They are becoming keen on Spain, and we had the chance of seeing Lauren Harris’
band (Steve Harris’ daughter, from Iron Maiden) which will be with Within Temptation
in many other gigs during their European tour.
The opening was at 8:00 pm, and the room was being full of people despite
the fact that 2 hours were left to the Within Temptation’s performance. At 20:45
pm, with no delay, Lauren Harris and her band were playing on the stage. This
band is formed by Lauren Harris (vocals), Randy Gregg (bass guitar), Richie
Faulkner (electric guitar) and Tom McWilliams (drums).
This band has a rock style, but not very heavy, because they made everyone
move during the show with their music. They began their show and encouraged
the people at the room, and despite not being known in Spain, we could see that
they were looking forward to encouraging the people, and they did their best
on the stage. There were some guitar solos done by Richie Faulkner, and Tom
McWilliams was protagonist as well with drums. And there was something else
in common to all the band members and it was a very nice atmosphere that we
could notice between them all, always smiling, and doing their best with much
strength and entertainment which were transmitted to the audience.
Although we saw that Lauren Harris is 22 years old, she is surrounded by authentic
musicians with much quality who have been playing for many years, and it gives
certain safe to this band. Because although Lauren Harris hasn’t been much time
as a head of the band, all these musicians know perfectly what it means to live
from their music, and they demonstrated that they know very well how to encourage
the audience during this show in Madrid.
Once Lauren Harris finished their show, we ha to wait about 40 minutes to see
Within Temptation’s one. This band has become well known in Spain because of
the success that they had two years ago with their album The Silent Force, which
is enough to ensure the success in this last European tour with The Heart of
Everything. The band is formed by: Sharon den Adel (vocals), Robert Westerholt
(electric guitar), Jeroen van Veen (bass guitar), Martijn Spierenburg (keyboards),
Ruud Jolie (electric guitar) and Stephen van Haestregt (drums).
After this break, suddenly the music in the room and the lights were put out
and the people were nervous because of the beginning of the show. We could only
see a huge curtain on the stage with Within Temptation’s logo in it. There was
a new intro for this tour, and suddenly the curtain fell off to the ground and
the band appeared with one of their new songs, Our Solemn Hour, directly with
the chorus very high which made everyone sing from the beginning of the song.
After the chorus, Sharon appeared on the stage, and many people began to shout
and make photographs from every angle of the room. The following songs belong
to the new album. They were The Howling, which we have been able to enjoy it
since last summer because of the promotion of a videogame; and Frozen, which
has been said to be possibly their next single.
The next song was Stand my Ground, and it was a very expected song for the
people because it was their first famous song in Spain for many fans. After
this one, we could hear another song from their previous album, and this one
was Forsaken, another well known song by the audience. After these songs from
The Silent Force, they followed with more new songs from The Heart of Everything.
In this case, the next songs were The Cross, What have you done? (first single
of their last album) and the song which gives the name to this album, The Heart
of Everything. The Cross was a perfect song in order to be sung live in concert,
because it is a very difficult song and Sharon could demonstrate her ability
here because of the different voice tones that we can listen to in it. After
this, the band played the new single, What Have You Done?, although Keith Caputo’s
voice had to be a recording. The second version of the video of this song was
played in the big screen, and Sharon pointed the audience with microphone in
the parts that Keith Caputo sings in this song. It fitted well because everyone
shouted Keith Caputo’s parts in the song, and it sounded very powerful. They
followed with The Heart of Everything, another difficult song because of the
heavy and low tones that we can listen to here, but Sharon was always successful
in all the situations.
After this, the most emotional moment occurred, because they played Mother
Earth, which was one of the most expected songs. It was the best moment in the
concert by now, the melody of it is just impressive and very powerful, besides
the spectacular lights that made it even better. From this moment, the band
showed us their best known songs. The next one was Angels, another very difficult
song which made the audience enjoy with the heavy guitars and the beautiful
Sharon’s voice.
The following one was another expected song, Hand of Sorrow.This is becoming
one of most successful songs of their new album, and it sounded perfect with
the beautiful melody (with violin and piano) and Sharon’s voice as well. The
next one was All I Need, a ballad with a pop music touch which calmed down the
audience preparing everything for the next one which was Jillian. This song
was simply perfect and full of emotions from the beginning of it, and after
so many great songs, the audience was very excited. The last song before the
break was The Truth Beneath The Rose, which lasts more than 7 minutes and have
a very difficult tone voice, but Sharon just did it perfectly again giving an
emotional end with this song.
After the little break, they came back with another very important songs. This
last part began with Deceiver of Fools. It was perfect, because with the intro
of this song, the audience prepared to jump and shout, and we could live another
emotional moment with this song because the whole band seemed to enjoy this
song, but specially Ruud felt excited as we haven’t seen him yet in that way
previously in the concert. The band calmed down the audience again with another
beautiful ballad, Memories. This was the second single of their previous album,
and it was full of emotions as well, even Sharon kneeled at the stage in front
of the audience in order to sing this song. We were reaching the end of the
concert, but the band surprised us with a Kate Bush’s cover that they did in
2.003, Running Up That Hill. And finally they finished the show with Ice Queen,
as it has been usual since many years ago, because this is the song that the
band owes a big part of their success to.
Now in order to finish this, we must say that it was an impressive concert,
because the room was crowded although not all the tickets were sold out, and
the audience were completely excited with the band and vice versa. We will have
to wait for the band’s success in America after the European Tour and the summer
festivals.
Within Temptation Set-list :
1. Our Solemn Hour
2. The Howling
3. Frozen
4. Stand My Ground
5. Forsaken
6. The Cross
7. What Have You done?
8. The Heart of Everything
9. Mother Earth
10. Angels
11. Hand of Sorrow
12. All I Need
13. Jillian
14. The Truth Beneath The Rose
15. Deceiver of Fools
16. Memories
17. Running Up That Hill
18. Ice Queen
Javier Tendero
Photos: Leticia Ballester
IF
YOU WANT TO SEE THE PICS WITH MORE RESOLUTION, CLICK ON IT OR CLICK THIS LINK
TO GO TO OUR ALBUM.
ENLACES RELACIONADOS:
Interview
with Sharon den Adel & Ruud A.Jolie
Within
Temptation : The heart of Everything // Gun Records ( Sony-BMG )
Within Temptation
+ Lauren Harris – 26 de Marzo – Sala Apolo ( Barcelona )