Epica

Just saw Epica (& Lacuna Coil) live for the first time (finally!). I knew they would be good, but I am speechless over Simone! Her stunning voice, great attitude, and beauty are a jaw dropping combination. The drummer also really stood out to me as quite above par. Will post the setlist another time (need sleep now). But to tide you over, here is a link to a photo album I made, which includes video of the end of Beyond the Matrix:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Dj2B825opkWqteWv2

Thanks to @Forostar for introducing me to this band!

As for Lacuna Coil, did not know they would look like a horror show! Pretty good live band, but Christine's live voice cannot begin to touch Simone's!
 
I am familiar with The Holographic Principle and the standard live tracks, but they played two deeper tracks last night I did not recognize (still learning their catalog). I filmed a little bit of each. Can someone click the link and tell me the name of the :25 footage (2nd song of the night) and the :16 footage? Why did I not film longer? I hate filming shows. I would rather be watching and enjoying them. I only recorded these bits so we could figure out what songs they were so I could create an accurate setlist. I know Epica changes their set a little bit each night.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hfZ3B2OVD5ox7IGc2
 
I got it! The 2nd clip is Reverence-Living In the Heart. Looked at the list of lesser played songs from this year's setlists and searched the lyrics.
 
terrell39 said:
I am familiar with The Holographic Principle and the standard live tracks, but they played two deeper tracks last night I did not recognize (still learning their catalog). I filmed a little bit of each. Can someone click the link and tell me the name of the :25 footage (2nd song of the night) and the :16 footage? Why did I not film longer? I hate filming shows. I would rather be watching and enjoying them. I only recorded these bits so we could figure out what songs they were so I could create an accurate setlist. I know Epica changes their set a little bit each night.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hfZ3B2OVD5ox7IGc2
Click to expand...
1: Sensorium, from the debut album, The Phantom Agony (2003).
2: Reverence Living in the Heart, from the 6th album, The Quantum Enigma (2014).

edit: sorry, I was so into it, that I forgot to look at other posts. I had to search for the title of the 2nd, but I knew immediately which album it was. The first, I've seen that one very often live. An old cut, but perhaps not a deep one, because it is still in the set in the last years, I think.
 
Last night Epica played their 999th show at the Kentish Town Forum in London and what a spectacular show it was!

I managed to get second from the front for the whole show and I would have been on the barrier if it hadn't been for the VIP wankers. Epica do these rip-off (£80!) meet & greet events before the show which a surprising amount of people buy tickets for. They get a fancy photo with the band and a load of goodies, as well as access to the venue first so they all get on the barrier. Sad! I don't approve of bands charging people to meet them, but I guess that's a management decision. Someone in the queue told me that one time he did the meet & greet all the band was super friendly apart from Simone who seemed a bit disinterested. I can totally imagine her being a diva though. Most of the people who buy the VIP tickets are at least 40 years old as they can actually afford it and I think it's fairly representative of Epica's UK fanbase which seems to be older people who grew up listening to Prog. I have no idea what the typical age range in Europe is though.

Being second from the front meant I had a really good view of everything, particularly the gorgeous Simone Simons of course. She is captivating to watch and her singing is seriously impressive live. When I saw them last year I wasn't sure if some of the parts which use a choir on the albums were played on a tape or sung by her, but being a bit closer to the stage last night I noticed it was all her live. Obviously these parts are minus the choir live but they sound a lot better for it. The rest of the band (can't forget about them, however easy it is...) were good too, especially the bald keyboardist (not a fraud!) who probably stole the show from Simone. He was easily the most entertaining member of the band as he can spin his keyboard around, move it along on wheels behind the drum kit, play a curved keytar and then when there's a passage when he doesn't have anything to play he comes down and messes around with the rest of the band. The highlight of the show was when he took his keytar down onto the floor between the stage and barrier and then crowdsurfed for a bit so I (and then several other people) started rubbing his bald head. Simone noticed this and said after that song that she found it quite funny, but I'm sorry Simone, you might be the most beautiful member of the band but you're certainly not the coolest.

This was the setlist from last night. There was a reasonable mix of the more recent songs that I know quite well and the earlier songs that I'm not as familiar with. I actually prefer their more recent albums to the earlier stuff as it's a bit too slow, proggy and operatic for me. The more recent albums (particularly 'The Holographic Principle') has more of Simone singing normally like she does on 'Storm the Sorrow' without the operatic stuff . More of that in the future please Epica. They've been changing the setlist from night-to-night on this tour and I actually prefer the Manchester setlist as it had more songs that I know like 'Storm the Sorrow', 'Essence of Silence', 'Dancing in a Hurricane' and 'Once Upon a Nightmare'. Manchester even had one more song overall as well. Sad! Still, if Epica can do rotating setlists then so can Iron Maiden. #justsayin #yaearthdogs

I read an interview with Mark Janssen the other day where he said that Epica will probably take a break after their current run of shows ends in September as they've been touring and recording almost non-stop since they started. Tonight is their 1000th show which they are marking with a special show which @Forostar is attending. Mark said he wants to do more stuff with MaYaN and apparently Simone said she wants to do something else too. It'll be interesting to hear what that might be, although if it's some opera solo album than I'm not interested. I'm guessing it might be a couple of years before I see Epica again.

Here are some photos I got from last night. For research purposes of course.

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