The sound wasn’t optimal as well; you could barely hear the guitars and the keyboard part was performed by a DAT-recorder. On stage, all band members stayed on their designated positions, making this a static performance. After about 30 minutes they called it a day and left with a fair applause.

Tiamat
After a 15 minute break “Tiamat” went on stage. To be honest, up till now I haven’t heard a single song from “Tiamat”, so I was anxious to see this Swedish band. Frontman Johan Edlund stood bald (so without the cowboy hat) and half naked before us. The music from “Tiamat” reminded me of The Sisters Of Mercy.

With a good sound and a nice light show they really got the crowd going. Only the keyboard player looked like he didn’t feel like playing with his bored look and body language. The drummer completely amazed me, because he was able to smoke a cigarette while drumming intensively with both hands.

During the second song Johan was accompanied by female vocals performed by Stefanie from “Flowing Tears”. She joined him again in one of the last songs. However, we could barely hear her alt voice, forcing us to focus again on her visual aspects. “Tiamat” played for one hour and extensively thanked the public for their support by frequently making “thumbs up” gestures.

In all, they picked a perfect set list for this more gothic oriented crowed, no black/death parts only soft electronic gothic metal. Good performance.

Moonspell
At about half past seven headliner “Moonspell” played their first tunes, giving us a mix from old and new material with no particular accent on one of the albums (“Wolfheart”, “Irreligious”, “Sin”, “The Butterfly Effect” and “Darkness And Hope”).

The stage was decorated as an artistic forest with inverse triangular-shaped trees, with electric candles as leaves. What a pity that these things only lit up during their last song (before the encore), “Darkness And Hope”. Fermando Ribeiro’s entrance could have been performed by “King Diamond”. He was dressed in a long black coat over a long red dress/coat, wearing a classic high hat and holding an old oil lamp.

Some black and white paint would have made him look exactly like “King”. Keyboard player Pedro Paixão also played guitar, but during these guitar parts, the synthesizer could still be heard, although nobody was actually near a keyboard. This made his “live” synth playing capabilities somewhat questionable; they might have come from a tape as well.

Opening with two new tracks from their latest album (D and H), Moonspell warmed up the crowd with “Firewalking” and “Devil Red”. Back in time with “Opium” and “Wolfshade”, both classic songs. Fernando changed costume for “Herr Spiegelmann” (German for Sir Mirrorman) on which he also held a round mirror in each hand and played with the reflection of the light. Next came “Butterfly FX” and “Angelizer”, with Fernando wearing spread angelic wings on the latter one. “Magdalena” from the “Sin” album was a disappointment, for the bass player didn’t play the catchy bass riff from this song.

That completely killed the mood. The fact that Fernando played with fake rattlesnake sticks didn’t make up for this loss. “Nocturna” however was played to perfection and also the incredible “Awake” brought back the mood. “Second Skin” had to be played as well and with this we nearly got to the end. After one hour “Moonspell” concluded the show with “Darkness and Hope” (the one with the candles).

A couple of “We want more’s” later they returned to the stage, all wearing different military costumes (mostly of dictator countries like Cuba and Russia) and blue sirens blazing, they played “Os Senhores Da Guerra” (D and H). Last song of the evening: “Full Moon Madness” from the “Irreligious” album.

At 20:40 hours the curtains closed and everybody went home, although some people were still calling for more at this early hour. In all Moonspell played OK, but I’ve seen them play much longer. Also the sound was a bit too loud for my liking, because the keyboard parts consequently faded away because of the guitar sound. But I guess that’s part of a live set. “Tiamat” played more convincing and, for me, they were the winner of this evening (evening? Sorry, I meant late afternoon).

(Review: Matthijn Vos
Pics: Marcia Gransbergen)