The concert tickets to Poison Black, Lacrimas Profundere and Lacuna Coil had been sitting on my window sill for a long time waiting to fulfill their destiny … until November 6th, when they shinily (freshly dusted) went on their journey to Cologne.
Unfortunately the evening began with a disappointment.
At Cologne Music Hall we found out that Lacrimas Profundere would not enter the stage tonight. As I know now, their vocalist Christopher had fallen off the stage at their concert in Linz some days earlier and suffered a concussion. I’d like to use this opportunity to wish him all the best. Break a leg! 🙂
But out of every tragedy comes some good and thus Poison Black got the concentrated attention as the only opener band.
Which they definitely deserved, as I liked the quintet from the North so much that I’ve already reserverd the necessary space for their new album with the beautiful title “Lust Stained Despair.”
Striking reefs, catchy melodies, interesting voice… what more can you ask for?
Some emotion maybe…?! No problem … it was really sweet and touching when vocalist Ville Laihiala (Ex Sentenced … the band! 🙂 ) dedicated one song to his mum “… because I fucking miss her.” Ville did not only impress me with his esthesia and his sense of familiy though, but even more with his abilities! He took all the vocal parts, played guitar at the same time AND performed all the guitar solo parts! Ville is THE MAN!!! 🙂
Keyboardist Marco Sneck was a little less busy in comparison but his lion’s mane got me green with envy! What the hell do men need such beautiful hair for?!?! This should better be left to the women! 😉
Contrast to the Finns who spat on stage and drank beer was the Italian design performance by the headliner, whose stage appearance was put on amazingly.
First, the 4 musicians Marco Coti Zelati (Bass), Cristiano Migliore (Guitar), Marco Biazzi (Guitar) and Cristiano Mozzati (Drums) entered the black lit stage and formed up in a rectangle shaped position. They were wearing the white gauze masks which appear on the album cover of Karmacode. The masks were gleaming in the black light while the bodies were nearly invisible because they were covered by black shirts with ties and black pants. Then the vocalists Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro made their stage appearance and positioned themselves inside the rectangle of musicians wearing white shirts with black ties and no masks.
That lineup under the black light was a fairly impressive sight.
Suddenly the lighting changed from black to white, pink and blue and the show began. During the entire performance the Italians meticulously maintained a geometrical line up.
The guitarists Cristiano and Marco played resembling 7- string ESP guitars (two instruments each, as they were exchanged during the show), to assure a perfectly harmonized stage design. The whole show couldn’t have been organized in a more professional way. By the way, bassist Marco Coti Zelati uses picks in national colors!
But what impressed me the most was the downright inexhaustible energy of Cristina Scabbia. If I tried to be as agile as she was during the entire show for no more than ten minutes I would be carried off stage! She was moving wild all the time, which did not affect her impressive voice at all … and from time to time she performed a perfectly synchronized headbanging with the other band members.
They all made a very likeable impression, as they did not only go through with their show but included the audience in many activities… for example when drummer Cristiano Mozzati flipped us off!
No, no, their were all very friendly except of that. Andrea held nice little speaches to the audience at the beginning and the end of the show. For example he mentioned that this was the last but one show of their two months tour. Despite of that, nobody in the band seemed the slightest bit tired. Andrea and Cristina made the entire audience jump up and down to the rythm of “fragile”. Later they said that they had the impression that we were tired and that aparantly we’d prefer to go home. They demanded counter evidence, which meant that first the right and then the second half of the audience had to scream their head off. 🙂 Apparently their were satisfied with our effort, because the show went on.
Before she sang “virtual environment”, Cristina asked for some mood lighting. She didn’t want to see the conventional lighters, thoug. Cristina prefers the more modern and thumb- friendly alternative … everybody had to raise their mobile phones (“mobile lighters”) and light the display. This sure was a beautiful sight.
The Depeche Mode cover “enjoy the silence” was chanted by the audience, until everybody’s vocal cords just gave up.
But the vocal cords were not the only bodyparts negatively affected… my ears were buzzing, too … so next time I will get some ear- protection! 😉
After Lacuna coil had left the stage the audience was still demanding another encore. But the stage was then lit in Italian national colors and the show was over.
By the way, you can find pics here on the website of the official Lacuna Coil Community “Empty Spiral“. They were not made at the gig in Cologne, but they are representative. Enjoy!
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