// musicxtra.net

Venue: Soundhaus, Glasgow, UK

Date: 04 May 2006

A very warm, sultry evening at one of the most intimate venues in Glasgow produced an unforgettable gig, certainly one that Elis will remember for the rest of their lives, as a thunderstorm looked set to ruin everyone's night.

Argonath, a Glasgow based Death Metal band took to the small stage to warm the crowd up as they were still coming in. They weren't part of the original line up, so well done to them for getting the opening slot. Can't say they were all that entertaining, mind you, but it's always useful to get a bit of exposure.

Next up were Elis. They had some technical issues, as the disc player for their backing keyboard track decided to go into a seven second loop which the drummer fixed, apparently by hitting it. I suppose that's what drummers are for. Four songs into their set, the venue management stopped them as the rain was streaming into the venue through walls and doors. This was a bit of a shame as they were getting warmed up and getting a good reaction from the small audience.

After about twenty minutes, Elis came back on and did one more song to close their set. They were certainly entertaining and well worth going to see again.

Atrocity were up next, and it should be borne in mind that Atrocity and Leaves' Eyes are exactly the same band, but Atrocity have Liv Kristine as a backing singer, whereas in Leaves' Eyes, it's her husband and Atrocity front man, Alex Krull, who's the support singer.

Atrocity have clear death metal influences and while I'm not a big fan of death metal, I enjoyed what they were doing. They were clearly enjoying themselves too, and interacting well with the crowd. They finished off with a truly excellent cover of Shout, the old Tears for Fears song, which got everyone joining in.

The start of Leaves' Eyes set was heralded, somewhat disappointingly, by a recording of the introduction from Vinland Saga on an empty stage, but the band came on to rapturous cheers right after the disc had finished playing.

Leaves' Eyes have had very mixed reviews for their last album Vinland Saga, which, in the view of this reviewer is bland, dull and over produced. Let me say now that none of those criticisms can be levelled against the live versions of songs from that album, because, performed on that small stage, with Liv's commanding stage presence and with a bit more life to them than is evident on the albums, they were superb.

The venue is small enough that the audience can get up close and personal with the bands, close enough to see the corners of Liv's eyes and close enough that the sweat from Alex's forehead could splash onto where we were about three rows back. The band were quite happy to pose for photos while they were playing, which was good, apart from the bassist, who was too busy looking 'mean'. Mind you, I did spot him blowing kisses to a couple of girls standing next to me, so maybe he wasn't that mean after all.

The sound at the front of the hall wasn't that great, but moving to the back it was far better, and that also showed that the hall was less than half full, which was a shame. The set list comprised a good mix of songs from Vinland Saga and Lovelorn, with a couple of tracks from a forthcoming EP thrown in for good measure.

Live, they produce a much heavier, rougher sound than the over produced albums, so that's a good thing. On this showing, Leaves' Eyes work much better as a live band than in the studio. Liv has a great voice, and for such a small person, she has a tremendous stage presence since she comes on and commands the entire stage, often singing directly to members of the audience.

The differences in musical styles between Atrocity and Leaves' Eyes is interesting too, since the only personnel differences are the roles of the singers. This was a highly entertaining and eventful evening, and one I was glad not to miss.

Review by Alan Thomson

Set List

Not available

Photos From the Tour

Rio's, Bradford, UK // 06 May 2006

Other Reviews

Electroworkz, London, UK // 04 May 2006