There was nothing wrong with the songs, it was just the fact that the band’s presentation made you feel you were looking at a practice session. At some points I even started wondering if the band members even noticed that there was an audience present. But hey, playing the 013 in Tilburg is no easy thing and I can imagine that Lawn was pretty nervous. The fact that their bass player had to stay home with the flue wasn’t helping either. Nevertheless this band showed some potential. The songs all have a solid base but lack a certain adventure. This becomes quit obvious at a live situation.

Anathema
My main interest in Anathema lies in the incredible album A Fine Day To Exit. It’s one of my favorite albums of 2003, so expectations on the new album A Natural Disaster (AND) were pretty high. The first time I listened to the latter was a bit disappointing. This was mainly because the album sounded so much like AFDTE. The atmosphere is different, but still both albums are too much alike. The development the band went through during the last couple of years (from metal to atmospheric) was reflected by the people in the crowd. The audience was sort of a melting pot with metal, prog and rock fans.

Tonights gig was a weird experience. If I had to decide which songs Anathema would play it would have not been far off the actual set-list. This just proves the importance of a well balanced set-list, since a whole night of your favorite songs is absolutely no guarantee for an incredible gig. As expected Anathema started off with songs from their two most recent releases. The atmospheric side of Anathema so to speak. This seemed to be a logical choice; start of slow and than gradually move to the older and louder songs from the past.

The first eight songs however, all nearly came from the last two albums. It was obvious that the attention of the pure metal fans in the audience was slipping away during these tracks. This resulted in a lot of turning faces and a lot of socializing in the crowd. This was amplified because the different members of Anathema lacked strength and emotion in their presentation, which was rather static during the slower songs. To gain power in their presentation Anathema could decide to put their drummer in front of the stage (he’s a great drummer and a joy to watch) or work with one or two movie screens to capture the emotion on their faces.

The Pink Floyd cover “Empty Space” seemed to be the breaking point in the set-list. This magnificent cover (when are these guys taking “The Wall” on the road?) was followed by the public’s favorites “Judgement” and “Panic”. All eyes turned back to the stage and the crowd was really going. I think everyone was baffled by the fact that after these songs more AFDTE and AND followed. The power of Anathema lies in the combination of the older and the more recent stuff and the latter was simply too dominant in tonight’s gig. In short: this Anathema gig should have been more balanced and therefor better.

(Review: Geert Oldenmenger
Pics: Marcia Gransbergen)