Rockezine.com concert review for Tristania on Feb 20, 2005 in the W2/`s-Hertogenbosch

Tristania

W2-`s-Hertogenbosch

Feb 20, 2005

Although I`m not one of the biggest gothic rock fans, I do like an occasional gothic concert. As a photographer these gigs are a real pleasure because of the expressive performance and the fantastic atmosphere. While entering the Willem II venue I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of people that had shown up on this Sunday afternoon. The room was nicely filled when Nemesea hit the stage and packed when the main act blew their first chords into the venue. Another thing that came as a surprise was the venue itself. I`d never been in Willem II before and one might best describe it as a smaller version of the 013. The biggest difference is that this isn’t a modern structure but in fact an old cigar factory.

First up was the Dutch Nemesea. I knew that this band was on its way to making it big in The Netherlands and it didn`t take long for me to find out why. Of course this band goes along in the slipstream of bands like Epica, Within Temptation and After Forever but looking at their excellent performance it wouldn`t do this band justice to compare them to these bands. During the gig I overheard people standing next to me saying that the band had grown immensely over the last couple of months. This must be a fact since the solid and very professional performance of this afternoon just doesn`t come naturally. Nemesea boasted confidence, really playing their audience with their powerful yet catchy gothic metal. Nemesea has to be a very tight band. There was a lot of interaction between the members and the band was clearly having a good time. They reflected this on the audience which got more and more into the band with each song played.

Tristania is a band I only knew from a couple of MP3 tunes I downloaded from the band’s website. The Norwegian band is currently on tour with Nightwish. Today was their day off and Tristania wouldn`t be Tristania if they didn`t program a gig of their own on this day. This proves the urge for this band to be on stage. For some time I thought that Tristania was all about the female vocalist but today this band showed to have a lot more cards up their sleeve. It`s a real joy watching – and listening to – the guitar player / extreme vocalist Kjetil Ingebrethsen and vocalist Vibeke Stene. The expressive way of singing, the way in which he interacts with the crowd, never thought such a tiny man could be so impressive on stage.

Comparing Tristania with Nemesea two things hit me. Personally I prefer Tristania because of the dynamics due to the fact that there are more singers in the band. Listening to a female solo vocalist gets boring after about an hour, no matter how good this singer is. The second reason I enjoyed Tristania slightly more is the fact that this band has found some internal rest in their music where Nemesea seems to go on and on and on. Nemesea is like a TGV traveling in a straight line where Tristania is an intercity train making turns and changing speed from time to time. It`s hard to explain but I think this is something that will come over the years.

Black and white pictures of Nemesea.
Color pictures of Tristania.

(Review & Pics: Geert Oldenmenger)

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