Anathema: Satellites Over Toulouse
| Written by: | Darkside Momo |
| Published: | November 03, 2014 |
| Event: | Anathema: Satellites Over Europe Tour 2014 |
| Location: | Le Metronum, Toulouse, France |
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FRA, Toulouse - Anathema: Satellites Over Europe Tour 2014 by Darkside Momo (5) |
The Metronum is a relatively new venue in Toulouse that opened in early 2014, and is already gaining a good reputation here. Why? The sound's bloody damn good - not quite the perfection of the famed Bikini, but close enough for a relatively small place (500 people).
Tonight's show, while not sold-out, drew quite a few people in... From metalheads to alternative or prog rock fans, Anathema's audience is varied indeed and has changed over the years. Still, while I think metalheads were less numerous than usual, they still formed the core of the fans here.
Mother's Cake
This Austrian band, who're accompagnying Anathema on the whole European tour, play some quite proggy 70's retro stuff. Well, not completely retro, as I felt they had a modern edge to their sound.
Technically, it was more than OK, as all the three guys were good - well... maybe the singing wasn't that great to be honest, a bit Robert Plant-y but not fantastic - but it wasn't to my liking. I'm not really into that retro thingie, plus some songs meandered a bit too aimlessly for their own good. But well, nevermind, most of the audience seemed to enjoy them (I know Collin did).
Interested? Their website is there!
Anathema
Once again, they were great and delivered an excellent show!
OK, now that the obvious is out of the way, what else to say?
Danny was relaxed and outgoing, while on the contrary Vinnie seemed a bit stressed for some reason. That doesn't prevented them both from talking to the audience, quite a few times in French. They've improved a lot, I must say! (and yes, we Froggies like to be talked to in French). Behind them, the drums / percussion duo (Daniel Cardoso / John Douglas, also in charge of keyboards) was quite demonstrative, and actually added a much more rock feeling to those recent "electro" songs (like "Distant Satellites"), who were indeed magnified compared to their studio versions. But that's quite usual with Anathema's live songs, right
?OK, one more proof, then. I still really don't like the song "A Natural Disaster", yet they play it every time. It's a good way to check Lee Douglas's progress in singing and charisma onstage, and this time was for sure the best one I've ever had the pleasure to hear! I remember the first times when she was quite shy and didn't really dare to push her voice to its fullest... But now, whoa... She's been awesome! It's really great to see her getting better through the years to reach this level!
The audience was really receptive, singing, lighting their phones during "Universal", everything when smoothly... Nothing to complain about for sure. Yet I do have a gripe with this show: the setlist. It was really, really, too centered on the new stuff, with Distant Satellites almost played in its entirety, and then quite a few songs from Weather Systems and less so from We're Here.... As for the classics, we only got "Closer" and "Fragile Dreams". And that's all - but not enough! Well, who am I to complain, after all they played more than one hour and a half - no mere feat!
Well well well... When all is said and done, I think that fantastic 2011 show was the best I've seen from them so far, because it had both quality performance - something you're anyway assured to have with Anathema - and a fantastic setlist featuring both new and old stuff... which wasn't the case this night. Anyway, let's be frank: this was once again a great evening!
Oh, I'm sure you want better pics than the crappy ones I put here. So, here's a link for some great photos!
Thanks to Fanny of Bleu Citron for the accreditation, and to my pal Etienne for a bit of inspiration!
 | Written on 03.11.2014 by Once your regular Hellfest reporter, now retired. I (strangely enough) listen to a lot of metal. And enjoy good beers, comics, novels and role-playing games. |
Comments
Comments: 12
Visited by: 69 users
| BloodTears ANA-thema Elite Posts: 11835  |
Yes, I have to say that Mother's Cake was really bad, I thought. I like that retro/proggish sound but it bored me to death. I don't think their songs are great, the singer isn't very good so I'm wondering why Anathema chose them for the tour! But like you said, also here in Lisbon a lot of people seemed to like them. Go figure! Since I liked the new album, I was pleased to hear a lot of new songs. "Distant Satellites" sounded amazing live. I also would have liked to hear more old songs, but I wish they could play like 3 hours  I was surprised to see both drummers being used, Daniel Cardoso more on the new songs and Douglas on the old ones.I'm in awe of Lee Douglas at the moment, she is just brilliant and has come a long way. I agree with you. She brings a new dimension to Anathema and complements Vincent and Danny really well. Hope they return soon. I'll be on every show they play here.
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| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9089  |
Written by BloodTears on 04.11.2014 at 12:35 Thankfully I wasn't the only one to dislike Mother's Cake  And yeah, I'd like to see Anathema play 3 hours too  as long as I have at least one hour of classics, they can play as much as they want. And indeed, next time they play near home, I'll be there again. Definitely a great live band 
---- My Author's Blog (in French)  "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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| Jason W. Razorbliss Staff Posts: 3523  |
Sounds like another awesome Anathema show! I've seen them twice in the past year (once in NYC, once in Boston) and not one moment did they disappoint. Heartfelt would be a huge understatement to describe just how genuine and warm they are live. Lee Douglas's singing is sublime live. I couldn't imagine Anathema without her now.
---- "After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
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| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9089 |
Written by Jason W. on 05.11.2014 at 20:44 Indeed it was awesome! They're so genuinely happy to play in front of their fans, and it shows. And seeing them twice in a year is good - I hadn't seen them since that 2011 show, and the wait was a bit long And I agree, Lee Douglas is definitely a part of Anathema's identity now
---- My Author's Blog (in French) "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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| Deadsoulman Elite Posts: 8004  |
For the record, I didn't really enjoy Mother's Cake. I thought the music was pretty cool but the vocals ruined it. About Anathema, show was good as always, however the setlist was way too focused on newer stuff for my taste. But that's just me, their last album I really enjoyed was AND. I miss the times when they still played A Dying Wish though.
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| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9089 |
Written by Deadsoulman on 07.11.2014 at 12:09 You were more positive about Mother's Cake back then  apart for the vocals of course.Oh, btw, you should check again Weather Systems, which is probably the best of the recent three
---- My Author's Blog (in French) "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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| BloodTears ANA-thema Elite Posts: 11835 |
Written by Deadsoulman on 07.11.2014 at 12:09 I think they played A Dying Wish in Wrocław, the lucky bastards! They did some sort of old school encore. I wish it would've been in Portugal
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| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9089 |
Written by BloodTears on 07.11.2014 at 12:21 SERIOUSLY? Holy shit!
---- My Author's Blog (in French) "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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| Deadsoulman Elite Posts: 8004 |
Written by Darkside Momo on 07.11.2014 at 12:18 I did before the show and wasn't really thrilled, although it is indeed the best of the last three. And of course it's got The Beginning And The End, which is one of the best songs they've ever written 
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| BloodTears ANA-thema Elite Posts: 11835 |
Quote:Written by Darkside Momo on 07.11.2014 at 12:25 Found it, eat your heart out I want to cry ahah
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| Deadsoulman Elite Posts: 8004 |
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| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9089 |
Written by Deadsoulman on 07.11.2014 at 12:38 Yeah. I'll do that too.
---- My Author's Blog (in French) "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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