Animus Eburnus: Epica Live

Epica live show with support group The Rain I Bleed , Saturday 29 May 2010, Fuzz Club, Athens, Greece.

Fuzz club was full with people. Many people were waiting almost two hours before the gates opened to enter the club.

The Rain I Bleed started the show, they had much problems with the sound, it seemed they did the sound check last minute and for the first two minutes we could not hear the vocalist at all. The problem with the sound continued, it was really a shame, because that caused them more "stress" on the stage, and while they tried the best up there to entertain the audience the problems with the sound made them to play one less song than they had planned and generally not make that impression to the people that did not know them. I am sure they pleased their fans, but for people like myself, who heard them for the first time the impression was not that good, although it was obviously not their fault.

They seemed too much "stressed" on the staged, and the problems with the sound made that more obvious, in between the breaks of the songs the lead singer could not "establish" a connection with the crowd. Although I like much the "female fronted" metal bands The Rain I Bleed did not impress me, and since they were support to Epica the comparison between them, although unfair, it is unavoidable anyone could see a huge gap between the two bands. They played also a cover of "Dark Chest of Wonders" from Nightwish, were the audience liked it very much and participated, logical of course since most people did not know their songs.

Overall I did not like their performance, mostly it is not their fault though. But due to the sound problems, which made them look awkward on stage, I would like to listen to some studio material first before I say whether I like or not The Rain I Bleed.
The Rain I Bleed on MySpace:http://www.myspace.com/therainibleed
Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rain-I-Bleed/19024826906

Epica took a while to appear on stage afterwards, because they did sound-check last minute too. The crowd was getting anxious to see them, the night was too hot too.

But everything went well and they started with "Resign To Surrender" from "Design you Universe" album. The sound was much better than The Rain I Bleed, but still it had a few problems, especially with the vocals again. Thankfully not so serious as before. I do not know who is to blame for this problems, the managers, the sound guy, the club, the organisers, but it is a pity to have such great bands on stage and "cause them problems" with poor or problematic sound.

Epica had much energy on stage, performing their set-list professionally, Simone and Mark were "communicating" with the audience and had us singing along and participating.

They played songs from their last album "Design your Universe" but also from their previous CDs, a well balanced set-list, although they did not played one of my favourites "Never Enough". On the other hand, most of their songs are my favourites, so I am pretty sure whatever they had played I would still would have "complaints" about not playing a song I liked, unless of course they show could last three hours and they could have played everything.
After the end of the show there were some fans waiting for Epica members to come out, most of them appeared, getting photos, signing autographs and chatting with fans , beside Simone who probably left first too early, so no one managed to get an autograph or a photo with her.

Epica official page: http://www.epica.nl/

Epica Setlist:
01. Samadhi [Prelude]
02. Resign To Surrender [A New Age Dawns Pt IV]
03. Sensorium
04. The Last Crusade [A New Age Dawns Pt I]
05. Seif Al Din [The Embrace That Smothers Pt VI]
06. Façade Of Reality [The Embrace That Smothers Pt V]
07. Cry For The Moon [The Embrace That Smothers Pt IV]
08. Tides Of Time
09. Unleashed
10. Martyr Of The Free Word

11. The Obsessive Devotion
12. Kingdom Of Heaven [A New Age Dawns Pt V]
Encore:
13. Sancta Terra
14. Quietus
15. Consign To Oblivion [A New Age Dawns Pt III]

Download the entire performance of Epica in Athens 2010 (audio) from here :
https://rapidshare.com/files/1765247351/ELIAMAY2010.rar

Following two videos from the live:
Epica - The Obsessive Devotion