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 consider myself lucky to have gotten the chance to see After Forever tonight on their first North American tour, especially considering that I only started listening to them around the holidays last year. In that span of maybe ten months, they’ve become my second-favorite band.

I arrived at the Funhaus in Toronto (the show had been moved from the larger Opera House) only 20 minutes before doors and was surprised to see only 10 or so people waiting ahead of me. After getting inside, I planted myself against the stage toward stage left, where I knew AF guitarist/grunter Sander Gommans would be stationed.

I was surprised that there was no local opener. Unexpect opened the show with a seriously twisted brand of metal. I can’t even describe it…they were just totally whacked. I hadn’t heard of them before, but I’ll be checking them out after that performance.

After Forever was every bit as good as I had hoped. The early songs were hampered by problems with Sander Gommans’s guitar rig: his wireless died only seconds into “Discord.” The tech wired him up with a guitar cable, but it took a few songs to get everything straightened out. The performance itself was excellent, though. Everyone was on their game. The set list was strong. They did a rendition of Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” with Bas Maas on lead vocals. The selections from the new album were strong. I was especially happy to hear “Lonely,” as I’m a sucker for the piano ballads. I wish they had played more than one song from Invisible Circles, but the set was still nice as it was.

After the show, the band came out to meet fans at the merch table. I was impressed by that. I was planning to hang out at the bus and try to meet the band, but it was a really nice gesture that they would come out like that. I met Floor, Bas, Joost van den Broek and Luuk van Gerven. I saw Andre Borgman, but he disappeared before I could get to him. I didn’t see Sander, which is kind of a shame because he was the person I most wanted to meet, apart from Floor. Despite that, it was a great way to close out a very memorable evening.

Photos at Flickr, setlist after the jump…

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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 headed for Toronto this afternoon with high expectations. I really enjoyed the Kamelot show in Cleveland last year and had similar expectations for this show, even with the new album being a little on the disappointing side. Unfortunately, this show would turn out to be the antidote for that awesome DT show on Monday.

I arrived about an hour before doors and got a decent, if not great, spot in line. Once they opened the doors, I made a bee-line for the stage and got a spot in the second ‘row,’ toward the center on stage right. There was a (local, I assume) opening band that I won’t even name, they were that bad.

I was looking forward to seeing Leaves’ Eyes. I’ve only been a LE fan for maybe four months, so to get to see them live so early on is a treat. Before the lights went down, though, I felt the disappointment coming on: they use a ‘quiet’ stage setup, with guitars and bass run direct into the PA (no amps) and electronic drums, so the only things left to produce noise on the stage were the vocalists and the cymbals, which were amazingly left without microphones. I figured the sound would be horrible, and it was. Even worse was the prerecorded backing track that they used, which contained all the synth/string/piano parts and backing vocals (and who knows what else, since there were no stage amps to ’speak the truth’). They’d do well to scrap one of the guitarists (they play the same thing 98% of the time anyway) and replace him with a keyboardist. I’m really not a fan of backing tracks. Triggering occasional samples is one thing, but the full-length tracks are just too much. That said, the performance was enjoyable, but the sound and the stupid backing spoiled it to an extent.

I was hoping things would get better for Kamelot, but they suffered from bad sound as well. Their set list was decent (although they left out “The Fourth Legacy,” which I was really hoping for) and the performance was just as good as the Cleveland show last year. A really nice surprise was the guest appearance of Simone Simons of Epica during “The Haunting.” It was also really great to hear “Memento Mori.” I love when the power metal bands play their more progressive stuff. Still, I had a hard time enjoying their set for reasons having nothing to do with the band.

The big downer on this show was the crowd. Things got crazy from Leaves’ Eyes’s first song. I’ve never had to fight so hard to defend a spot on the floor (and I’ve had spots at least as good as that on many occasions). By the time Kamelot came on, my back was sore, I was sweating like a pig and feeling dehydrated, and I was totally drained. I love to really get into the shows, with the fist-pumping and shouting and all that, but it felt rather like a chore to throw the horns up during Kamelot. Finally, after “Memento Mori,” I bailed and went to the back where it was cooler and I had space to lean up against a wall and not get blasted by some stray mosher. (The sound was bad back there too!) Basically, this was a good show despite the sound, but the crap with the crowd pretty much ruined the night. Finally, to add insult to injury, I got a parking ticket for some stupid thing about not having a permit or something. The cop had just finished it up when I turned the corner onto the street where I had parked. I would have beaten it if I had left early, which I had considered doing.

Lessons learned:

• Choose carefully the shows that I go for the prime spot on the rail…going for a prime spot at the front of a raised area farther back is looking like a more attractive option.
• Be careful about the parking when I go back up there to see After Forever in October.

Setlists 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.