What a great show! This was the setlist:
The Lost Song, Part 1
The Lost Song, Part 2
Untouchable, Part 1
Untouchable, Part 2
Thin Air
Ariel
The Lost Song, Part 3
Anathema
The Storm Before the Calm
The Beginning and the End
Universal
Closer
Encore:
Firelight
Distant Satellites
Take Shelter
A Natural Disaster
Fragile Dreams
As you can see, they broke their promise about the special encore, but the show was amazing nevertheless. I was surprised at how well The Storm... worked live - it got everybody moving and the ending was glorious. It's a song I wasn't too crazy about on Weather Systems (or even the Universal DVD), but now it absolutely blew my mind. THIS IS FUCKING INSANE, THIS FUCKING INSANE! However, the highlight of the night was without a doubt Closer: it sounded amazingly intense and powerful, and lots of people (including yours truly) clapped their hands throughout the whole song. Fragile Dreams was a perfect closer, and I also really liked Distant Satellites and AND.
Before the show I'd wondered how Vincent will pull off the intense vocal moments in The Lost Song Pt. 1 and Anathema, but those songs were played in a lower key and he nailed them. In fact, only Thin Air, The Lost Song Pt. 3 and The Storm... were played in their original keys/tunings. Both Vincent and Lee sang beautifully throughout the night, and all the harmonies were just perfect. Lee also did a stunning vocal improv(?) at the end of AND. I also liked how Danny added some extra flavor to Closer and DS with additional guitar parts, and Lee did some harmonies in songs she didn't originally sing on, like DS and Fragile Dreams.
The lighting was probably the most remarkable I've seen at any concert - at the very start of the show the lights were red like the DS album cover, and during the second verse they started to move to the rhythm of the music. For the first half of AND there were no lights, and Danny told us to lighten the place with our cellphones like on Universal. Although the guys didn't talk to us too much, Danny had a good control of the crowd, telling us to sing, clap our hands, jump and so on. It can be difficult to connect with a Finnish audience, but they did a great job. Vincent even told us this gig and the preceding one in Helsinki had been their best Finnish shows to date, but it felt honest and genuine and didn't come across as ass kissing. Danny also noted that his custom guitar has been made by a Finnish guy, and it allows him to create controlled feedback.
All in all, I had a great time and the show felt magical. I only wish they'd played at least one 90s song besides Fragile Dreams - One Last Goodbye or Judgement in place of Take Shelter would've made the night perfect. But either way, anyone who gets to see Anathema live is in for a treat, no matter what they play!