Lacuna Coil – Nosturi – Helsinki - 15th of February, 2010
”Behind great men there is always an amazing woman”
By: Maila-Kaarina Pictures: Mikko Hänninen
If you have any doubt about this saying, Lacuna Coil is a great example to prove I´m not wrong. Take the band, put them on stage and remove Cristina Scabbia. What have you got? A very good metal band, yes, but that´s all, nothing special.
Now, put Cristina on stage and let them be: it´s fantastic!
I don´t want to reduce the value of the other musicians, no way! The entire band is very good but it´s a fact that Cristina on stage, together with Andrea, is something else, there is a plus in this addition.
We can´t say Lacuna Coil is a band of virtuous musicians, and I believe this has never been their intention when starting the project, but there is no doubt that each one of them deserve all respect. They are very efficient and, as a group, a line-up change would really mess the plus I see on them: perfect interaction.
The concert was part of the SHALLOW LIFE ALBUM EUROPEAN TOUR, to promote the album released in 2009. It happened on a very cold Monday and I wasn´t expecting to see so many people but I was wrong. Nosturi is a very nice concert hall with capacity for at least nine hundred and the concert was sold out.
The supporting band for the European tour, Dommin, from Los Angeles (USA), was OK. Dressed like 50´s bad boys ”a la James Dean”, they played their modern rock with metal and Gothic influences. Nice songs, good moments, good musicians but they didn´t really catch my eyes. Maybe in another situation they would have fit better but their music was a little bit too post 95´s influenced for my “old school” taste. However, they deserve to be checked out, the quartet is good: www.dommin.com
A little bit after 10pm Lacuna Coil got on stage playing ”Survive”, the opening song of the new album, making all of us feel really alive. The first to get on stage was the drummer Criz, then one by one of the musicians came giving space to this great duet at the end: Cristina Scabbia and Andrea.
But there was something wrong going on...
The absence of Maki, the bassist, who had a little accident with Andrea and hurt his arm not being able to play. Andrea was wearing an arm sling, actually.
But really, they did an EXCELLENT job, the sound at Nosturi was great and we couldn´t fell Maki´s absence so much.
Next song: ”Underdog”, also from “Shallow Life”, followed by ”Closer” (Karmacode, 2006) and ”I´m not Afraid” (Shallow Life), introduced by Cristina with a nice speech: ”...if you have a dream, don´t ever let anybody, anybody tell you how to live your life, what to make of it, and don´t be afraid, so this next song is going out to all the dreamers in the crowd, I´m not Afraid.” Sweet Scabbia!
Going back to the subject interaction, something very good to see in Lacuna Coil is the band´s connection, of course this is expected in any professional band, but in their case we see that it´s easy to be on stage, they use the entire space and look at each other as if they knew exactly what one is thinking with a warm atmosphere in their playing, part of being ”Latinos” maybe, the old and well known Italian hospitality and ”family feeling”, I don´t know, but you look at them and see a bunch of good friends having fun.
Andrea and Cristina have a very free attitude on stage, they are funny and use a lot of energy to command the show. Although they take turns on the vocals, while one is singing the other puts the microphone down and keeps on singing, making the audience do the same and NEVER stop.
Cristina is naturally sexy, there´s no effort on it. Her voice is powerful and clean, her clothes are great (she changed 3 times) and she´s the one who talks to the crowd with her crazy dancing, funny poses, jumping and a lot of attitude.
Andrea is her complement. His voice suits perfectly on hers and although he doesn´t speak much, he´s got a lot of presence. Ah! I can´t forget to mention that he also dances well! ( I met him, Criz and Chris on a boat trip from Stockholm to Helsinki the night before and we danced a little bit, they were having a lot of fun!). It may sound weird when talking about a goth metal band, but hey, there´s nothing to prove if you got strong personality, just be yourself and do what you want the best way you can, this is how I see Lacuna Coil.
The set list was very good, one and a half hour, 18 songs giving more emphasis to the most recent album, of course but I was really satisfied: ”Fragments of Faith” (Karmacode, 2006), ”Tight Rope” (Comalies, 2002), ”Senzafine” (Unleashed Memories, 2001), ”I won´t tell you” (Shallow Life, 2009), ”Heaven´s a Lie”(Comalies, 2002)- one of the top moments with a big choir and Cristina asking us to sing along and loud in the middle of the song, when they keys go alone with her. Cool! ”Fragile”, ”Wide Awake” (Shallow Life) - Cristina´s top moment in my opinion, not for being a ballad, but for Scabbia´s outstanding interpretation that probably made some eyes tear up. Alone on stage, wearing a black long dress, she sang this song as if those words were real feelings coming from out of her mouth. ”To the Edge” (Karmacode), ”The Maze” (Shallow Life), ”Swamped” (Comalies) and ”Enjoy the Silence” (Karmacode), Depeche Mode cover, where they ask us to scream as much as we can during the chorus to show them what kind of audience we are. And we did good! Finnish audience is great.
After that, unfortunately, the end was near with the three-song-encore: ”Not Enough”, ”Spell Bound” (both form Shallow Life) and ”Our Truth” (Karmacode).
It was the first time I had the pleasure and the opportunity of watching this band alive. Although I´be always been a big fan of them in studio, it´s a fact that it´s on stage that we can really feel the music, it´s totally different, it´s the real thing and it´s sad when disappointing. But in which concerns to Lacuna Coil, disappointment is out of question: this is an amazing band with one of the best nowadays singers and really great songs. Much better than I was expecting. I didn´t hate that Monday at all!
HARD BLAST THANKS MIKKO HÄNNINEN FOR THE GREAT PICS! YOU RULE, MAN!
Lacuna Coil is:
Cristina Scabbia – vocals
Andrea – vocals
Chris – guitar
Maus – guitar
Maki – bass
Criz – drums
Set List:
SURVIVE
UNDERDOG
CLOSER
I´M NOT AFRAID
FRAGMENTS OF FAITH
TIGHT ROPE
SENZAFINE
I WON´T TELL YOU
HEAVEN´S A LIE
FRAGILE
WIDE AWAKE
TO THE EDGE
THE MAZE
SWAMPED
ENJOY THE SILENCE
