Concert: Sonata Arctica, Sanctity
Posted on February 20, 2008 at 10:22 pm by admin
The Embassy is the venue that I’ve been more than any other place, yet I’ve never had the chance to actually write about a concert taking place there at Way Too Loud! yet. On that note, if you haven’t been to The Embassy in London, Ontario, the place has become almost a right of passage for most touring bands. If there’s ever a tour that goes through eastern Canada that has more than Montreal and Toronto as stops, London invariably becomes an extra show, with many shows landing at The Embassy. In case you’re wondering what’s special about The Embassy itself, all I can really say is that it’s on a street nicknamed “Dirty Dundas”, and you’ll usually pass the soup kitchen to get there.
This tour only had 2 bands, and there was no local support. Sanctity took the stage first, and after looking them up on the internet, I couldn’t help noticing that there were some very big differences with the members who showed up for the date, and the people in promotional pictures. Onstage there were long-haired 80’s thrash worshipping dudes, with the two guitarists and bass player being pretty hefty guys. Back at their MySpace page, it appears the only two members playing in London were drummer Jeremy London and lead guitarist Zeff Childress. Could this be due to lineup changes, or temporary fill in members? The explanation in fact came later, during Sanctity’s tour. Vocalist Brian Stephenson is a new permanent member, while the new guitarist and bass player are fill-ins.
A band such as Sanctity actually fits pretty well playing before Sonata Arctica, as they displayed an old-school style of thrash meeting power metal, such as Iron Maiden, with mostly singing and a few harsh growls and screams thrown in. The merger of 80’s thrash and power metal in this case was actually a bit different than the thrash/power/speed bands most would be familiar with from Europe. New vocalist Brian (who was an Ottawa native) was quite charismatic, and the friend who brought me to the show, Brett, stated that he resembled Sebastian Bach. The dude liked to windmill spin his hair quite a bit and do some huge headbanging, really conjuring the spirit of 80’s thrash.
I had witnessed Sonata Arctica at the 2005 New England Metal And Hardcore Festival, which was quite a site to see. You’d expect power metal band from Finland sandwiched between metalcore bands at a festival like that to perhaps get a poor reception, but the floor was packed with BDU hats pointing their way. The setting that Sonata Arctica was playing in this time was quite different from the large venue of the Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts, and most likely I’d be guessing the even larger venues in Europe. However, they treated this show on a tiny stage in a venue that’s pretty run-down, and in the bad part of town just like they were playing to over 10 000 people.
Out pouring glorious power metal of the Finnish variety, which means lots and lots of keyboards! The keyboardist had in fact, a keytar (remember those from the 80s?), although his seemed to be an modern version. Vocalist Tony Kakko of course was dead on key with his soaring vocals, and when it came time for the shred-em-up guitar solos or finger-flying keyboard solos, he was able to keep stage presence with crossed arm poses, getting right behind the players and looking at their instruments with fervent passion.
Since most of the shows that I go to are quite heavy, a mosh pit is commonplace, and bands have crated their songs with the live show in mind. I always wondered what a power metal band would do in place of a breakdown, and the perfect replacement came in the form of fist-pumping “heys” and hand clapping to get the audience involved. Since the music does feature quite a bit of double bass drumming and guitars with a decent amount of crunch, people did feel the need to mosh during the later parts of the show.
Just before Sonata Arctica came back for their encore, Tony Kakko played a drum game with the audience if you will. I’ll save the mystery for you to find out on your own if you get an opportunity to see Sonata Arctica live. At the end of their set, the band took a bow, just like they would on a huge stage.
As always, I keep with my preaching of keeping an open mind by seeing different types of bands. A guy like myself who typically prefers there to be screaming in my music, I find power metal more appealing every day. Then only thing really missing was the puffy silk shirts and tight leather pants I saw Sonata Arctica playing the last time I saw them.
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