The Z Files

Symphony X is doing a North American tour that will stop in Toronto on April 11. They’re bringing along both Epica and Into Eternity. That’s one sweet package, as all three put on great shows. This will be the first time I’ve seen SymX do a full set, as my only experience with them was their brief second-stage appearance in Gigantour ‘05. It will be my third time seeing both Epica and IE.

Now for the bad news: the Sonata Arctica/Visions of Atlantis tour is pretty much avoiding anywhere touched on this fall’s Sonata tour, so I’ll likely take a pass on that.

I didn’t quite know what to expect going into last night’s Epica show. I had never been to Funhaus before, and I thought that 6:30 was pretty early to open the doors for a metal show. The venue itself is a hole. I played many better stages with Lurid. This particular one’s low ceiling reminded me of a bar in Lackawanna that I played a couple times. There was no security to speak of once inside, and I was right against the stage. I spent half the show leaning against the stage-right floor monitor.

There was a local opener, Apparatus. They didn’t bring much of anything new to the table and their music had a mainstream vibe not unlike Evanescence or Lacuna Coil. (Not that that’s a bad thing, just not really my thing.) They were still enjoyable, and I plan to check them out further.

The touring support band, Visions of Atlantis, followed. Hailing from Austria, with the exception of American vocalist Melissa Ferlaak, they’re stylistically closer to Epica’s brand of symphonic metal. Their music isn’t as aggressive and they use male clean vocals equally with the female vocals. I hadn’t heard them before this show, but I plan to pick up some of their stuff.

Epica didn’t disappoint. I just wish they would have put more emphasis on the new material. They played as many songs from their first album, The Phantom Agony, as from The Divine Conspiracy. I really would have liked to hear any of the new songs in the “Embrace that Smothers” series, especially “Fools of Damnation.” That said, the songs from TDC that they did play were excellent. My biggest hope was that they wouldn’t play the title track, as it’s way too long and gets boring. At least that hope was realized. Their performance was excellent, maybe better than when I saw them last year in Cleveland.

This show was a great rebound from the disappointing Kamelot show a few weeks ago, and was one of the best small-club shows I’ve been to. It’s always nice when the headliners impress and I get turned on to a couple other good bands on top of it!

Photos at Flickr, setlist after the jump…

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I was digging a little, and I discovered that Toronto will be playing host to Kamelot, Epica, Sonata Arctica and Nightwish on 8/24, 9/15, 9/24 and 10/23, respectively. Looks like I’ll be putting a bunch of mileage on the new car…! And that’s just bands that have announced dates so far. I’m expecting dates from Symphony X, After Forever, Within Temptation and more, and hoping for Dream Theater. Thankfully, these Euro bands’ ticket prices are very reasonable, otherwise I’d be in the po’ house.

I arrived at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland (same club as the Dream Theater show in March, but a smaller room) at 5:15 and was surprised that I was only the second person to arrive. I got to hear soundchecks (Kamelot played When the Lights Are Down without vocals and Epica played Blank Infinity) and spotted Simone Simons (Epica vocalist) directly on the other side of the locked glass doors on a couple occasions.

They opened the doors 30-45 minutes late. I went straight to the merch table, got a Kamelot shirt and headed for the stage. There were two local openers: Gravity is an instrumental prog-metal band and was quite impressive, especially since the members are in high school; and Eternal Legacy was a half decent power-meets-thrash band. Bridge finally showed up around 8-8:15, just before Epica went on.The evening started in earnest around 8:30. Epica was impressive. Simone was just awesome…she’s such a great singer. I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t play either Solitary Ground or Another Me, but I wasn’t surprised. They tend to avoid putting their slower songs in the live sets. Kamelot, however, stole the show. Roy Khan really knows how to take ownership of an audience. His stage presence is undeniable. The band was top-notch from start to finish. I came into the show a casual Kamelot fan, but I’m much more into them now.

I was hoping to get over to the tour buses after the show but, with Bridge having to leave right away, it wasn’t in the cards. I guess I should have gone to the Rochester show too. Maybe the venue there was more friendly toward cameras…the camera Nazis at the Agora took mine before Epica started. I got it back without a problem, but I was still really bummed about it. Oh well.

Setlists after the jump…

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I recently found out that Epica is touring in North America in September and planted a seed in Bridge’s mind about it. Well, in a convo tonight Kamelot came up and I went to their site to find the video for “The Haunting” which features Simone from Epica. I found a list of dates on their front page, with the bold-faced phrase “Special Guest: Epica.” My eyes bugged out a little. Sure enough, that Epica tour is in support of Kamelot! I didn’t need to do much persuading, and now I’m very much looking forward to a trip to Cleveland on Sept. 28!