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Events and Reports - Sonata Arctica - Live with Platitude at The Rock, Copenhagen, 10th of November, 2004
Tonight's concert took place at Copenhagen's new, huge Metal-fortress, The Rock. The place is a continuation of the concept of Tex, known as the city's only bar, where it is possible to listen to some real Metal and see bands in the more extreme genres. After having expanded the idea and moving to bigger locations, the place is no longer just a great Heavy Metal bar, but also includes a huge concert hall, called The Rock, with a capacity of about 600 people.
First band on tonight's bill, Platitude from Sweden contains no less than seven members, of which two are keyboard players. The band plays a very melodic, progressive style, which I found hard to get captured by from the first listen. Not that catchy, the band still showed a strong sense for melodies, and had a very powerful and strong singer in front, who impressed me during the show. Though the band didn't appear as showmen, didn't really move around or stuff like that, they showed talent and offered a fine concert. Nevertheless, the young band seem to need a little more experience on the live side, but since I see the performance side as the least important, I must say it was an allright concert. To be honest, progressive Metal has never really been my cup of tea, but these guys delivered a fine show.
Now, it was time for the biggest reason so many people had shown up tonight, the Finnish Sonata Arctica. The band started with the two first songs on their newest album, Reckoning Night, the rocking, fast Misplaced and the more laid back Blinded No More, where the first mentioned impressed me the most. The huge audience reacted positive, headbanging and screaming from the top of their lungs. It was an overall pretty young crowd, that supported the band in an enthusiastic way!
Kingdom For A Heart, one of my personal faves, gave the show some new energy and for the first time tonight, the band really shined, and I couldn't help but jump up and down in happiness!
Victoria's Secret is one of the songs that seems like another standard Power Metal song, while things got a bit more interesting with the more original and highly melodic Broken, but nevertheless the performance lacked energy and seemed a bit like routine.
Unfortunately, the whole thing came across as a bit tame. Tony Kakko had just recovered from a cold, and though his vocal performance was faultless, his stage performance was pretty reluctant and he came across as unenthusiastic. Overall the band didn't really have the contagious enthusiasm needed to really make a good show, even though they got a fine support from the crowd.
Guitar player Jani Lihmatainen has a good personality on stage and was, together with keyboard player Henrik Klingenberg, the two guys that looked most like they actually had fun playing.
Of course, Sonata Arctica are professionals with their instruments, and things like the duelling guitar/keyboard solo were done in an entertaining and cool way!
Don't Say A Word is probably the most impressive song from the new album, with it's almost Blind Guardian-like feeling and bombastic atmosphere. The song was carried out in a fine way, with Tony Kakko's characteristic and emotional voice in front and a well working background choir for a live show.
As tonight's last song, the guys played the super catchy, energized The Cage, a real crowdpleaser, and for the second or third time tonight, I felt like the otherwise missing energy of the band was released, which only happened in small doses, so it was just to enjoy it while it lasted!
We didn't really get any talk in between the songs, Tony Kakko sad down on stage during a great part of the concert, and on the show side, this was the most tame gig, I have ever seen from Sonata Arctica. I know they can do better than this, and though the songs were pretty well carried out, the band only shined in melodic glory momentarily. Without being a bad concert, it was far from the splendour of their great gig at Sweden Rock Festival a few years ago, where the band rearranged small parts in the songs, seemed creative and were alive and kicking!
Setlist, Sonata Arctica:
Misplaced.
Blinded No More.
Kingdom For A Heart.
Victoria's Secret.
Broken.
Abandoned, Pleased, Brainwashed, Exploited.
Last Drop Falls.
Keyboard/ Guitar solo.
8th Commandment.
Replica.
My Land.
Black Sheep.
Encores:
Sing In Silence.
The End Of This Chapter.
Don't Say A Word.
The Cage.
| | Written by Nina
Wednesday, December 15, 2004 |
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RevelationZ Comments
| Comment by Ben@Metalreviews (Anonymous) - Monday, December 20, 2004 | It seems that the good songs (except for Dont Say a Word and Misplaced) off Reckoning Night were left off the setlist. Man they really need to bring back UnOpened, Full Moon and San Sebastian. BTW its pretty funny how they play Kingdom for a Heart so much since Tony says he hates that song. I have a feeling if I was there Platitude would have blown my skirt up more than Sonata. Go get their new cd, Nine, now. RIGHT NOW! GO TO THE STORE DOWN THE BLOCK AND GET IT!
Ben
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| Comment by lol (Anonymous) - Friday, April 28, 2006 | lol
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