Amy Lee, the lead singer of Evanescence, has described her band's musical genre as "epic, dramatic, dark, rock." The description is probably apt although the band has a unique sound that is not easily classified. At times, the band sounds like a throw back classic hard rock band influenced by sounds like the Scorpions, Triumph, GNR, Whitesnake and others. Three of the current members can even throw around the big hair of the 80s bands, giving Evanescence a distinct deja vous feel.
But Amy Lee gives this group a whole different dimension. Although she fronts a band that edges into goth metal, her vocals remain clear, well defined and distinctly melodic. She doesn't get involved in the outright screaming that defines so many other metal bands and one of Evanescence's opening acts. Instead, she displays an enormously wide range of vocal talent from piano accompanied ballads to an ethereal high end sound that intertwines so nicely with the Evanescence trademark guitar riffs.
On Tuesday night, Evanescence played in Toronto at the Sound Academy, a
3200 capacity standing only concert venue. The set was about an hour and 15 minutes long and was laced with generous helpings of songs from Evanescence's newest album, a number of which were new to the crowd. Though the band has changed its line-up quite a bit since its debut platinum album in 2003, the constant is still Lee who provides the band with its unique sound.
The group played through a range of pieces starting with the newer "do what you want" but then ripping into "going under" which really got the crowd going. As the set list moved along, many of the pieces seemed to blend into one another, having similar constructions and sound patterns. Given Amy Lee's formidable talents, it would be great to see the band widen the scope of its music to better showcase her abilities.
As Evanascence approached the end of its set list, it hit the pieces the crowd had really come to hear. "Bring me to life" was raw and terrific as Lee moved around the stage, fist pumping, tossing her hair in all directions and egging on the audience to sing along.
But the highlight of the show was unquestionably the final piece - "My Immortal." Lee sat down at the piano and began to play. Hundreds pulled out their smart phones to record the song. It sounded even better live than the studio version. Lee hit the notes beautifully. This was a song that really was worth the price of admission. Towards the end, Lee alternated between singing and inviting the audience to sing. Everyone here knew the words. If earlier parts of the concert were a bit dull or repetitive, this third encore made up for it.
The same could not be said for the two opening acts. Having to listen to these two groups was a heavy price to pay to hear Evanescence.
Rebel Son, a Southern U.S. band that flies a confederate flag on its web site, played a zeppelin influenced set of screaming metal. It seemed to me that the audience was mainly hoping that it would end quickly, which it did, after about a half hour.
Shortly afterwards, the Pretty Reckless, a New York based band, followed. The sound was admittedly reckless but not very pretty. With Nirvana influenced screaming and not much of a melodic sound to the vocals, the lead singer pole-danced her way through the band's "controversial" song - "going down." The band's cover of Audioslave's "like a stone" was passable but not particularly inspiring. Fittingly, the band approached the end of its 40 minute set with a song called "make me want to die" which probably matched much of the audience reaction to this performance.
Since the venue was a standing only first come first serve arrangement, the audience had to put up with these two sub-par opening acts to get to the band they had come hear. Both were quite loud and less than stellar. This was probably more punishment than should have been required to see Amy Lee and Evanescence live. But as mentioned above, the last few Evanescence songs probably made up for any inconveniences.
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