Back in July I bought tickets to see Sentenced and Lacuna Coil. It was due to be held on Halloween at the LA2, one of the Mean Fiddler corporation's many pies in which it has fingers.
I bought tickets 3 weeks after they went on sale and still ended up with numbers 20 and 21, it had all appearances of being an intimate affair... on September 18th Mean Fiddler got upset that tickets were not yet flying out the door, so they struck a deal with Metal Hammer in which the magazine would get exclusive interviews and its name as the sponsor as long as it promoted the show to death. Metal Hammer duly did so and soon the show not only sold out but got upgraded "due to overwhelming public demand" to the London Astoria which promptly sold out. This meant the tickets touts were out in force, random adverts for indifferent bands were forced into my hands and since it was Halloween random Christians with megaphones preached to the gothed up kiddies in the queue - the Christians were horrified by the guy with long blonde hair who was dressed as a priest.
Before the show I was concerned that Metal Hammer's involvement would lead to the audience consisting of vast numbers of kiddies who went with whatever was fashionable.... as it happens we were one of fewer than 15 people who knew who either Sentenced or Lacuna Coil were. I have no concept of why the rest were there but their vacant eyes displayed no recognition or discernible emotion to the goings on. Metal Hammer will be glad to hear that they did notice the exceedingly prominent banners advertising the magazine that were hung from the balconies and almost every available surface.
The first band one were a wannabe death metal outfit who played under the moniker BlackShine , they sucked a lot and were their stage antics were vaguely reminiscent of Orange Goblin playing at being Satyicon; neither a good thing. An 'A' for effort and D- for achievement.
The original line-up had Sentenced as headliners, something which changed along with the venue. I had high hopes of Sentenced as my brother had been playing the 'Greatest Kills' album since I got it for him, repeat listening something previously limited to Blink 182, RFTC and The Misfits.
As it happens, Sentenced were even better than expected. The underlit stage with a eerie green light was a nice touch and went well with their impassioned words about the joys of alcohol in making the world more bearable thus staving off suicide. It was hard to tell how sincere they were, but backed with songs such as 'The suicider', 'Everything is nothing', 'Killing me, killing you', and of course 'Drink to forget' it was a spectacular performance which went down like a concrete sledge with the majority of the audience.
Between the three sets the venue chose to play entirely Pantera which more in keeping with the general atmosphere than the posters advertising the coming appearance of two former members of Steps - who in case you are oblivious were some crappy manufactured pop band.
Prior to the show I had only heard 3 songs from the new Lacuna Coil album and was expecting much the same... when they came on their apparel was entirely bondage gear, somehow they looked even more mismatched than ever and the sound was decidedly odd. It sounded as if they had engaged in an ill-advised nu-metal makeover, the bass was turned up so high it became an almost visible mass of blurred noise making me glad I was wearing earplugs. It was deafening and made even the old songs sound as if they yearned to the nu-metal. The new songs sounded curious too, gone were the cellos (despite the fact we heard them being tuned whilst we queued outside) instead being replaced by synthesised noise. The vocals were more screamed and witch like than I recalled but were still good, while guitar seemingly mimicked the bass in reproducing an almost Spineshank like riff. I do like Spineshank but not when I expect to see something more melodic.
I left feeling mildly confused by Lacuna Coil's performance and unsure if I liked the new songs, the amps were too loud and as such distorted the sound, making it at times unlistenable, if audible down Oxford Street where I am sure the 'Stop the War-Coalition' protesting about potential US foreign policy (with a spectacular number of police in tow) did not enjoy it.
Leaving the venue the night air was cool and quite, a welcome relief from the noise and heat inside the venue. Walking home the lights illuminating the London Eye made it quite beautiful, so unlike its appearance during the day, a statement true of the new Lacuna Coil album, for live the songs had become a dirge, while on record they are pretty if overly polished.
The subsequent review of the show in Metal Hammer is odd and made funnier by the fact that their reviewer was wearing a hearing aid at the show - I know because he was 40 odd, very ugly and trying to dance in, a 'Saturday Night Fever' kind of way, in front of me throughout Lacuna Coil's set. I knew I should have kicked him.
