Edge of Paradise, The Music Lady, Moosup, Connecticut, August 26, 2016
I first “discovered” The Edge of Paradise about a year and a half ago, shortly before the release of their second album: “The Immortal Waltz”. The band plays a unique style of melodic hard rock/metal with soaring vocals and amazing guitars. First formed in 2011, Edge of Paradise hails from the Los Angeles, California area and tours extensively in that area of the United States. National tours reaching the east coast have been less common, so I jumped at the chance to see them when they announced their current headlining tour would be coming close to me. Close is relative I guess, as their Connecticut show was still a 6 hour train ride and an additional hour and a half by car… but if their music in a live setting was anything close to their stunning albums… there was no way I was going to miss this! I loved both of the albums the band has released so far, and I was anxious to see (and hear) how that would translate to the live show.
The show was at The Music Lady, a relatively small club type venue, that I believe is a bit smaller than the type of venues in which band is used to playing. Their reason for making the stop was that the venue was in Dave Bates’ (the guitarist’s) home town. Despite the show being in a small town (about an hour and a half east of Hartford), the venue was quite crowded and the crowd was quite loud! The band came in early, was very friendly, and spent a lot of time mingling with the fans before the show.
Edge of Paradise began their set with “Break Away” from their new album… and it only took one song for me to know this show was going to be worth the trip! The band was musically stunning with Dave’s awesome guitar work and a powerful, intense rhythm section provided by Nick Ericson on bass and John Chominsky on drums. And the vocals… just…. Wow! The band’s front woman, Margarita Monet has a very unique voice that really sets itself apart from so many others in the genre. She has incredible range, with a style that is both haunting and hypnotic. The band is also very active onstage giving a great visual show with interesting lighting and rock star stage presence. For me, the ultimate test of a band is whether or not the live show exceeds what they deliver on the album. Edge of Paradise passes that test with flying colors!
The band played a ten song set, the majority of which came from the new album, “Immortal Waltz”. In addition to the opening song, these included “Ghost”, “Rise for the Fallen”, “Children of the Sea”, and “Perfect Shade of Black”. They did not perform any songs from 2011’s debut album: “Mask”. About mid set they launched into a rousing rendition of the Motley Crue anthem, “Saints of Los Angeles”. They did an fantastic job with it, and… Hey… according to Nikki Sixx… Motley Crue is now dead and gone. We need new Saints of Los Angeles… and Edge of Paradise gets my vote!
Following the Crue tribute, Margarita graciously relinquished the stage so Dave could invite up one of his former band mates, Todd Stuinsky, to sing vocals for a killer cover of Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”! This is one of my favorite Maiden songs, and I was thrilled to hear it added to the set. “Shade of Crazy”, the band’s newest video, was also played. Not on an album that I’m aware of, I assume this stunning song will grace their next release. An additional new song called “Alive”, which the band says will be released in November, was played toward the end of the set. The show closed all too soon with the amazing “In a Dream”.
Overall, the show was great and well worth the trip. If you are into guitar heavy melodic rock and metal, Edge of Paradise is definitely a band you should be checking out! I, for one, cannot wait to see them again. And if they don’t come back my way soon…well… it’s just a plane ride to California, right?!!
