Hedon, Zwolle (NL)
21-03-2014
By Michael
Just before the release of Delain‘s next studio album, they decided to give a big kick off party for “The Human Contradiction” with some surprise special guests. And what better place for that than in their “hometown” Zwolle, in the rebuilt venue Hedon.
When we arrived in Zwolle, about two and an half hours before the doors would open, there already were some fans in fron of the venue. And I thought I was excited. We headed out for a bite to eat, met up with some Finnish friends that we know from 70.000 Tons of Metal and when we got back to the venue, we could no longer see the doors. That many people were already gathering outside, wanting to get inside as soon as possibe and conquer a spot near the front of the stage.
The first band to play a couple of songs was Kingfisher Sky. One of the things I always notice when this band plays live, is the pure pleasure and excitement they display while being on stage. Their drummer, Ivar de Graaf, left Within Temptation quite a while ago, but the musical influence of this band can still be heard. It was a nice warm up for the bands who were to follow.
Next up was Stream of Passion. Ever since the release of their first album in 2005, this band has grown a lot. Their latest release, Darker Days, dates from 2011 and a new album is about to be released. So the audience were given a great mixture of both old and new songs. I always enjoy seeing bass player Johan van Stratum on stage. He is just full of energy and bounces all over the place. The new songs did sound great and it’s always nice to hear songs like “Passion”, “In the End” and “Street Spirit” live.
Finally the moment arrived for which most of the fans were here. We were all excited to see what kind of show Delain would give and naturally to see if there were special guests. Secretly I was hoping to see Marco Hietala on stage, because he played a part in quite a few songs from Delain. Immediately from the start, Delain threw their fans into the deep by playing a new song, “Here Come the Vultures” and it seemed as if the crow appreciated that. Everebody seemed enthousiatic and the place was steaming. Not surprising, since the Hedon was packed.
After a couple of old and new songs, two songs from “The Human Contradiction” followed. Delain started to play “Sing to Me”, and sadly enough there was no Marco on stage though. Still it was awesome to hear “Stardust”, their new single, and “Sing to Me” live. Delain has proved before that they don’t need their guest singers live to perform the song greatly.
Not a big surprise, but nice to see anyway, was that Marcela Bovio from Stream of Passion joined the stage for “Sleepwalkers Dream”, followed by fan favourite “The Gathering”. A bit of extra power was added to the setlist after this. George Oosthoek made an appearance for two songs. It has been a while since he has sung on a Delain album, but he seemed glad to be back. During “Tell Me, Mechanist” and “Pristine” he sung with a lot of passion.
After three more songs, including one of my favourites, “Electricity”, Delain left the stage, to reappear after a short while, guided by a loud applause. I’m glad that the next song was a lot more fun to hear live. “My Masquerade” is one of the songs I did not enjoy that much on the album. Ending the night with “Virtue and Vice” and “We Are the Others”, Delain once again put up a great show and left everybody satisfied. This was a great way to start the tour and the new songs sound fantastic live!
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Setlist Stream of Passion:
The Scarlet Mark
Passion
A War of Our Own
Don’t Let Go
In the End
Street Spirit
The Curse
Collide
Setlist Delain
Here Come the Vultures
Get the Devil Out of Me
Army of Dolls
Mother Machine
April Rain
Stardust
Sing to Me
Sleepwalkers Dream (Marcella)
The Gathering
Tell Me, Mechanist (George)
Pristine (George)
Go Away
Electricity
Not Enough
Encore:
My Masquerade
Virtue and Vice
We are the Others