Sponsored by BoysStuff.co.uk

Lacuna Coil

By Ian Urie

I recently attended the Lacuna Coil at King Tut's in Glasgow.
Date was Sunday , the second of August, for all those that have a particular need to know.

Click to Enlarge

King Tut's is a remarkably small venue, 300 capacity, and is known probably primarily as the venue where those scamps Oasis were discovered, I suppose.
The venue itself has been operating since the early 90's and I must admit, to being very impressed with it.
Since it is so small, I can compare it (favourably) with the Cathouse in Glasgow, which is another venue I've frequented.
Unlike the Cathouse, the sound in the venue is superb.
The music may well be loud, but was never distorted.
From entrance, I attended with my daughter, all aspects were taken care of efficiently and easily.
To get to the venue, you go through the bar area in the front.
We bought a drink since we entered early.
This brought the customary request for Id for my daughter. On presentation of it, she was given a coloured wristband, as was I.
Subsequent trips to the bar inside the venue went trouble free as she had the wristband.
Entrance to the venue brought another wristband, of a different colour to show we had the right to enter and leave the concert.
Inside the concert, space is limited, and although it is small, everyone could get a view of the band,
unlike the Cathouse, which has a bar situated in the middle of the concert.
King Tut's has a bar over on the right hand side of the stage, and orders were progressed with an admirable speed.
This first time at the venue, hopefully, won't be the last.
I found this an excellent venue and look forward to seeing more bands here.
Anyway, enough about the venue.

The last time I saw Lacuna Coil was at the Barrowlands in Glasgow, which is a substantially larger venue and I was
intrigued to see how the Coil reacted to the more intimate surroundings.

First up was the support band.
They shoehorned themselves on-stage to the accompaniment of backing tapes.
The band was "The End of Everything".
Lacuna Coil are an Italian Goth rock band, so it was with some surprise that end of everything weren't Goth.

Click to Enlarge

The band appear to be thrash, or a similar style.
Neither of which particularly are to my taste.
They did appear to enjoy themselves, though, and the crowd did listen to their music.
This is more than I've seen elsewhere, where dissimilar music gets scant regard, shall we say.

The band did lay down some nice riffs and, when the singer wasn't growling, they did seem to have some decent songs.
Since I haven't heard of the band previously, I didn't know any of the song titles, and at my age, I probably wouldn't remember them anyway.

Apart from the guitarist breaking a string shortly into the set, and the subsequent time lost, their appearance boded well for their future.

Time for the main event.
Last time they were promoting their excellent release Karmacode, this time it was Shallow Life.
I'll admit to liking this band, the sound and music are very good, with some excellent hooks combined with hard rock.
The band have a dual lead in Christina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro who formed the band back in 1994,
although they only changed the name to Lacuna Coil in 1997.

Click to Enlarge

Since the KarmaCode tour was a full blown stadium and larger concert venue tour, the band decided to play smaller venues this time.
The band wasted no time in launching their assault on the audience.
They powered their way through new songs from Shallow Life as well as old favourites.
Both singers exhorted the crowd to interact , even doing the which part of the audience sings loudest trick.

Click to Enlarge

Some of the songs I do remember, are,
Got to be Fragile,
Heaven's a Lie,
Enjoy the Silence,
Our Truth,
Survive,
Not Enough

As you can see, some old, some new.

Click to Enlarge

The band appeared to be having a very good time indeed, and the crowd sang along with most of the older material,
although some of the Shallow Life songs seemed to escape them.

Click to Enlarge

The lighting at the venue isn't too bad on-stage, although the cramped conditions didn't help
The band was brilliant, note perfect with Scabbia's voice awesome in a live setting.
As I said previously, the sound was excellent, and it showed how professional the band are, and how proficient.

Click to Enlarge

Andrea announced that  the band had opted for a small venue tour to get back to their roots,
but promised that the band would return in 2010 with another full blown tour.
It's always amazing to watch crowds during a concert, and the heat had built up considerably during the set.
Also really amazing to watch everyone jump and down during the concert at the request of Christina.

Click to Enlarge

The heat also got to the band, with Christina tying her hair back later in the set.
Although the heat built up to a large degree, it never reached the levels as at, say, the Carling Academy in Glasgow,
which is notorious for heat levels during an energetic concert.

Click to Enlarge

Hopefully the pictures convey some of the atmosphere at the gig.
This was a brilliant concert , performed by a band at the peak of their creative and performing energies.
The crowd were rabidly enthusiastic, and the sound was great.
This is what all concerts should be like.

Click to Enlarge

Another plus for King Tut's is their enlightened attitude to cameras.
Unless you're going in with professional kit, they are unconcerned with any cameras.
The fact that camera phones are now up to 10 mega pixel , makes any other attitude unworkable, yet, I still see venues trying to prevent their usage.

All too soon, the band finished.
The concert was fairly short, as I clocked them at just over an hour on-stage.
Whatever, I look forward to their next tour, at a bigger venue.
If you get the chance to see this band live, go for it.
Highly impressive!