This venue is very intimate by the way, so if I wanted to I could genuinely could tell at Anders that Howard Benson sucks and I'd literally be an arm's length from him
-Faith No More, "We Care a Lot"
Norma Jean were another American Metalcore band... meh. If you're into that kind of music then both these acts were good, but I wasn't a huge fan. These guys were really crammed on stage due to lack of space though. The Waterfront has a fairly small stage to begin with, and the entire back part of the stage was taken up by In Flames' drumkit, with the support bands using another drum kit when had to sit in front of that. It really compressed the space. It was kind of funny watching the support acts try to make the most of the very limited space they had. I have video which I'll upload later. especially considering my comments in Ciko's signature. It's conclusive, Anders visits this forum and probably posts too. Show yourself motherfucker.
What an emotional read!! I am glad they delivered. IF live is a whole different experience.OK, I'm awake. I have to be honest, as much as I'd like to say fuck those hipster dickheads... IF were actually really, really good last night. They sounded really tight and Anders' performance was way above my expectations. I saw them half a dozen times between 2005-2010, and last night was by far the best I've ever heard him sound live. Admittedly a lot of that was because he didn't do too many cleans, but still. In all the past gigs I went to Anders slowly started losing his voice until by the end of the set he couldn't even scream properly anymore. Last night he was an absolute beast from beginning to end. He had the same power in his growls for the final song as he did the first one. He's obviously changed his technique to do these lower growls, and it really has worked. He sounds great. I never thought I would hear him sound that powerful, so I will admit to being very impressed.
It was probably the lowest crowd I've ever seen for an IF gig. Waterfront is a small venue anyway and it was still so easy to get right to the front. The great thing about the Waterfront is that it's so compact you feel the drums and bass vibrating through your body, which is great at metal gigs. It was also one of the easiest gigs I've been to in terms of not getting pushed, shoved, etc. I don't know if things have changed since I was last going to metal gigs ten years ago, but everybody was so damn polite. It was great as far as being able to get video footage was concerned, but I kinda missed the crazy energy I normally associate with metal gigs. Even Anders commented on how different the crowd was compared to when they were last in Norwich (which was apparently about ten years ago).
The support acts were so-so. Light the Torch is fronted by Howard Jones and are like KsE with less melody. They were alright I guess. At one point Howard slipped and nearly fell over, but fortunately for him there was a platform at the front of the stage to catch him
So, IF got onto the stage at about 9.25pm having taken about 30 minutes to set up and get ready after Norma Jean finished. Their setlist was as below:
Voices - sounds really good live! Not a huge fan of this on the album but it's pretty awesome live.
Everything's Gone - meh. Not a fan on CD and I don't think it's anything special live either.
Pinball Map - fucking awesome. Anders' sounded great.
Where the Dead Ships Dwell - one of Anders' weaker performances, he just can't do those cleans live. Song was still good though.
Call My Name - actually works very well live. Better than on CD.
Monsters in the Ballroom - sounded okay but again, there are much better songs they could have played.
All For Me - the weakest song on SOAPF, imo, however those heavy riffs do work pretty well live. It was fine.
House - annoying. Anders & Bjorn were really into this one though!
Deep Inside - I liked this on CD and it sounds good in a live setting too. Interestingly the bassist was providing backing vocals here, which is weird as in every other song they just use a backing track. Not sure why on this one specifically they had the bassist do the backing vocal
Here Until Forever - still sucks but I will say the chorus works better live than it does on CD. Again Anders and Bjorn were loving this, especially the "we will forever be part of history" bit
The Chosen Pessimist - OK, so I was expecting to come back here and say this one sucked a dick. Honestly though... it was pretty good. I mean, if it was up to me I'd still replace it with other songs, but this was way different to the last time I heard them play it. It was either 2008 or 2009, but they started the show with TCP and literally played it exactly as it was on ASOP. It was boring as fuck. Since then they've tweaked the song quite a lot for live performance and it sounded decent! Anders' growls in this one were fucking ridiculous. I shot some video and holy shit. You'll see.
Leeches/Colony/My Sweet Shadow - these were all solid, as you'd expect.
The Truth - a bit disappointing. Another one of Anders' weaker performances vocally, and the song didn't have the energy I was expecting.
I Am Above - yeah, they nailed this one. Sounded great. They actually used the bassist for backing vocals here too, so maybe it's just for new songs? I dunno. Weird.
Cloud Connected - classic.
The Mirror's Truth - this song sounds so good live. If only they could go back and fix that horrendous ASOP production, this would be one of their best songs.
The End - it was OK. Not as impactful as I expected. A song I would actually say is better on CD than live.
So yeah, overall IF put on a really good show. Anders & Bjorn seemed to be enjoying themselves, lots of crowd banter. The dude filling on for Niclas was pretty awesome, he looked the part and was interacting a lot with the crowd. Didn't see that much of the American bros but in fairness they played their parts well. No mishaps as far as I could tell.
I've got about half an hour's worth of video to upload, so I'll post that shortly.
Motherfucker
I can just imagine you telling him backstage that there's this JS guy on a forum who constantly talks shit about them, and Anders be like damn, what an asshole! fortunately the venue was literally 2-3 mins from the train station at a jog, so I ended up getting to the train with about a minute to spare, but man it was close. I just about heard The End before bolting out the door. I didn't really want to have to run after standing up for 4 hours already, but I also didn't want to get stuck in Norwich for 6 hours to wait for the 5am train out so needs must. It was worth it. Motherfucker
sadly I didn't get to speak with them directly. There was only a brief moment when Anders noticed my TJR shirt and nodded, to which I replied with mock surprise "you know this album?" ... he took it in good humour but did roll his eyes at me should have added a "fuck Howard Benson" in there too, but I think that might have crossed the banter line OK, I'm awake. I have to be honest, as much as I'd like to say fuck those hipster dickheads... IF were actually really, really good last night. They sounded really tight and Anders' performance was way above my expectations. I saw them half a dozen times between 2005-2010, and last night was by far the best I've ever heard him sound live. Admittedly a lot of that was because he didn't do too many cleans, but still. In all the past gigs I went to Anders slowly started losing his voice until by the end of the set he couldn't even scream properly anymore. Last night he was an absolute beast from beginning to end. He had the same power in his growls for the final song as he did the first one. He's obviously changed his technique to do these lower growls, and it really has worked. He sounds great. I never thought I would hear him sound that powerful, so I will admit to being very impressed.
It was probably the lowest crowd I've ever seen for an IF gig. Waterfront is a small venue anyway and it was still so easy to get right to the front. The great thing about the Waterfront is that it's so compact you feel the drums and bass vibrating through your body, which is great at metal gigs. It was also one of the easiest gigs I've been to in terms of not getting pushed, shoved, etc. I don't know if things have changed since I was last going to metal gigs ten years ago, but everybody was so damn polite. It was great as far as being able to get video footage was concerned, but I kinda missed the crazy energy I normally associate with metal gigs. Even Anders commented on how different the crowd was compared to when they were last in Norwich (which was apparently about ten years ago).
The support acts were so-so. Light the Torch is fronted by Howard Jones and are like KsE with less melody. They were alright I guess. At one point Howard slipped and nearly fell over, but fortunately for him there was a platform at the front of the stage to catch him
So, IF got onto the stage at about 9.25pm having taken about 30 minutes to set up and get ready after Norma Jean finished. Their setlist was as below:
Voices - sounds really good live! Not a huge fan of this on the album but it's pretty awesome live.
Everything's Gone - meh. Not a fan on CD and I don't think it's anything special live either.
Pinball Map - fucking awesome. Anders' sounded great.
Where the Dead Ships Dwell - one of Anders' weaker performances, he just can't do those cleans live. Song was still good though.
Call My Name - actually works very well live. Better than on CD.
Monsters in the Ballroom - sounded okay but again, there are much better songs they could have played.
All For Me - the weakest song on SOAPF, imo, however those heavy riffs do work pretty well live. It was fine.
House - annoying. Anders & Bjorn were really into this one though!
Deep Inside - I liked this on CD and it sounds good in a live setting too. Interestingly the bassist was providing backing vocals here, which is weird as in every other song they just use a backing track. Not sure why on this one specifically they had the bassist do the backing vocal
Here Until Forever - still sucks but I will say the chorus works better live than it does on CD. Again Anders and Bjorn were loving this, especially the "we will forever be part of history" bit
The Chosen Pessimist - OK, so I was expecting to come back here and say this one sucked a dick. Honestly though... it was pretty good. I mean, if it was up to me I'd still replace it with other songs, but this was way different to the last time I heard them play it. It was either 2008 or 2009, but they started the show with TCP and literally played it exactly as it was on ASOP. It was boring as fuck. Since then they've tweaked the song quite a lot for live performance and it sounded decent! Anders' growls in this one were fucking ridiculous. I shot some video and holy shit. You'll see.
Leeches/Colony/My Sweet Shadow - these were all solid, as you'd expect.
The Truth - a bit disappointing. Another one of Anders' weaker performances vocally, and the song didn't have the energy I was expecting.
I Am Above - yeah, they nailed this one. Sounded great. They actually used the bassist for backing vocals here too, so maybe it's just for new songs? I dunno. Weird.
Cloud Connected - classic.
The Mirror's Truth - this song sounds so good live. If only they could go back and fix that horrendous ASOP production, this would be one of their best songs.
The End - it was OK. Not as impactful as I expected. A song I would actually say is better on CD than live.
So yeah, overall IF put on a really good show. Anders & Bjorn seemed to be enjoying themselves, lots of crowd banter. The dude filling on for Niclas was pretty awesome, he looked the part and was interacting a lot with the crowd. Didn't see that much of the American bros but in fairness they played their parts well. No mishaps as far as I could tell.
I've got about half an hour's worth of video to upload, so I'll post that shortly.
(especially about TCP) .Told you
