Within Temptation concert

I went to the WT concert for their Hydra album tour yesterday, and it was glorious. I am obviously biased, and I have already concluded my favourite kinds of concerts were the symphonic metal ones - no death walls and the like which are there at punk rock concerts, not too much super muscly-little people crushing-scary dudes (although I do not understand the people who just stand in one place for a whole two hours, seeming like they don't even enjoy it). I have muscle pain even in my stomach (cause I'm weak), and I'm on my fifth cup of honey tea for my sore throat. It's times like this I realize I absolutely adore to go to concerts.
A little gushing below the cut.


My first and only previous Within Temptation concert was back in 2011 on Sziget Festival (which is a cool Hungarian summer music fest, except if you are into metal, because now there's no metal stage anymore). I knew they were going to be great, and they were, though I'm not a festival person and I'm still not that much into the festival sound. Too much open air and not enough volume.

This concert was at my favourite venue, not too small but not too big, also, nice memories (they were also holding anime cons here a few years back). I went with a small group of people, of whom I only new one girl, but they turned out to be super nice people (they listen to WT, duh) and the atmosphere was really nice.
I think the whole band might not have been really high-energy, but Sharon was amazing - all smile-y and wonderful and her voice otherworldly, as usual. I think there was more interaction between Sharon and the crowd than at the festival, but I might remember wrong. (Also, this time I was much closer to the stage, so the impression was obviously different.) Rudd was also very cheerful, pulling faces and the like at all times. It was so cute when during breaks Robert went and massaged Rudd shoulder for a bit, they wasn't even that far into the shows, but I do know how heavy guitars are, so...

I even liked the breaks with the short films, which was a very different experience from the festival set list. (Oh, and Sharon's outfits were also gorgeous.) We were at about row 4-5, so even the short-sighted me could see very well. My only 'complaint' about the show was that it was too short - actually, they played 20 songs, which I think might even be longer, but it was so, so good, I barely even noticed those two hours going by - I guess the lack of supporting bands just made it feel shorter. I was tired around the half, but by that time I was so into it, I started to lose that kind of control.

They started off with Let Us Burn, and then Paradise - I wondered how much they were going to play off of the new album (I didn't check their previous setlist beforehand), though I wouldn't have minded most of them, because I really loved the album. Of course, these two tracks were among my favourites, so I was really happy. Next up were Faster and Iron - yeah, it was pretty much a rollercoaster start, very, very different from what I was expecting, and it also left me wondering whether I will be able to maintain my jumping height and the pitch of my scream through it all:D (answer: no, obviously not, I was going to suffer, but I was going to like it) ((yes, Harry Potter reference)) Also, Faster is a pretty amazing song live, it's really great to sing along to - it wasn't one of my better loved songs, but it might be now.

After the first four fast-paced songs came the slower Edge of the World, my favourite ballad from the new album, so I was really happy they played it. Then came another four piece: In the Middle of the Night, Angels, Dangerous, And We Run. They played more songs off of The Unforgiving than any other previous album; I guess most fans tell them they are tired of hearing tracks like Angels every other concert, but I actually would have been a bit happier with more The Silent Force or The Heart of Everything songs. (I'm not complaining, all of the songs played were amazing! But I would like to hear Hands of Sorrow live just one time. I've heard Memories at their other concert though, so I've got all of my favourites except that one.)

The next slower song was Tell Me Why - I would have expected Whole World Is Watching, but I was fine with this as well; both are nice, but none of them are my favourites. After that, we had a short film, and there came an older block - See Who I Am (which I adore) and Stand My Ground, then Our Solemn Hour (one of my first favourites) and then The Cross, which I actually didn't like that much before, but it sounded so much better live, which is strange for a song like this (that a-a-a-a-ah before the chorus sounds so weird on the album, it sounded way cooler live).

Then they played Covered by Roses, which was the last track from the new album - I'm a bit sad they didn't play Silver Moonlight, but by this time, Covered by Roses has really grown on me as well, and as I've said in my album review, the chorus might be the best of all from the album. Then they played Mother Earth, (oh my vocal chords, by this time I was positively hoarse and this is not an easy song), and went off the stage. It was really surprising to me, because as I've said, I didn't feel it was as long as it actually was, and I also didn't expect them to play 4 songs for the encore, which they did.

Honestly, the whole crowd was so enthusiastic, and while I guess the band wouldn't have understood our chants of 'vissza' (quite loosely 'encore'), I'm sure they felt the emotion behind it! We practically scream-competed with the girl who was standing next to me.
They started the encore with What Have You Done, which I guess everyone knew, so even if we were tired, we sang along at top voices. Then came Fire and Ice, which is one of the songs I really like from The Unforgiving - not as hauntingly beautiful as Stairway to the Skies, but still fantastic. Next - the really big surprise for me - was their cover of Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness. I do like their Q-Sessions covers, and this one was one of my favourites (also, one of the two Lana Del Rey songs I ever really listened to, the other being Young and Beautiful). I would have been happier with Let Her Go, but I guess they wanted to play a faster and more upbeat song.
The last song they played was Ice Queen, and I was so emotional - this was the first Within Temptation song I heard, and also one of my early favourites. It took me back to where I first discovered the band, so it was really personal for me, and a perfect end to a perfect concert.

I knew this concert was going to be good, but it was amazing - the main reason I liked the Nightwish concert two years ago more was because I like Nightwish's music a lot more (they are my favourite band after all). I always liked Within Temptation, but not in the I-absolutely-love-it category, but this concert blew me away. This is also one of the bands I'm not quitting no matter what happens, now I'm dead sure about it.