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Jan. 16th, 2004 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccWe went to the Evanescence concert last night at Festival Hall.
It was interesting, the crowd was a bit different from what I was expecting - many, many teenyboppers, and aren't the 80s back in a big way? and many fewer goths, although there were a few scattered around. One particularly statuesque woman in a marvel of corsetry especially caught my eye.
The gig itself was a bit of an eye-opener. Mostly because, they're not a band. At least not like any band that I've previously been to see. They're Amy Lee and a backing group. There was almost no interaction between the band members and the singer, not even during "Bring me to Life" when there is actually more than one live vocal part. There wasn't even a lot of interaction between the band members themselves - most didn't move far from their original spots, although that may have been to do with sound production.
The whole thing is arranged around the singer, which is good in that she's got a fantastic voice, but very tiring for her and it does completely announce that, well, they're not a band. And she didn't even introduce them(!) which, even for a backing group, is kind of traditional. There's practically no instrumental solos - except for Amy accompanying herself on keyboards for one song while the other musicians grabbed water and, in the case of the dreadlocked guitarist nearest us, a fag. The keyboards led to one of the more inadvertently amusing moments, when, as "Bring me to life" started, four roadies leapt across the stage to move it out of the way. Both mine and Dean's initial impression was that someone had managed to get onto the stage, but no, it was just a keyboard in the way.
It's actually a pity that they didn't have a live keyboardist in the band, as it was a lot clearer than the samples they were using for the other songs. I can understand why it's a bit tricky for her to be both keyboards and front woman/singer though, particularly when she's the only reason they're there.
The gig itself was good - as with any group with only one album, they pretty much played the whole thing with a couple of covers (one Soundgarden one that I swear I've never heard before, a couple of original tracks which may or may not be, I wouldn't know). One song (Amy on keyboards) brought out the cigarette lighters and mobiles in a big way, the crowd (not me - I'm crap at remembering lyrics) sang along with the singles, everyone screamed for Amy and waved their hands like you're supposed to do at a rock concert - particularly when the guy filming pointed the camera their way. The mosh pit didn't dance so much as crush up to the front though. :-)
Where we were sitting (dodgy seats on the side - I'm not moshing with my ankle!) we had a clear view of the guitar techs, the drum/samples tech.. and another person who may have been either the manager, Amy's PA or Amy's girlfriend. Very, um, tactile body language. Nothing definite, but either way it lead to much speculation in the car on the way home as to why the original guitarist (Amy's ex-boyfriend) actually left.
But yeah. Presently we're guessing one more album and then she'll "leave to pursue a solo career". And the other guys will fade back into new bands, wherever the company wants them.
It was interesting, the crowd was a bit different from what I was expecting - many, many teenyboppers, and aren't the 80s back in a big way? and many fewer goths, although there were a few scattered around. One particularly statuesque woman in a marvel of corsetry especially caught my eye.
The gig itself was a bit of an eye-opener. Mostly because, they're not a band. At least not like any band that I've previously been to see. They're Amy Lee and a backing group. There was almost no interaction between the band members and the singer, not even during "Bring me to Life" when there is actually more than one live vocal part. There wasn't even a lot of interaction between the band members themselves - most didn't move far from their original spots, although that may have been to do with sound production.
The whole thing is arranged around the singer, which is good in that she's got a fantastic voice, but very tiring for her and it does completely announce that, well, they're not a band. And she didn't even introduce them(!) which, even for a backing group, is kind of traditional. There's practically no instrumental solos - except for Amy accompanying herself on keyboards for one song while the other musicians grabbed water and, in the case of the dreadlocked guitarist nearest us, a fag. The keyboards led to one of the more inadvertently amusing moments, when, as "Bring me to life" started, four roadies leapt across the stage to move it out of the way. Both mine and Dean's initial impression was that someone had managed to get onto the stage, but no, it was just a keyboard in the way.
It's actually a pity that they didn't have a live keyboardist in the band, as it was a lot clearer than the samples they were using for the other songs. I can understand why it's a bit tricky for her to be both keyboards and front woman/singer though, particularly when she's the only reason they're there.
The gig itself was good - as with any group with only one album, they pretty much played the whole thing with a couple of covers (one Soundgarden one that I swear I've never heard before, a couple of original tracks which may or may not be, I wouldn't know). One song (Amy on keyboards) brought out the cigarette lighters and mobiles in a big way, the crowd (not me - I'm crap at remembering lyrics) sang along with the singles, everyone screamed for Amy and waved their hands like you're supposed to do at a rock concert - particularly when the guy filming pointed the camera their way. The mosh pit didn't dance so much as crush up to the front though. :-)
Where we were sitting (dodgy seats on the side - I'm not moshing with my ankle!) we had a clear view of the guitar techs, the drum/samples tech.. and another person who may have been either the manager, Amy's PA or Amy's girlfriend. Very, um, tactile body language. Nothing definite, but either way it lead to much speculation in the car on the way home as to why the original guitarist (Amy's ex-boyfriend) actually left.
But yeah. Presently we're guessing one more album and then she'll "leave to pursue a solo career". And the other guys will fade back into new bands, wherever the company wants them.
