Понедельник 19 Апр 2010, 17:57

Sun 18 Apr – Design Your Universe Tour - South America.

There is not much I can say about this concert. I loved it for the most part, but there are always a few negative things. This is a short review, and I hope it can be appreciated.

I have loved Epica all my life. It is the first good convert I have ever been to. Due to the nature of my country, the fact they came is surprising, since the amount of people who enjoy this kind of music is not too big, and when there are, is hard to find to them because of the introvert nature of the "metalhead". Most people here listen to shitty reggaeton or silly cumbias, so artists that produce this kind of music come here very frequently, but the ones who make metal do not. As a matter of fact, prior to this concert, we have only received two bands this decade that were worth to presence their music live: Therion and Mägo de Oz. It's sad, because Bolivia has the potential of hosting great bands to play live, but it is wasted when metal bands are not given a chance to prove themselves they can be liked by other people, and also prove that countries like man also have people that enjoy metal and not just the disastrous mainstream music.

So in short, despite all the acoustic contamination people like Daddy Yankee have brought to this country, we have bands with more complex music, that are not part of mainstream culture, and more importantly, they don't have silly dehumanizing lyrics.

This is the 4th concert I have ever been to in my life. The first two ones were from Ricardo Arjona which meh, he is good, he is a good poet in my eyes, but has a common problem I hate: Latin Lover. I don't like guys who are over-romantic, but first time I assisted to his concert I was 12, so I guess it was to be expected that I had an obsession with him. The other concert I assisted to was the Mexican Panda, which was horrible because this band sucks a lot, their music is terrible, and I was there against my own will anyways.

Epica played on Sunday 18 April, 2009, and they came to the city a day before the concert.It must have been a pretty tough job to perform their songs at such a high altitude (La Paz is one of the biggest cities in the world, so breathing problems are to be expected if you come to low-lands), but they did it great anyways. Mark's growls sound great live, so does Simone Voice. There are two things that bothered me, however: The instruments were not equalized properly, and the setlist felt too short. The venue was too small too (I have no complaints about that, however), but it housed all the fans properly. Epica had the bad (good?) luck of playing in a mere school gym, so you can imagine how small the venue was. There wasn't a full lot of people, but it was great to see that while the band has few fans around here, they are all loyal and genuine fans of the band. The sound of the instruments wasn't optimum, but it was good. Apart the fact that the venue was small, it was closed and it wasn't exposed to the free air, so the sound was hurting my ears a bit more than a concert outside. The instruments were a bit "out of equalization", the orchestral backing tracks were silenced by the modern instruments when all played together and that sorta ruined some songs. You could the orchestral intros just fine, but when the modern instruments came in, they were pretty much faded, barely noticeable. Also the setlist was too short, I don't know why I at least felt it too short. Maybe it was indeed short, because of the altitude of my country I wouldn't be surprised if they were beaten after a few songs. The concert lasted almost two hours, from 9 PM to 12 AM. In all honesty I really enjoyed it, the it was cool seeing the band playing for such a small audience, but I really think that playing outdoors would have been a lot better.

It was a great event, and I really hope they come soon, with a better sound technician :).