Epic Kings and Idols Tour -- Katatonia & Paradise Lost

I haven't been to a concert in almost a year, and this was certainly well worth it. I had an amazing time at Epic Kings and Idols Tour, in Irving Plaza 9/23/12. Thanks to my wonderful hubby, we upgraded our tickets to the box seats, and were right above the sound board.

The Lineup:
Stolen Babies
Paradise Lost
Devin Townsend
Katatonia

Stolen Babies was pretty decent as an opening act. Their sound was theatrical, similar to Psyche Corporation except much, much harder and metal. The way the music grooved, the rhythms were similar, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I give them plenty of credit for the show they put on. Opening acts are usually awful, and filler before the show, but Stolen Babies harkened to the days when first encountered Dog Fashion Disco live (until they played again at a festival somewhere in New Jersey and were awful).

Paradise Lost  was delicious. They opened with Enchantment, off of their older Draconian Times album, and the moment I heard the song begin I was taken back to the days when that album came out, I was 17 when I discovered them. I will be frank and say I haven't followed Paradise Lost all that much since after One Second came out, they went far goth and less metal. It is a shame I didn't stick with them, because boy oh boy they came back with a vengeance. Faith Divides Us is a great song, and Paradise Lost's live performance was excellent. Irving Plaza, I must add, is an excellent venue for metal. The acoustics work, unlike in a place like Roseland Ballroom. I will not go to another metal show there, simply because the acoustics have the tendency to make the sound muddy, and that puts a damper on enjoying the full blast of music.  A few glasses of wine and Paradise lost and I was in complete heaven. They played The Enemy, off of In Requiem, and here was where I realized that I was rediscovering a band with a legendary gothic metal sound. This review of Paradise Lost is 100% about rediscovering something that had been lost in time. I went to see Katatonia, but Paradise Lost made the show highly worthwhile as well. Thanks to this show, I am diving into Paradise Lost with renewed interest, and have purchased some of their newer music since! And I feel truly lucky to have had this experience because apparently they don't come to the states that often.

 

Next on the show was the Devin Townsend Project. Look, I thoroughly understand that I may get totally flamed for this review, but I never really followed Devin Townsend. I say I might get flamed because the reaction of the crowd to Devin Townsend was different than my personal impression of the music. I completely understand that with all his well known projects, such as Strapping Young Lad, and Frontline Assembly, that I should be reviewing this with a bowing reverence, but I am not. Frankly  I could care less, and I felt like every song played sounded the same live. Granted, I hadn't dove into the music beforehand to familiarize myself. Clearly there is a great deal of drug-addled humor and parody implied judging from the website and the trippy animations on screen before their live set, and I am sure that's pretty cool. This really just wasn't my cup of tea. I was fairly amused, that besides my husband and I, there was a random Asian girl sitting near us in the box seat area who seemed just as disinterested as we were. But everyone else was completely entranced by Devin Townsend. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.  I don't know. Anyway, I am not ripping them apart, I'm just saying it thoroughly just was not for me. To add, live, they sounded too muddled, and never heard anything like this,below, on YouTube, where they sound like twisted carnival music. I do give Devin credit, he is demented beyond words. Maybe if it didn't just sound like repetitive drum blasting live, it would have been better.

Finally we get to Katatonia. Aaah the band I was waiting to see.  I absolutely love this band on CD, and was a bit nervous about how they would sound live. Those vocals could go one of two ways live. I am happy to say they delivered, and played songs from a wide range of albums. They played The Longest Year, and I actually caught that on video. The Day and Then the Shade was played during encore, I truly love that song and they delivered. July, My Twin also were played solidly. I had hoped they would play Departer, as I see a thread of connection to July with that song, but they didn't. Oh well, they played Dead House, a very very old song, which came out in the late 1990's. Katatonia's sound back then was more doom, and their vocals weren't as refined as they are now. I highly recommend checking out the old version, and then hearing the difference live. All in all, great show.