark, from their new album was already a surprise. My Dying Bride just found the perfect mix between deep sadness and very powerful guitar solos in their songs. So it was not only a sound of soft music that came to our ears. Aaron just played perfectly his role of a tormented soul and he seemed to suffer really the pain that he described in his songs. After this first enchantment of My Dying Bride's melodies, Aaron announced an old song: Turn Loose The Swans, taken from the same named album. Now it was time for the guys to show that their music can also sound great without violins and they proved that very well. A few parts of the song were changed and keyboard sounds replaced succesfully the violin. One of the highlight songs of this evening was certainly The Cry Of Mankind from The Angel And The Dark River album, a song that even sounded better live than on the album, mostly because the more songs they played, the more they wrapped us in their atmosphere of darkness. Also a song from their 34,788% Complete album, that seemed very untypical for My Dying Bride was present this night: Under Your Wings And Into Your Arms was the choosen part, one of the few songs that was just banging all time long, without so many emotional breaks inside. Of course we didn't had to miss the title song of the new album: The Light At The End Of The World, what seems to be one of their new favorite songs, according to how Andrew and Ade talked about it after the show. To go back again to the older days of the band, Aaron announced a song that, as he said, they don't play so often: The Snow In My Hand. And after presenting the new members of My Dying Bride, drummer Shaun Steels (known from Anathema), a new guitarist and a female keyboarder, the saddest song of this evening started: Sear Me 3, the wonderful slow song at the end of the new album. And this song left us really speechless! But not that much that we couldn't want more My Dying Bride sound. So after a few callings "dying, dying, dying...", the guys came back with Aarons favorite song, as he told: A Kiss To Remember and one more new piece, the fast Fever Sea. It was really a great show and after a few songs, we forgot the missing of violins, cause they simply played wonderful, also without Martin Powell and didn't loose even a simple piece of their magic and melancholy. It was just sad and perfect! (CT)
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