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Life of Agony - Tilburg 2005

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013, Tilburg, the Netherlands
December 7th 2005
Life of Agony & Green Lizard

Just another traffic jam packed day in the Netherlands, the endless boring roads full of cars can only be forgotten with a good glass of wine or one hell of a concert. Outside the cue was slowly decreasing, inside the venue was filling up with people who had all used up some more time than expected to get to Tilburg. Not because 013 is such a great venue (which it is by the way), but because that hell of a good concert would be provided by nothing less than Life of Agony.


Green Lizard

The Dutch band again is the support for Life of Agony today. Although they were not the only ones; unfortunately traffic and other appointment used up too much time to review them. Back to Green Lizard however; if there is one band that could open in Tilburg for Life of Agony it's them. After all the music is quite compatible and it is their home town.

Music
The band kicks in right from the start but their music can't really grab the attention of the audience. Their music is aggressive yet very shallow when it comes to the musical aspect. Mostly the riffs are repeated over and over again and vocals need to provide the necessary variation. Vocals that were well done both in screams as in clear vocals but they fail to convincingly get the message across. Somehow believing what these guys sing is hard, maybe they just look too cute for the music they make. That doesn't mean at all they didn't make some good loud music tonight. Yet the bass player was not playing any really difficult parts, the guitarist was basically doing the same few riffs per song and the singer got stuck doing the same but without doing anything really challenging on guitars. The drummer however did some mean hitting, very tight, right groove and a real engine to the music. With all instruments well placed in the mix the sound near the speakers and in front of the stage was pretty poor. Especially vocals had a problem there. All in all not too complex but most certainly well done, sometimes things can be simple and good.



Performance
A first glance you might have mistaken this band for a reggae band looking at their appearances but they do as we know deceive. Nothing laid back in music nor on stage; the bass player was all over the place continuously working on his 'silly walks' though I doubt government funds will be granted it sure gave the show that little extra. In the mean time the guitarist was rather stationary, occasionally moving back and forth. He did however enjoy showing of different guitar playing positions. Like always the drummer was hidden behind his drumkit. The singer was bent forward towards his mic while playing his arrow shaped guitar. His eyes were closed most of the time, no problem but it's just that the contact with the audience wasn't really there. Something the hyper active bass player certainly did much better. But still, this music and their appearance, they just look funny together. It's more like they are acting to be mean rock stars than actually being themselves on stage. The lights were rather dim from the front but the back was nicely lit with a good use of smoke.

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 6
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7




Life of Agony

After getting back together back in 2003 the band has done a great amount of shows all around the world. Big festivals like Graspop, Dynamo and Rock am Ring featured these 4 New Yorkers as well as many venues during their club tours through Europe and the USA to support the release of their 2005 album 'Broken Valley'. After the start of this part of the tour some 3 weeks ago in Utrecht they are back in the Netherlands. This time to shake up Tilburg's 013 which was filled up with people ready to rock hard.



Music
Johnny Cash is played as an intro and most of the audience is stunned, listening to this unfamiliar music. This all changes rapidly when the band hits the stage and kicks of with 'Don't Bother'. The sound is aggressive, powerful and very tight. LoA shows that touring and playing only makes them better; no sign of fatigue. While Keith Caputo is putting an full load of emotion into his singing Sal Abruscato is ferociously beating the drums. Joey Z is jumping up and down maintaining his guitar play at a high level at the mean time while he slows down every now and then to do one of the nice solos. On the other side of the stage Alan Robert is plucking the strings of his bass, which is very present in the mix. It's not just the songs from their latest album they play, some songs from the older albums 'River Runs Red' and 'Ugly' are played as well. The audience sure knows how to appreciate this and seems to loose control during 'Lost at 32' and the encore's 'River Runs Red'. It is amazing to see how Keith manages to keep singing so well even though he's constantly moving around on stage with his body seemingly out of control at times. With the sound in the venue being rather ok in the middle but to bass biased at the sides the band manages to please the crowd enough for them to call them back for an encore. It takes the band a while to get back on stage but when they do it's just full speed ahead again. Too bad we had to miss half of the lyrics of 'Calm That Disturbs You' due to the fact that Keith accidentally hit his roadie with the mic while turning around. He run off stage after the roadie to make sure he was ok. The audience didn't really mind the fact that the sympathetic singer took care of his friend before returning on stage.


Performance
This is Life of Agony at its best; the band is feeding on all the energy coming from the audience to keep pushing harder and harder. When Keith enters the stage his eyes look wild and he's t-shirt is off. From the moment the music sets in the entire band seems to explode and a ballet of unprecedented passion and aggression fills the stage just to settle down bit when after one of the songs Keith is gone. Joey Z tries to fill the gap by talking to the audience but it seems nobody knows what's really going on. After a while he returns to the mic only to let the audience know Mr. Caputo was taking a shit. With a band like Life of Agony nothing is too absurd really and the audience doesn't mind this short interruption at all. Just back on stage he continues like nothing has happened; jumping on the monitor speakers and almost falling off or quietly sitting on them trying to get as close to his fans as possible. In the mean time Joey Z is bouncing up and down or hopping back and forth along the stage, sometime shouting at the crowd to cheer them up. During one of the breaks he appears on stage with a camera to take pictures of the audience. He wants to show the people back in the USA what real fans look like it seems. On the drum riser Sal Ambruscato is playing wild but still controlled. It's unfortunately hard to see him play that well from the front of the stage, but people at the balcony must have witnessed this completely different. Alan Robert is wearing his fashionable hat again tonight. Like the rest of the band this short guy manages to look 'cool' and his casual clothes makes him look approachable. No real jumping up and down for Alan however, but his numerous cool poses sure make up for that. So what was wrong about this performance then? It sure wasn't the lights because they were a plenty and as vivid as the guys on stage. Sometimes deep reds on the band's faces and then again something brighter to better show the emotions. No the only downside must have been the audience, many of which were just a bit too tame. Completely weird because this is how a Life of Agony show should look like; full of passion and aggression.


Setlist
01. Don't Bother
02. This Time
03. Day He Died
04. Through and Through
05. Love to Let You
06. I Regret
07. Weeds
08. Lost at 32
09. Strung Out
10. Bad Seed
11. Wicked Ways
12. My Eyes
13. Underground
---
14. Calm That Disturbs You
15. River Runs Red

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 7
Light: 8
Total: 9







More photos on page 2

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