Evanescence

Last night I went to see Evanescence at the Entertainment Centre and I was suitably impressed. Amy's vocals are amazing - she is one of the few performers who can sound as they good as when they are on a produced CD. She was very active, covering the whole area of the stage constantly thoughout the gig, only stopping to sit at the full grand piano that the roadies lugged out from stage right a couple of times.

It was very clear that Evanescene is Amy Lee. The other band members were peripheral to the main show. Probably the only thing I'd pick her up on was that she has limited ability in talking to the audience. Most of the brief chit-chat revolved around bad Spinal Tap style clichés (hand in the air and "Thankyou Adelaide" and "you guys rock"). To be honest though, she didn't need to talk as the band blew everyone away with the clinical musicianship. It was loud, it was powerful, it was just plain firkin' awesome.

Support came from NZ rockers Shihad. I heard one of their tracks a few years ago and didn't mind it that much, but last night they were just a complete mish-mash of poor tunes, weird noises, grunts, fists in the air and not much else. I didn't spot a single tune in anything they did. Nothing caught my attention at all. Quit now boys.

Strangest thing of the night in my opinion was the amount of people who spent most of the night trying to get video clips on their mobile phones. What's the point? They weren't watching the gig and all they get for their troubles is a poor quality clip that sounds awful. Have you seen some of the mobile phone clips on YouTube?

Another strange thing was the guy and girl in front of us that were apparently very much in love. He was an ugly, old bogan with mullet and flannelette shirt and she was a very pretty goth queen of not much more than 18 years of age. He was almost old enough to be her Grandad. It defies belief. And hope.