EVANESCENCE at Oslo Spektrum (Oslo, Norway)
Opening Acts: LEPROUS – YONAKA
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
by Jorge Patacas
Almost twenty years have passed since Evanescence hit the mainstream charts with their album “Fallen”. There were many lineup changes since then with their vocalist Amy Lee being the only remaining original member today. They released an album called “The Bitter Truth” last year and were finally able to promote it on an European tour with a date in Oslo on June 15th.
When entering the venue (Oslo Spektrum, which has a capacity for 9700 people), it was a surprise to see that it was far from being full, considering that the american band has not played in Norway for a long time, but there were a lot of people anyway and they were really excited. These were clearly loyal fans.
Around 19:30, the British band Yonaka (stylised as YONAKA) took the stage as the first warm-up act. Their debut album “Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow” came out in 2019, but they’ve also released several EPs and their most recent material is called “Seize the Power”. Their music is hard to describe because they have many different influences, but they’re mainly a rock band with some electronic and hip hop elements. People didn’t know them at all, but they got carried away and by the end they were totally engaged with the band. This helped to create a great atmosphere.
The Norwegian outfit Leprous has grown a lot since their first album “Tall Poppy Syndrome” (2009) and they’re slowly getting bigger and bigger. Even though their style was quite different than the main band of the evening, they managed to win over those who haven’t heard of them before and they had only 45 minutes to do it. Their set was a balance between slow and calm passages and more intense and explosive moments. Some of the highlights were “The Cloak” and the end with “From the Flame”. Before leaving the stage, the drummer Baard Kolstad announced that they were going to play their most important show as a headliner in Norway on March 18th next year, so if you happen to be in Oslo that day, make sure to attend!
Finally it was time for the headliners, Evanescence, who started their performance around 21:30 with “Broken Pieces Shine”, the song that opens their latest album, the aforementioned “The Bitter Truth”. Just three weeks before the show, the band announced lineup changes after parting ways with their guitar player Jen Majura. Their bass player Tim McCord switched to guitar, while Emma Anzai joined on bass. She’s also a member of the australian band Sick Puppies that has toured with Evanescence in the past. During the concert, it became obvious that she fits in the band not only for her good job on the four strings instrument, but also on the backing vocals. The other members right now are Troy McLawhorn on guitars and Will Hunt on drums.
Many of the songs on the setlist were from the latest album with “Going Under” being the first from “Fallen” to be performed that evening. The first ballad on piano we got to hear was “Lithium”, which made clear that Amy Lee’s voice is still the same as twenty years ago. “Wasted on You” and specially “Better Without You” had a great response from the fans who were singing all the words and some of them were even crying!
Later it was time for “Bring Me to Life” to the delight of the excited crowd. They don’t sing the rapper parts of the song live, which, by the way, they didn’t want to have on the original studio version, but they ended up featuring them due to pressure from the record label. They left the stage for the first time right after playing their hit and the roadies brought the piano one more time, so the spotlight was going to be on Lee again, but this time for another hit, “My Immortal”. The audience lifted their mobile phones in the air with the lights on, just like it was in the past with the lighters.
The last song was “Blind Belief”, which was a strange choice. One could guess the intention was to start and finish with the first and last song of the album they were promoting, but it would have definitely been much better if they chose one of the fan favorites to be the last one. But that didn’t matter to the fans who were able to enjoy their favorite band for about 90 minutes. Great evening!
