Broerenkerk, Zwolle, The Netherlands

2th of November 2007

A special evening with Delain

For the Dutch liveshow enthousiast who is into female fronted metal, Delain needs no introduction because even though the band has only been around for one year it was hard to get around them in that time. Hardly ever have I seen a band sky rocket into fame faster than this band, who have played many dates on their club tour, all the major festivals around Holland and played abroad already in support of Within Temptation. Today is a special evening with Delain in a church.

You can imagine that the band wanted to go out with a bang towards the end of what has been a hugely succesfull first year for them. This show in the Broerekerk in Zwolle, where it all once started for Delain, is the perfect location to host a special show of the band.

As we entered the Broerekerk I thought about how smoothly everything went; from parking the car to getting inside the venue, these are the advantages to seeing a show in Zwolle instead of the ever crowded Amsterdam. The whole place was already buzzing with excitement as I went over to the merchandising stand to check the special shirts that were on sale just for tonight. Then I took some time to admire the decor of the church that fit so well with tonights show, especially when it came to the more intimate atmosphere of the acoustic set.

Music
 Tonights set consisted of 3 parts. The band started with an electric set, followed by an acoustic one after what was an incredibly  fast change over, followed by another electric set. This was a great idea, because is is quite unusual and keeps the dynamics of the show going. As the change overs were amazingly short, it didn't cause any nuisance with the crowd.

Much talk was going on about which (guest) musicians featured on the cd would be present for this show. Tonight the band were joined on stage by Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Liv Kristine (Leaves' Eyes), Guus Eijkens and George Oosthoek (both from Orphanage- R.I.P.) Sharons contribution turned out to be a huge disappointment for me, as she didn't seem to be too enthousiastic and only sung a couple of lines that didn't sound that great. Livs'performance was a lot better, especially from the visual point of view, as she wore a beautiful dress for the occasion. She turned out to be a good entertainer and her duet with Charlotte on 'see me in shadow' was working out well.

It was cool to see Guus perform with the band, because he wrote the song 'the Gathering' and his guitarsound added a nice extra crunch to the song, that I kind of miss since Ray is not with the band anymore. But with the help of Guus at least this song sounded nice and heavy tonight! Then there was George, well what can I say other than that he's got a hell of a growl  and is a great entertainer, he surely connected with the crowd tonight.

So how did Delain do? Because tonight was after all their night. The first set the band played was highlited with the performance of a new song called 'Stay Forever'. I liked the intro and the chorus of the song with good keyboard parts, that did remind a lot of Within Temptation, but in other parts of the song I think that some instrumental parts were still lacking. It sounded a bit thin compared to the bombast of the keyboard and the guitar in the chorus.

Charlotte sounded strong throughout the whole acoustic set that was to follow, but she truely excelled in the coversong 'Cordell' where her voice sounded stunning. Also her duet with Liv Kristine was sung beautifully. The thing I missed with this acoustic set was the rest of the band, because they seemed to be as laidback as the tempo of the music,  they looked quite uninspired. Maybe it was due to nerves, but the acoustic songs missed some enthousiasm shining through their performance. After the second change over something happened to all bandmembers and suddenly the energy and enthousiasm was visible, but more important audible from all of the band. This set finally delivered the goods and both band and audience were rapped up in the whole show.

Performance
One of the first things I noticed when the band started to play, was the beautiful lighting they had onstage. There were two lighted circles placed at the front of the stage, where Rob and Ronald could stand on and perform in their very own spotlight. Every part of the show had its own colorscheme and that worked out very well to enhance the mood of the songs played. The sound was good for tonight, especially for Charlotte. The only downside were some problems with the vocals of the guestmusicians, which were sometimes not loud enough. When the band got into the second set, which was an acoustic one, they were joined by a cellist and Martijns keyboard was replaced by a grand piano. All members of the band also changed their clothes and wore black with a white tie, exceptt for Charlotte who wore a long white gown- stylish! For the third set, everyone from Delain changed back to their "old" stage look.

With so many things perfectly arranged; from the lighting, to the sound, to the look of the venue and the guestmusicians, you would think that it was easy for Delain to hit a homerun. This however was not the case for me, as the band failed to deliver all that I expected from them. The first set was a little too standard for my taste, and the acoustic set lacked some interaction from the bandmembers onstage, making it a little dull to look at, except for Charlotte who delivered very well and showcased the delights of her voice, especially in the acoutsic set. Only with the third set Delain got into gear and produced a wall of sound and enthousiasm, like I saw them do in the first shows they did. It is time for them to work harder on becoming more of a band onstage, keeping up the energy levels during a show and for Charlotte to claim the spotlights as a true frontwoman. They have come a long way in just one year and so I'm convinced they will be able to continue to learn and grow into a household name in the Dutch livescene.

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