Jester Slave
Narcissist
Since soon the new mv, then on my birthday, the new live DVD will drop, I'll just drown in nostalgia and copy paste my live show review, because it was fun, at least for me!
1. In Plain View: Even before the first show, I expected them to open with either IPV or Paralyzed, so no surprises here. We liked it really much and it definitely moved us, that's pretty much all a first song have to do; fire you up for the night. If you are just moving around and sing, then the first song failed, at least if we are talking about a heavier band like IF.
2. Everything's Gone: It's just an OK song for me, so I did not want to expend all my energy on it, so I tried to be more passive. Can't say much about EG, it's like the album version. Heavy and easy to sing along. So far 2/2 if you ask me in terms of new songs, I think both of them can stand their grounds in a live setting.
3. Fear Is The Weakness: HELL YEAH! In Plain View started me up really nice but EG was so-so, not my favourite track. But for this song, I think everyone was on the same page, and it is where the show really started for me. The crowd finishing the verses was nuts, it's what I expected from an IF show! I mean, the energy, not the crowd singing part, haha!
4. Trigger: high. mother. fucking. light. of the show. It's funny, because if you show me the setlist beforehand and ask me which will be the 4 or 5 best songs of the night, the only one I would've gotten right is OFTW. Take This Life and Deliver Us were (SPOILER ALERT) what you expected them to be, atomic bomb to the crowd, but Trigger showed it is not necessarily what you enjoy the most. Listening to Trigger live totally gave back the emotions from the album material. It had EVERYTHING. The same song made you rock the living hell out of your body, then put up your hands and sing while becoming one with the song. Gay alert? Maybe, sorry, but it was fucking great and far beyond my expectations.
5. Resin: Oh boy! So, I knew it will be the "ancient song for this tour" material they will play but I only listened to it twice the day before that, I wanted to experience it as someone who have heard it before, but would be kinda lost if someone put the mic in front of me, telling me to sing it. Especially after the debate here whether they should play more older songs or not. It's a good song but I could not get into it. This meant I had time to look around and I saw the same with others as well. It's IF and we had just witnessed Trigger so we were pumped up, it was more than enough to keep us going, but thats's all, it was a huge break. Or should I say would have been? Anders pretty much singed his part, most of us could not sing with him (respect if some guys knew resin lyrics out of the blue), and the song itself was not fast enough to at least jump around. But then Anders came with the fucking hey heys and we went apeshit. We were like some blind men in a maze and Anders held our hands and guided us through. Again, if you keep bashing him, at least give credit where it's due. Making this song another highlight of the show from being just an OK one is actually a big deal. Man, it's fucking crazy if someone asks me what was the show like I have to talk about this song!
Still, I really don't think more of these would work. Sure, we are talking about ONE song, and two is also more than one, but I'm talking about four or five. Just no way, and as I said before, not because the crowd would not enjoy it, they'd just like some newer stuff more. That's my opinion, but at the end of the day, it's IF who decides what to play, and you, who decides to buy the ticket or not. I would've bought it if they played 5 older songs and I would've bought it if they had not played any old ones at all.
6. Where The Dead Ship Dwells: Wasn't my favorite song, I considered it being on the dark side of SOAPF, but this version definetly made me appreciate it more. Still not among my favorites, though.
7. With Eyes Wide Open: NICE. Objectively speaking, it might not be a killer song live, and it might very well disappear for an independent (mean: not promotional) tour leg or a newer album's promotional tour, but it's one of my favorite songs from the new album so I enjoyed it thoroughly! It was a blast singing the chorus with everyone else; a sad chorus.
8. Paralyzed: Winner of the "best live song from the new album"? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee-- maybe. Don't worry, it's epic and Paralyzed will stay most probably forever in the setlists (jk, rip my sweet shadow and pinball map), but there's another good contestant for this award. Anyway, Anders said before the album release that this song will kick ass live. We listened to it, and most of us agreed that it will kick ass live. Guess what, it kicked ass live. Not much to say
9. Through Oblivion: I'm sorry, but for me, TO wins the contest where Paralyzed only comes in as second. The whole song starts out just like the album version, I was ready for my 3 and a half minutes rest than Daniel was like "fuck you" and made such an enjoyable and hectic drum play. Once again, the crowd loved it. Biggest surprise of the night.
10. Ropes: It was not just the new songs which clashed that night, the race to be the best performance of the night was still raging on, and Ropes was like "hey, Trigger what? It's Ropes motherfuckers!". Even though I give you guys a lot of shit (because you tend to be full of shit), I'm grateful for you to make me struggle through SOAPF once again, to find Ropes (and FITW), somehow I missed that one and I'm not sure if I could've gone throug the album one more time by myself.
Where was I? Oh yeah, it was awesome, and I did enjoy his singing here, I think he should make more songs like this. His cleans are not really singed and his "growls" are kinda light, but both of them are pretty safe to do, while maintaining his characteristic voice. Loved it, really energetic.
11. Delight And Angers: A song that might've been replaced if they wanted to force out at least 4 pre 2000 song (yes, pre 2000, a lot of Clayman songs would be great live, so nothing against that), and most of us would've been greatly disappointed. Nice song, as expected.
12. Cloud Connected: I did not get the memo that this song is the mosh pit one. Luckily the intro was lengthened enough so I could hide behind the strong guys, avoiding the grinder It really grew on me, I'm fine with it being an all-time staple, I'd enjoy it for the 100th time as well, even if it's not even on my top 5 list. There's just something strange in that song that makes me really like it.
13. Only For The Weak: Fuck my life, it's just like in those youtube videos. THIS. SONG. IS. ONLY. FOR THE. WEAAAAAAAK. Then synth starts and you can claim back your body 4 minutes later. I'm immensely thankful they decided to make it a staple for this leg once again, I think every IF-lover wants to hear it live at least once in their life.
14. The Chosen Pessimist: 8 minutes yawn-fest my asss! First of all, the timing is just 10/10. Both CC and OFTW pretty much killed everyone, there was no fresh air left in the place after that, so the intro to the song was most welcomed. And the song itself? After Through Oblivion, it was definitely the second most surprising live turn-out to a song. No one was bored, and it's pretty much on Anders and Anders alone to carry this song. If he gets into the mood and sings with pure emotions, it sucks you in. If he'd be like "thank god, finally I can rest. What will I eat after the show? Oh, I should probably sing now!", then people would take a toilet break. Thank God it was the former! It was beautiful, and the breakdown... man, Anders fucked up a LOT before that, but the ending was just spot on. I'm not questioning you if you found it boring earlier, you were there, not me. Maybe it came after the wrong song, maybe Anders half-assed it, or maybe it was because I saw sometimes they opened with it. Yes, it would most definitely suck as an opener, but it was beautiful that night. Also, it and WEWO were the only "ballady" songs, since TO was reworked into a pretty hectic live song.
15. Monsters In The Ballroom: ROFL. So bad. Soooooooooo bad. I like two things in the studio version: the drum effects and the verse before the last chorus. Guess what, the drum effects were either not there or terribly mixed and the verse before the last chorus was inaudible. People were really struggling to get into it. Trust me, by the time of Knotfest they will not play this one live. But hey, I can say that I'm one of the few who ever saw this live so yeah, good for me? I dunno, but it was boring, unoriginal and simply terrible live.
16. Rusted Nail: Funny how when I first saw the MV for RN I was disappointed. I was reading comments how IF sold out yada yada so I was pumped up clicking the youtube link, thinking "hah, those fuckers, they are always crying while IF keep releasing cool stuff", but I had to be disappointed. It made me stop caring about SC, though I thought that eventually comes a day when IF does something I don't like. I mean, it's bound to happen if you keep switching things up from record to record. Who the fuck would have thought I'd be glad to hear it live, hell, I even miss it! Again, they did a good job putting it into a live environment, I was pleasantly surprised. This song (with TO and Paralyzed) are here to fucking stay, so consider buying tickets to the upcoming shows accordingly. IF will have a damn hard time to make a setlist for next year, because I'm fairly convinced that both SC and FIltered Truth (though it is the song they might won't ever play live... just a gut feeling, it has such a strange production) would sound amazing live, so good job deciding which songs will remain from SC after all is said and done.
17. The Mirror's Truth: Hahaha! I love live shows. You know why? Tons of reasons, but one of them is how it makes me fall in love with songs I initially disliked. Not all of them, sure, but this one was really fun live. So yeah, sorry 3 days ago me, you stand corrected, this is a nice live song. Could be rotated, no questions there, but it's a nice mix of heaviness and melody. No, please... don't crawl into my mp4.. no, please! .. fuck!
18. Deliver Us: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
19. Take This Life: yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
20. My Sweet Shadow: WHERE WAS IT? T______________________________________T
21. Dawn Of A New Day: In a parallel universe, they played this to me and I cried. Or maybe I was a ladybug in that universe, not sure. Maybe in this universe Anders is a great singer as well. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES.
22. Bottled: Ok, I stop.
This performance was nothing to be ashamed of. No one will ever be satisfied with a setlist. No one. Ever. I won't even take a side; I personally understand where they are coming from to abandon older songs, but it's not even the only question in the air. Where the fucking hell is STYE? Why no rotations? Why so many songs from SOAPF? WHERE IS STYE? Dunno, questions of life, but the show was great nonetheless.
1. In Plain View: Even before the first show, I expected them to open with either IPV or Paralyzed, so no surprises here. We liked it really much and it definitely moved us, that's pretty much all a first song have to do; fire you up for the night. If you are just moving around and sing, then the first song failed, at least if we are talking about a heavier band like IF.
2. Everything's Gone: It's just an OK song for me, so I did not want to expend all my energy on it, so I tried to be more passive. Can't say much about EG, it's like the album version. Heavy and easy to sing along. So far 2/2 if you ask me in terms of new songs, I think both of them can stand their grounds in a live setting.
3. Fear Is The Weakness: HELL YEAH! In Plain View started me up really nice but EG was so-so, not my favourite track. But for this song, I think everyone was on the same page, and it is where the show really started for me. The crowd finishing the verses was nuts, it's what I expected from an IF show! I mean, the energy, not the crowd singing part, haha!
4. Trigger: high. mother. fucking. light. of the show. It's funny, because if you show me the setlist beforehand and ask me which will be the 4 or 5 best songs of the night, the only one I would've gotten right is OFTW. Take This Life and Deliver Us were (SPOILER ALERT) what you expected them to be, atomic bomb to the crowd, but Trigger showed it is not necessarily what you enjoy the most. Listening to Trigger live totally gave back the emotions from the album material. It had EVERYTHING. The same song made you rock the living hell out of your body, then put up your hands and sing while becoming one with the song. Gay alert? Maybe, sorry, but it was fucking great and far beyond my expectations.
5. Resin: Oh boy! So, I knew it will be the "ancient song for this tour" material they will play but I only listened to it twice the day before that, I wanted to experience it as someone who have heard it before, but would be kinda lost if someone put the mic in front of me, telling me to sing it. Especially after the debate here whether they should play more older songs or not. It's a good song but I could not get into it. This meant I had time to look around and I saw the same with others as well. It's IF and we had just witnessed Trigger so we were pumped up, it was more than enough to keep us going, but thats's all, it was a huge break. Or should I say would have been? Anders pretty much singed his part, most of us could not sing with him (respect if some guys knew resin lyrics out of the blue), and the song itself was not fast enough to at least jump around. But then Anders came with the fucking hey heys and we went apeshit. We were like some blind men in a maze and Anders held our hands and guided us through. Again, if you keep bashing him, at least give credit where it's due. Making this song another highlight of the show from being just an OK one is actually a big deal. Man, it's fucking crazy if someone asks me what was the show like I have to talk about this song!
Still, I really don't think more of these would work. Sure, we are talking about ONE song, and two is also more than one, but I'm talking about four or five. Just no way, and as I said before, not because the crowd would not enjoy it, they'd just like some newer stuff more. That's my opinion, but at the end of the day, it's IF who decides what to play, and you, who decides to buy the ticket or not. I would've bought it if they played 5 older songs and I would've bought it if they had not played any old ones at all.
6. Where The Dead Ship Dwells: Wasn't my favorite song, I considered it being on the dark side of SOAPF, but this version definetly made me appreciate it more. Still not among my favorites, though.
7. With Eyes Wide Open: NICE. Objectively speaking, it might not be a killer song live, and it might very well disappear for an independent (mean: not promotional) tour leg or a newer album's promotional tour, but it's one of my favorite songs from the new album so I enjoyed it thoroughly! It was a blast singing the chorus with everyone else; a sad chorus.
8. Paralyzed: Winner of the "best live song from the new album"? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee-- maybe. Don't worry, it's epic and Paralyzed will stay most probably forever in the setlists (jk, rip my sweet shadow and pinball map), but there's another good contestant for this award. Anyway, Anders said before the album release that this song will kick ass live. We listened to it, and most of us agreed that it will kick ass live. Guess what, it kicked ass live. Not much to say
9. Through Oblivion: I'm sorry, but for me, TO wins the contest where Paralyzed only comes in as second. The whole song starts out just like the album version, I was ready for my 3 and a half minutes rest than Daniel was like "fuck you" and made such an enjoyable and hectic drum play. Once again, the crowd loved it. Biggest surprise of the night.
10. Ropes: It was not just the new songs which clashed that night, the race to be the best performance of the night was still raging on, and Ropes was like "hey, Trigger what? It's Ropes motherfuckers!". Even though I give you guys a lot of shit (because you tend to be full of shit), I'm grateful for you to make me struggle through SOAPF once again, to find Ropes (and FITW), somehow I missed that one and I'm not sure if I could've gone throug the album one more time by myself.
Where was I? Oh yeah, it was awesome, and I did enjoy his singing here, I think he should make more songs like this. His cleans are not really singed and his "growls" are kinda light, but both of them are pretty safe to do, while maintaining his characteristic voice. Loved it, really energetic.
11. Delight And Angers: A song that might've been replaced if they wanted to force out at least 4 pre 2000 song (yes, pre 2000, a lot of Clayman songs would be great live, so nothing against that), and most of us would've been greatly disappointed. Nice song, as expected.
12. Cloud Connected: I did not get the memo that this song is the mosh pit one. Luckily the intro was lengthened enough so I could hide behind the strong guys, avoiding the grinder
It really grew on me, I'm fine with it being an all-time staple, I'd enjoy it for the 100th time as well, even if it's not even on my top 5 list. There's just something strange in that song that makes me really like it.13. Only For The Weak: Fuck my life, it's just like in those youtube videos. THIS. SONG. IS. ONLY. FOR THE. WEAAAAAAAK. Then synth starts and you can claim back your body 4 minutes later. I'm immensely thankful they decided to make it a staple for this leg once again, I think every IF-lover wants to hear it live at least once in their life.
14. The Chosen Pessimist: 8 minutes yawn-fest my asss! First of all, the timing is just 10/10. Both CC and OFTW pretty much killed everyone, there was no fresh air left in the place after that, so the intro to the song was most welcomed. And the song itself? After Through Oblivion, it was definitely the second most surprising live turn-out to a song. No one was bored, and it's pretty much on Anders and Anders alone to carry this song. If he gets into the mood and sings with pure emotions, it sucks you in. If he'd be like "thank god, finally I can rest. What will I eat after the show? Oh, I should probably sing now!", then people would take a toilet break. Thank God it was the former! It was beautiful, and the breakdown... man, Anders fucked up a LOT before that, but the ending was just spot on. I'm not questioning you if you found it boring earlier, you were there, not me. Maybe it came after the wrong song, maybe Anders half-assed it, or maybe it was because I saw sometimes they opened with it. Yes, it would most definitely suck as an opener, but it was beautiful that night. Also, it and WEWO were the only "ballady" songs, since TO was reworked into a pretty hectic live song.
15. Monsters In The Ballroom: ROFL. So bad. Soooooooooo bad. I like two things in the studio version: the drum effects and the verse before the last chorus. Guess what, the drum effects were either not there or terribly mixed and the verse before the last chorus was inaudible. People were really struggling to get into it. Trust me, by the time of Knotfest they will not play this one live. But hey, I can say that I'm one of the few who ever saw this live so yeah, good for me? I dunno, but it was boring, unoriginal and simply terrible live.
16. Rusted Nail: Funny how when I first saw the MV for RN I was disappointed. I was reading comments how IF sold out yada yada so I was pumped up clicking the youtube link, thinking "hah, those fuckers, they are always crying while IF keep releasing cool stuff", but I had to be disappointed. It made me stop caring about SC, though I thought that eventually comes a day when IF does something I don't like. I mean, it's bound to happen if you keep switching things up from record to record. Who the fuck would have thought I'd be glad to hear it live, hell, I even miss it! Again, they did a good job putting it into a live environment, I was pleasantly surprised. This song (with TO and Paralyzed) are here to fucking stay, so consider buying tickets to the upcoming shows accordingly. IF will have a damn hard time to make a setlist for next year, because I'm fairly convinced that both SC and FIltered Truth (though it is the song they might won't ever play live... just a gut feeling, it has such a strange production) would sound amazing live, so good job deciding which songs will remain from SC after all is said and done.
17. The Mirror's Truth: Hahaha! I love live shows. You know why? Tons of reasons, but one of them is how it makes me fall in love with songs I initially disliked. Not all of them, sure, but this one was really fun live. So yeah, sorry 3 days ago me, you stand corrected, this is a nice live song. Could be rotated, no questions there, but it's a nice mix of heaviness and melody. No, please... don't crawl into my mp4.. no, please! .. fuck!
18. Deliver Us: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
19. Take This Life: yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
20. My Sweet Shadow: WHERE WAS IT? T______________________________________T
21. Dawn Of A New Day: In a parallel universe, they played this to me and I cried. Or maybe I was a ladybug in that universe, not sure. Maybe in this universe Anders is a great singer as well. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES.
22. Bottled: Ok, I stop.
This performance was nothing to be ashamed of. No one will ever be satisfied with a setlist. No one. Ever. I won't even take a side; I personally understand where they are coming from to abandon older songs, but it's not even the only question in the air. Where the fucking hell is STYE? Why no rotations? Why so many songs from SOAPF? WHERE IS STYE? Dunno, questions of life, but the show was great nonetheless.
