I had such a great time of the Within Temptation show, last Tuesday, that I am going to write a long trip report story of my thoughts on it. This will be a long post as a forewarning.
So, I was at the Within Temptation show in Los Angeles on Tuesday. I don’t think I went in with too much high expectations, given that I do not listen to Within Temptation (and especially In Flames) on the regular. The show was also on a weekday and that I had work and managed to get two hours off so that I can get to the venue and get parking and hope to dodge that nasty LA traffic on the 10. For some reason, Google Maps had me drive for like 6-7 miles of streets before hitting the 5 to the 10. Must be better traffic than going two miles of streets and then go to the 405 N to the 110 to the 10. It still took me 75 minutes to get to the Wiltern Theater. Got to the parking lot next to the Wiltern Theater at around 4:50 (doors open at 6:00 AM). Paid $25.00 for a spot. A bit steeper than I would like to pay. The last time I was at the Wiltern in 2014 seeing Alter Bridge, I think my sister paid $20.00 for the spot in the same building. Got to love inflation like that. Going from paying $20 in 2014 to paying $25 in 2019 doesn’t seem like the most gasping of raising prices.
Finally got in line and it was a bit confusing at first which line to be in as I think there were three lines. One for the In Flames VIP Meet and Greet. One for the front of the line passes and one for the regular GA. As per usual, I like to check out what sort of people is going to this show and it's a nice mixture of people that I always love to see at rock shows. You got the older dudes sporting the classic rock shirts, you got the couples all decked out in black, you got families, and plenty of people of all ages wearing shirts from all kinds of bands (of noted, I think I saw people wear A7X shirts, Ghost, Breaking Benjamin, Epica, Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, Tarja, Halestorm, Rammstein, Slayer, Metallica, etc.). As usual, I was repping the good old AB, Alter Bridge. Of course, there was plenty of people here sporting Within Temptation shirts and there was a surprising amount of people wearing In Flames shirts (I think a good portion of the crowd was there mainly for In Flames).
About 10 minutes before the show begins, people from the venue was offering green wristbands for free that allows you to get to the pit in the very front of the stage and it's the only way you can access that area and, of course, I want to take that if a spot in the pit appeals to me. 6:00 PM finally hit and after security check, and after needing a restroom break, I dashed to the floor and I landed a good spot on the rails of the 2nd section of the floor. I could have easily been in the middle of the pit near the stage, but after being in that spot for the Nothing More show, last month, and how intense the crowd was, I opted to stay where I am at. I say this is a pretty great view honestly for the $50.00 I paid the ticket for based on this picture below (I was positioned a few feet slightly before where my camera angle was at). I wasn't going to be leaving that spot at all, not by a long shot. Wasn't going to lose that spot due to any mosh pits nor would I have any tall people block my view. The security lady next to me made sure that no one was getting to the front without that green wristband and there was a lot of people that got denied that area throughout the night. Gotta give a shoutout to that person to ensure that we are going to have a fair and secure night. Plus, she was giving me and a couple of people next to me some info on the expected start times of the set. Plus, she informed us that there would be some camera people that would take some shots (behind the rail at the bottom of that picture I took) at some point in the beginning of the sets, but they wouldn't be there the entire show. Don't know why she gave us this info, but we greatly appreciated it.
Also, I got to say, when I was in the Wiltern Theater back in 2014 for Alter Bridge, I must say that the interior is so nicely designed, but since I had mezzanine seats, I couldn't really speak on how it was in the GA area. Well, since I was now in the GA areas, there were some VIP tables if you wanted to seat and order some drinks and all, but you got to pay and people were willing to pay. Beautiful venue and even Sharon, during their set, acknowledged how nice this venue is and how this is a good venue to end the tour on and Within Temptation, I'm sure, has played in nice arenas and very lovely music halls in Europe. Regardless of how genuine that comment was, it's a nice feeling when a European band can say that in about one of the venues in Los Angeles, even if that city has a reputation of being "shady-looking" at times. Speaking of European bands, I just realized the week of that this is actually the first concert I've been to that features primarily European bands. All of the bands I've seen in my concert-going in the last 6 years are mainly American or Canadian.
Anywho, thanks to the security woman, we were informed that the first band actually started on 6:55 instead of 7:00 and it was Smash into Pieces. They were an ok band. They had a drummer with an interesting mask on and had a screen with some nice visuals and all. They primarily played songs that sounded like they belong on Active Rock/Sirius XM Octane radio and would be a great fit for an American modern band (which I already listed examples a few posts ago in this thread). If I had to compare them to any other band, I would compare them to this band, Starset, but Starset does the gimmick with the spacey visuals and the masks and the songs better.
Smash Into Pieces' frontman was an odd bunch though. I feel like his pitch at times felt unnatural (like he was either singing to a backing track or was miming, similar to any accusations of Brent Smith of Shinedown of miming or having backing tracks that makes it hard to distinguish if he was actually singing live or not.) Also, his banter was a bit odd and he stated that he liked bananas and I think he chucked a banana to the crowd. Also, he attempted to crowdsurf, but that only lasted 5 seconds as the pit was really not in the mood for that. I compared that to when I saw Hyro the Hero opening for Nothing More in February and that Hyro stage dived and crowdsurf and that lasted for about 30 seconds and I was in the middle of it saying, "Oh boy, I got to get to another area, since this crowd is pretty rabid in a good way right now." Afterwards, when the song ended, and Hyro was back on stage, he was like, "Man, that was a good exercise there," whilst when Smash Into Pieces' frontman did it and failed at it, he shrugged and had a "Oh well" feeling to it.
Overall, I think Smash Into Pieces was ok. I mean they weren't really a big dealbreaker to anyone in deciding whether or not they want to go to this show, but people liked them enough, and I think they got some new fans at the end. I know there was what looked to be a soccer mom in the VIP table was really into them, so I guess it was mission accomplished for them.
Second band was In Flames and they come out with their heavy sound and harsh vocals and, as stated, before there was a lot of people that was there primarily for them and I don't think In Flames disappointed at all. They brought in a lot of intensity that people was expecting. People were headbanging and there was a mosh pit going in the pit in the front. I enjoyed the solos that their lead guitarist was doing and how he was looking doing them. This was stated before in a previous post, but they mentioned that they had a special treat for this tour when one of their guitarist couldn't make it due to medical issues and they brought in Chris Broderick (former Megadeth guitarist). I thought that's a cool for those both into In Flames and Megadeth, but it didn't do much for me in terms of hype nor did it deter it.
Anyway, Anders was a solid frontman and he was doing all he can to get people from being into it to
really being into it. He brought in a solid amount of banter in between songs. He acknowledged this one dude from the second floor of the lodge area and Anders was like "I can't hear what you are saying, but you got a really nice shirt on." When he got to talking about their new album (and people reacted loudly about it), he kept repeating "we got a new album out" for like three or four times just to see if the crowd reaction can be louder, but sadly, around the 4th time, people were not as enthusiastic about it. Anyway, he made a pretty snarky statement where he says "if you introduce this album to your friends and they don't like it, they can blame it on you, not on us." I mean someone may find it in disheartening spirit, and I had a good laugh about it. Sadly, I only really knew like the two songs that In Flames played in their set and they were the two songs that Octane was playing (This Is Our House and I Am Above) in readiness of the new album, I The Mask. Maybe, it is something I can get into them a little more, but after listening to their discography and found it a huge blur for the most part, maybe not.
Anders also fistbumped a crowdsurfer (and that dude did a better job of it than the Smash Into Pieces guy) when he made it pass the barriers and I liked that when a frontman does something like that. You acknowledged something positive in the crowd for like a few moments, but you can go ahead and really make that person's night. Something like also happened at the Disturbed show I was at in January, where David Draiman saw a disabled dude behind the barriers and Draiman was like "if this dude made it to the front in the condition he is at, he belongs on my stage, get him to the side of the stage, part the sea people and let him through." It took about five minutes to get that guy there, but it was a cool feeling to see the arena chant his name. It is something I do want to see bands do more of, big or small. Just acknowledge something awesome in the crowd and really make their day and a good way to interact with the crowd.
Overall, In Flames was really good and sadly, some people left after their set was done. Too bad, they missed on a great set from Within Temptation. They started at 9:20 and started off with The Reckoning, instead of their main opener for this tour, Raise Your Banner, which is fine since I always feel like if you want to go ahead and start a show in support of a new album, you start with the first single of the album. The band was really on point. They were hitting their spots really well and they had some nice tall screens with solid visuals. After, I believe Endless War, Sharon had a small crown of roses and wore them for a brief moment and said "take this picture and upload it on Instagram while you can." and stated how she wouldn't mind wearing it for the whole show, but it would a lot hard to move around with it on, so she just place the crown over the mic stand. Anywho, after they played two songs from Resist, they went on to play two songs from what I think are live staples, In the Middle of the Night and Stand My Ground. Everyone in the crowd was really into them. One of the things I wondered was if this was going to be a crowd that is of the stand and be in awe and do whatever Sharon asks of and I think that was the case at points. When she asks for the crowd to fistpump, hands in the air, or do a call-and-response like in Covered by Roses, they did it. It varies if it is with gusto or not. Still, it was really nice to see men, women, children, couples, older dudes, single guys like me, etc. to have a fun time of a concert and singing along and reacting well to everything the band was doing without being inadvertently obnoxious. If only all concerts was like this and there would be no issues at all.
The setlist was really good and what I was really hoping for. Five songs from the new album, Resist. The Reckoning, Endless War, In Vain, Supernova, and Raise Your Banner. I really enjoyed their performance of In Vain and after the show was done, and I have gone back and listening to it more and I've been enjoying it more and I already pegged that as an initial favorite. They also played four songs from The Heart Of Everything. Three of them are staples (The Cross, What Have You Done Now, and the title track) and nothing wrong with playing some stuff from one of, what most people feels, their best albums. Only two songs from The Unforgiving (another great album of theirs), Faster and In the Middle of the Night and since those are staples, they got a good reaction. They also played, as mentioned before, an acoustic version of Ice Queen, and they stated that since they play a song so many times, they feel like they need to change the approach of it a bit so that they do not get bored with it and it was a very lovely performance as the end result.
However, I think the second best song reaction of the night from the crowd was Paradise (What About Us), not surprised. It was the lead single of Hydra and it was a song that they collaborated with Tarja and it really was the definition of a dream team pairing of their genre coming together. Also, I think a great example of a great vocalist would be the following. Bands can have someone have guest vocalists on their songs and feel they need to pipe in these guest vocalists when played live to not lose the integrity of the vocals. Sharon does a great job singing Paradise (What About Us) and The Reckoning that you do not need Tarja's vocals or Jacoby Shaddix (I guess you can question of how great a vocalist Jacoby is, but his voice has that certain distinction that cannot be not-recognizable for those that listen to mainstream rock like me) piped into it. That stated, Within Temptation still kept Keith Caputo for What Have You Done Now and, naturally, it got the best reaction of the night. It's just an easy reaction when you play a song like that and have the crowd shout "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW" and thus ends the main set.
The encore begins and out comes Anders Friden from In Flames and they played Raise Your Banner, complete with Sharon waving that flag around. I think this might have been the only time they brought Anders out for this song during this entire tour, since they've been playing Raise Your Banner as the opener which would make it an awkward spot to have him out there at the start of the show. Having this song placed at the beginning of the encore would be perfect, regardless of how much people liked the song. You got In Flames with you on this tour and you got their singer on this track. Bring him out during the encore to play it, easy reaction. They then closed off with Mother Earth and the call-and-response with the "Ohohohoooooh" was good and thus ends one of the best concerts I've been to.
For the longest time, I had three concerts where I deemed it the perfect concert where nothing absolute went wrong to ruin my enjoyment of it, even so slightly. Seeing Halestorm at the House of Blues in 2017, seeing Breaking Benjamin three days later at the same place, and seeing Myles Kennedy at the Troubadour, last year. Those three concerts and I went in, and those guys killed it, played the right songs at the right time, and had a great crowd reaction throughout the show and I had one of the greatest experiences I have ever had in life and I just keep rethinking back at those events and I think, "this is perfection. Nothing went wrong at all in the show to ruin my enjoyment." I always go into a concert hoping to have that feeling again, and there's always something I think went wrong to deem it perfect (the sound mix was really bad, the crowds too rowdy and pushy, I was too sick to enjoy it, Myles' voice sounds like helium in between songs, the instrumental breakdowns are too long for their own good, the band doesn't look too engaging enough to the crowd, the setting up time in between sets is way too long of a wait, there's too many tall people blocking my view, there's too many people trying to force their way to the front,
that one dude was standing on his chair for 30 minutes and is barely reacting to anything and yes, I am really really upset at the bolded during the DT show that I keep bringing it up every time I think about it.)
When I keep thinking back at that Within Temptation concert, I think that was really a perfect show for me. They played the right material of the right time. They played a fair amount of their new album and the songs come off well live. I had a tremendous view the entire time. The crowd was good and appreciative. No one was being obnoxious (aside from those people trying to get to the pit without the green wristband, but that security lady was on top of it the entire time). I'm in one of my favorite venues (The Wiltern Theater and The House of Blues are always going to be my favorite places to be in for concerts in Southern California). It was a great night. Sure, I probably would have liked more than 80-85 minutes from Within Temptation (and then they could fit more stuff from The Unforgiving and more stuff from pre-The Heart Of Everything) and they could have not have Smash Into Pieces on the bill and split the 35 minutes and add it to In Flames and Within Temptation, but I could say that for any band. As a standalone set, Within Temptation was really really good and is right now, the frontrunner of my concert of the year, so far (lots of shows to go through to change my mind, but this is a tough show to beat).
Anyway, I appreciate you guys here if you read it all the way to this point, if not, I appreciate you guys for letting me post this really long post. Thanks.
Topic: Within Temptation thread (Read 81920 times)
