The Epica/Eluveitie North American Tour September/October 2015
By everyone’s predictions, it was going to be epic!… A co-headlining tour with the Dutch symphonic metal powerhouse Epica and the Celtic folk metal legend Eluveitie. With support provided by the Canadian metal band, The Agonist and (in the later part of the tour) Swedish rocker Martina Edoff, fan excitement was high. The tour was being presented by Revolver and spanned several cities across the USA and Canada. The kickoff was to be at the Soundstage in Baltimore, Maryland with the final curtain call to be at Irving Plaza in New York City.
I’ve been a fan of Epica for years and have seen them in concert several times before. Being a huge fan of Celtic and other traditional forms of folk music, Eluveitie was one of those bands I had been wanting to see live for a long time. The Agonist was also high up on my list of bands I want to see soon. I’d never heard of Martina Edoff, but I always welcomed a chance to see new music live as you never know when that next great thing was coming along. This was a tour that I wanted to see more than once… so I planned to attend the first and last shows of the tour.
What I thought I’d be seeing was the same show twice… but what I actually got was something altogether different. The whole tour almost ended right after it began. After the first four nights, Epica was forced to drop from the tour due to a family emergency and the rest of the bands had to decide quickly whether or not to continue on with the loss of one of the co-headliners. Fortunately for fans, the decision was made to continue with some changes to the planned sets. The Agonist’s set was expanded from a 30 to a 45 minute show. Eluveitie expanded their set from 90 minutes to a full 2 hours with the addition of a special acoustic session with early versions of never before played songs that were still in the creation process for their upcoming album. Fortunately, the bands were rewarded for their perseverance and fan attendance to the remaining shows was still good.
The Baltimore show was a pretty successful kick off to the tour as the venue was packed and the fans were crazy. All three bands put on a grand show! As Martina Edoff had not joined the tour yet, The Agonist was first up and gave us an awesome (but short) 30 minute set that (as expected) was heavily weighted with songs from their awesome new album, “The Eye of Providence”. Their new vocalist, Vicky Psarakis was an absolute powerhouse, expertly delivering the soaring melodies and death metal growls that define the bands signature sound. I never saw The Agonist with their previous vocalist, but Vicky totally owned that stage and looked like she’d been with the band for years. The set ended all too soon.
Eluveitie was up next and I was really looking forward to seeing what this band was all about. I’d heard their albums, and seen their videos and I’d liked what I heard and saw… but the real test of a band, in my opinion, is their live show. Now, I’ve been going to concerts for over three decades… and I’ve seen a lot of bands come and go… some good… some not so good. As a big fan of Celtic style music, I was expecting to like this band…. but when they hit the stage… there is no other way to say it… I totally lost my mind! I was immediately hit with complete sensory overload. First off… this is a huge band… eight people on stage… so there is a lot to draw your eye. The drummer (Merlin) is on a riser in the back, with two guitarists (Rafael and Ivo), a bass player (Kay), and a pipes/whistle player (Matteo) holding the four corners. Front center is dominated by the powerful frontman and death metal growler, Chrigel… while center stage left and right are occupied by the band’s violinist and Hurdy Gurdy players (Shir-Ran and Anna), both of whom are headbanging like demons. They are all excellent musicians. The musical quality was great, all produced with no backing tracks… at least none that I could discern. The vocals were mostly death metal growls (most by Chrigel, some by Anna), with beautiful melodic vocals by Anna as well. They played 18 songs (I think) that began with “King” and ended with “Inis Mona”. The song choices were a good balance and seemed fairly equally spread across their albums. Not to take anything away from the other bands… but this was the highlight of my evening. If you are a fan of nontraditional metal… you NEED to see this band!
Epica hit the stage last and put on the grand symphonic performance that fans have come to know and expect. Simone’s voice was stunning as always (I’ve never heard her have an off day). It is a bit of a “given” that, unless they are performing with a live orchestra and choir, symphonic metal bands have to some degree, rely on backing tracks to recreate the orchestral sound and the choir- like choruses that are present on the albums. This seemed, at least to me, more obvious at this show… I think in large part due to the absence of Coen, their keyboard player… also absent due to family issues. Despite that, Epica still gave us a show that proved why there are consistently on the short list of the world’s greatest symphonic metal bands. It was an impressive, heavy, headbanging good time! Like Eluveitie, it was an approximately 90 minute set. There were 12 songs in all with approximately one third coming from their newest release “The Quantum Enigma” There were several older favorites as well, including “Cry for the Moon”, “Unleashed”, and “Martyr of the Free World”. I had expected Eluveitie to instigate their infamous “Wall of Death”, where they separate the audience into halves and then signal them to rush at each other across the floor, creating a giant mosh pit… but on this night the honors of the “Wall” went to Epica and the crowd was only too happy to oblige.
I was looking forward to seeing all the bands again on the final day of the tour in New York City… but as previously stated, it was not meant to be. But I was really anxious to see Eluveitie’s expanded set and really wanted to see the Agonist again… so off to New York I went.
Martina Edoff, a Swedish singer fronting a 5 piece band opened the show. She had a very powerful voice and a charismatic presence on stage. The band played songs that I’d have to classify as hard rock… but not quite metal. The songs were enjoyable and had just enough of a groove to dare you not to tap you foot or move your hips. The Agonist killed it again, but this time with a longer set. The biggest difference was in Eluveitie’s set as I was just mesmerized by their mid set acoustic session. That in and of itself made the trip to New York worthwhile! The acoustic set consisted of 5-6 songs (I lost track…sorry… was just caught up in the music) The remainder of the set was expanded as well for a total of 25+ songs. Although “Call of the Mountains” (their melodic hit from the “Origins” album) is usually performed in English, the band elected to perform it in Swiss-German on the final night. It was stunning to hear! Despite the language barrier, the audience still did their best attempt to sing along. Eluveitie also got to retake the honors instigating the “Wall of Death”.
Both the Baltimore and the New York shows were great! Despite the loss of Epica… I have to admit I liked the New York show better. Irving Plaza had much better lighting than Baltimore Soundstage. The Baltimore crowd was crazy, but the New York crowd was insane! I enjoyed “discovering” Martina Edoff, and Eluveitie’s set…. I just can’t say enough good things about it. The tour is now over… so if you are in North America and you missed it… you screwed up!!! But for those of you in Europe.. you can still catch Epica and Eluveitie together in late October and November! Don’t miss out!
