Artists: Within Temptation / Annisokay
Venue: Leeds: First Direct Arena
Date: 19 November 2024
"The show was spectacular mainly due to the screens around the band showing quite realistic images that certainly added power to the songs."
It had been a while since I last saw Within Temptation live, and that was at the smaller Academy venue in Birmingham. It was a fairly impressive show I seem to remember, and I was curious to see if, now they were playing arenas, the shows had grown at all. The first thing I noticed was there didn’t appear to be much on stage, scenery wise, although to be fair there was a stage wide curtain across the back of German support band Annisokay’s equipment. Time will tell.
The first thing I noticed was that this show was going to be somewhat difficult to photograph. The stage was quite high, there were high bass speakers in the way, and the bank of footlights that ran the whole width of the stage meant that full-length shots were going to be almost impossible. Annisokay presented me with a problem as soon as they started with a very short section of ‘Into The Abyss’, simply because the “vocalist” was a growler, and anyone who has read any of my reviews will know I can’t be doing with it. I knew their name, but not their songs, but as they went on, I realised the music was quite good, despite using backing tapes for keyboard parts, and when the guitarist sang, which he did quite often, he was very good. They have a very heavy sound, almost Industrial, but incorporate very good melodies in their songs. A little surprise was, in the third song ‘Like A Parasite’, they were joined by Sharon den Adel, who does so just because she likes their music. They did nine songs in total, finishing with a song that they wanted everybody to shout the title of when it came up which was called ‘STFU’. And I’m going to leave it up to you to work out what that stands for (It’s not difficult). A fair part of the audience, which, as in the old days was standing rather than sitting, seemed pretty happy with them. It would have been a lot better for me, however, if the growler learned to play guitar, and the guitarist became the main vocalist.
Set List (contains spoilers)
So, it was now time for Within Temptation, who were touring in support of the ‘Bleed Out’ album. I thought this was heavier than their previous releases, and considerably more so than their early, Symphonic material, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Rather strangely we were only allowed to take photographs for the first three songs from the floor, amongst the standing crowd, then songs four and five and nine and ten from the pit. Some of this became clearer as the night wore on. It started with a taped spoken introduction and video before the band members came on and, having said there didn’t appear to be much scenery on stage, it became apparent that they didn’t really need any, as the stage had been transformed, with LED screens across the back and sides, into a huge temple with impressive columns, before vocalist Sharon den Adel appeared stage-right wearing a long red dress and headdress and singing ‘We Go To War’. Quite topical really. The stage was full of smoke, and columns of smoke shooting up from the front. Impressive it was.
When the song ended, she vanished, only to re-appear high up at the back of the stage in front of one of the screens, reminding me of Phil Collins when he used to do ‘Domino’ with Genesis. Returning to the stage, she got into conversation with an audience member who had got a new Within Temptation tattoo that day, before doing ‘Ritual’; my thought being she must have very strong vision. Before starting ‘Don’t Pray For Me’ she spoke about America taking away women’s rights to their own bodies, and there were quite a few political messages put out tonight, not least about Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine, stating that she was proud that music can bring people together, even from warring countries, between ‘Shot In The Dark’ and ‘Stand My Ground’. She then explained that there should have been another support band called “Blind8”, who unfortunately couldn’t be there as two members of the band, brothers, had to return to Ukraine to fight. Following this they performed ‘A Fool’s Parade’ with the assistance of Ukrainian Alex Yarmak, who sang on the track on ‘Bleed Out’, and who naturally spoke about the war in Ukraine before leaving the stage, at which point I noticed that everyone had left the stage, after which another guest arrived in the form of Tarja Turunen to do ‘The Promise’, followed by an actual Tarja song ‘I Feel Immortal’, Tarja’s voice actually sounding louder than Ms den Adel’s. Both singers left the stage and Ms den Adel then re-appeared in the Phil Collins position before ‘Supernova’ was announced as “For anyone that is missing someone.”
Back on stage she stated that it was hard getting down all the stairs in time for the next song, before doing ‘Faster’ which was the last of the main set, which surprised me a little as they had only been on for just over an hour. They came back fairly quickly, however, with some classic songs for the encore, one of which, ‘Paradise’, saw Tarja back on stage, taking the total time to about ninety minutes.
The show was spectacular mainly due to the screens around the band showing quite realistic images that certainly added power to the songs. Maybe some people would have been unsure about the political messages during the performance, even to the extent of putting up QR codes on the screen to support Ukraine, but what’s happening at the moment must be obvious to all in there tonight, so rallying support for Ukraine can be forgiven. Apart from the stage graphics though, probably the biggest highlights were the appearances of Tarja Turunen on stage with the band, something that the audience definitely appreciated.
Set List (contains spoilers)
Review: Andy B./Lou C. Photos: Andy B.
Gallery: All photos © Andy B (used with kind permission)
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