Written by:	Taktsekte
Published:	March 06, 2005

First off the original place where the concert was scheduled to go on was changed due to a great demand of ticket sales. Also there were no supporting acts.

We stood outside Sala Macumba (where the concert was taking place) for about 45 minutes, which we thought, was an eternity. It was so bitterly cold here nobody remembered such a cold winter in Madrid for the last 30 years. In the end the gates opened and we showed our tickets, then finally entered warm Sala Macumba. We bought some beer and waited for Within Temptation. Some were amused because we talked while listening to Rammstein, which was being played at the background.

Finally, the lights went out and we screamed thinking that the show was starting, but no! The background music was still Reise, Reise by Rammstein! One thing that stood out was a large curtain of a gothic cross that was draped on stage. When this song was over the 'actual' show began. Shortly after we started to hear "The Silent Force Intro" and the crowd knew how to sing along. Like in the album the end of Intro was followed by?


1. See Who I Am - A powerful but too predictable starter. The crowd knew it very well and sang along. "Is it true what they say..." and head banged and moshed around when Sharon Den Adel told us to which means: at the chorus: "See who I am, break through the surface. Reach for my hand, let's show them that we can" was head banging stuff; "free our minds and find a way" was moshing stuff. After this song Sharon gave us her particular greeting with "Muchas gracias, Madrid" ("Thanks a lot, Madrid") which she repeated many times during the show.

2. A Dangerous Mind - A The Silent Force bonus track very catchy but not as catchy as Aquarius or Angels, IMO; nevertheless, I recommend every Within Temptation fan to listen to it if you haven't done so yet.

3. Jillian (I'd Give My Heart) - Announced by both Sharon and Robert. Another song everybody knew and full of power, but the crowd stopped moshing. "Muchísimas gracias", said Robert in a perfect Spanish ("Thank you so much!").

4. Angels - A perfect song that is even more brilliant when it is played live!

5. The Promise - Slow and peaceful it 'slowed' the gig down and transmitted a lot of feelings from the band to the crowd. It seemed that I was the only one in Sala Macumba who knew it ]:-( - although I noticed that I was entering Poser land when I saw a young man buying a "The Silent Force" T-shirt - apart from the HIM one he had on.

6. Pale - Another ballad, very emotional too.

7. Forsaken - WTF, ANOTHER ballad? It just didn't fit.

8. Stand My Ground - I think this one deserves a special paragraph. First, Sharon and Robert dedicated it to the crowd. Some people like me did not want that crap of a song to be dedicated to us. The funny thing is that every single poser whom "The Promise" and "Angels" were unfamiliar sang 'Stand My Ground' along without any problem. What was even funnier was that after the second verse the sound simply disappeared. We thought they were kidding, but they looked at each other and seemed to be in serious trouble. Jeroen Van Veen, and Martijn Spierenburg quit the stage to see what was happening, and a couple of techs went on stage and outside to fix the sound. Meanwhile, Robert Westerholt tried to keep us amused. He spoke Spanish well; with a remarkable Dutch accent, but very correct. He asked us: "Es una broma, ¿no?" ("It's a joke, right?") and started to sing the famous double-paced "Que viva España", and we the crowd followed him and his drummer Stephen van Haestregt. After that Robert gave the microphone to Sharon who gave it to the people in front of her. A girl yelled, among other things: "¡Viva Within Temptation, joder!" ("Hail to Within Temptation, fuck!") and "You are really an angel Sharon, thank you". It did not take long to fix the sound problem, and I found the whole procedure very professional; other bands could have been standing there for half an hour without even trying to make the audience have a good time. They managed to play the whole "Stand My Ground" in the end, and it was disgusting to watch people head banging to this and being unconcerned about "Caged", trust me.

9. Memories - Way too many presets for that song! One of the worst of the night...

10. Running Up That Hill - I had not listened to it before, but I liked it a lot!

11. Caged - They reminded me of Metallica when they asked us whether we had listened to the 'Mother Earth' album xD, this is what James Hetfield ALWAYS does when he is going to play a song from an old album. Anyway Sharon did her best here and transmitted very much to us; besides, after the song had finished Sharon said it was time for...

12. Mother Earth - "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh..." After such a long time, the crowd reacted and proved that it was not dead. Horns rose and the sound was clear: Everyone knew 'Mother Earth'. With pictures of cascades and natural wonders at the background, Robert and the rest of the guys seemed very happy while they were playing it; it was clear that they enjoyed that stuff. I enjoyed it too

-- They left and returned --

13. Deceiver of Fools - The preset fever strikes back! Instead of having Martijn Spierenburg play the intro of that song they let the computer play it. Although I find it an excellent song it did not seem to be very popular concerning the audience.

14. Aquarius - not too special it sounded exactly like the album version, i.e. great.

15. The Dance - "Y ahora, una canción vieja" ("And now, an old song"), announced Robert. He picked the second microphone, but it was hard to hear his growls, unfortunately.

-- encores --

16. Our Farewell - Aweeeeeesome!!! One of their greatest ballads and they created such a calm atmosphere...

17. Jane Doe - An unexpected one fu*kin' great and catchy! Too bad the equalizer of Robert's voice was not well fixed; you had to concentrate a lot to hear him growling. After this song Robert told us (everything in Spanish!) that this city was very special to him because he learned to play guitar here for 5 years (aaah, this is why he spoke our language so correctly): "Recuerdo cuando aprendí a tocar la guitarra aquí por cinco años, en Madrid, ¡España!" ("I remember when I learned to play guitar here for 5 years, in Madrid, Spain!"). In the end, he announced that they would play the last song of the night, although he would have liked to play all night long, in his opinion, but they could not, so...

18. Ice Queen - Definitely the best song of the night; the song I was expecting and an invitation to mosh. Within Temptation played it perfectly, and Sharon actually sounded like an angel even better than on CD.

Personal rating: I think they abused the presets, but the set list was not bad; the only thing I hated about was the fact that they played no Enter songs and that they divided it into two parts: First, they played mainly The Silent Force songs and then Mother Earth ones or singles. I would have preferred a mixture of both... My rating would be 7/10, but the professional skills they showed when they got into trouble during 'Stand My Ground' raises this mark by 1. Rating: 8/10 in the end.