Written by:	Ayr
Published:	May 05, 2006
Event:	Anathema, Paradise Lost
Location:	Mean Fiddler, London, UK

Having seen headlining Paradise Lost live before and not being a particular fan of the band, I was delighted to see Anathema on the bill, as a support act this time. The only other chance to see the band live in London would be to come and see HIM later on in the year, which seemed to be a bit like waste of money, for Anathema was only given half an hour slot at both shows. And Him dates were sould out anyway... Well, good for HIM.


This night though, Anathema's short perfornace was highlighted by the appearance of drummer's (Johan Douglas) sister, who sang Natural Disaster, a beautiful and emotional ballad; vocalist's Vincent Cavanagh short change to keyboards to add some peculiar atmospheric sounds to the vocals echoing round the room, and his chnge to acoustic guitar at the end of the show, after obviously getting a bit too much into it and breaking a string.


I have to admit that my knowledge of Anathema was pretty much limited to their older Doomish recordings and a couple of random newer tracks. There were people in the crowd, though, to whom completly the opposite was true. As a result, a bunch of hairy metalheads were happily singing along to the one but last song in the set -Flying. Sounded like a mix of Porcupine tree and Gilmour Era Pink Floyd aeroplane themes to me, with the inevitable "Flying-dying" repeating in the chorus.
All in all, a great performance. Very positive. No wonder guys walked away from their darker image.



Set list:
Shroud Of False
Fragile Dreams
Balance
Closer
One Last Goodbye
Empty
A Natural Disaster
Judgement
Panic
Flying
Hurt