RoD header

Translate


Nemesea day report
June 17th 2005

Because the trains didn’t ride on June 17th, I decided to go to Groningen at the day before and I spent the night at my friend’s place. The following day, Sonny, bass guitarist of Nemesea would pick me up at the train station of Groningen to go to the first concert of the day the band had, which was at the No Limits Event in Emmen. Nemesea would be the support act of Within Temptation.
We drove to Assen, where we would meet the rest of the band who’d loaded the van with the stuff gathered at Chris’ place (the drummer) and we arrived when they’d just finished. Chris drove along with Sonny and me, whereas Manda (vocalist), Berto (keys), Martijn and Hendrik-Jan (guitarists) plus their crew were seated in the bus.

I’d been to Emmen once before, to visit the zoo with my parents, but never by car so sometimes I was a bit surprised with the environment. Though Emmen and Assen are not very far from each other, it took us quite a while to get there because the roads were not that big. We arrived a bit late, but still well in time.

While the rest of the band started preparing for the soundcheck, Manda, Sander (the merchandizer for the evening) and me built up the merchandize and when we were finished, the soundcheck began. It took around an hour before everything was well in place but the result was worth it. The sound was well-balanced even though it echoed a bit in the still empty tent.

Because it took a bit longer than planned, we had to eat a bit fast. When we went to dinner, the gates had been opened and the people ran to the front of the tent to be as close to their idols – Within Temptation mostly – as possible. We still had half an hour left, so after dinner we made our way back to the dressing room. I arranged a place to sleep so that I could also come to the last gig of the evening; Nemesea also had to play in Hoogezand, at a small students festival. Manda told me that for the first time in a while, she was nervous. They had never played for such a large crowd before, and I think we were all a bit jumpy about how the crowd would respond to Nemesea.



But they didn’t need to worry. As soon as Chris entered the stage to take place behind his drumkit, the crowd screamed in pleasure. Such a response quickly removed any nervous feelings and soon enough they were playing the stars from heaven. The people in the tent responded very well and the interaction was definitely there. The responses of the crowd were overwhelming, maybe even to an extent they hadn’t expected. With a tent full of people, the sound proved to be better than during the soundcheck. The lights weren’t always to my liking, but that was mostly because the light engineer didn’t know the songs Nemesea played so he had to improvise. They played a variety of songs: The opening song was a new one called Broken, followed by their Evanescence cover of “Going Under”. After these two, the more known Nemesea songs came by: Empress, Angel in the Dark, Mortalitas, Beyond Evil, even Violated Lady, which is not on their CD but which is a very powerful, emotional song, Disclosure and the seclusion was Lucifer. Nemesea proved to be a worthy support act for a huge band like Within Temptation. The band had all reason to respond with a bit of euphoria afterwards.


But it wasn’t over yet. Manda had promised to go to the merchandize stand for an eventual autograph, but more people had gathered than at least your’s sincerely had expected before Manda made her appearance.
She had another little surprise waiting for her: Her mother had decided to come last minute, something she hadn’t expected but it was well appreciated. Her mother told me that she made all the outfits for Manda herself so she really couldn’t stay away; she had to see it. And indeed, Manda was dressed beautifully.
But unfortunately we didn’t have much time left. Within Temptation started, and the people in front of the merchandize stand moved back to the stage, after which we packed the t-shirts and other stuff. Unfortunately too, because most people come to merchandize stands after the headliner... but there was nothing that could be done about it. We finished loading the bus half an hour late than originally planned, and everyone regretted it we couldn’t finish watching the show of Within Temptation or at least say goodbye. During the sounds of “Forsaken” and “Running up that Hill” we made our way to the regular streets of Emmen again.



We were called by the organization of Hoogezand when we were well on our way. They were getting a bit nervous because we hadn’t arrived yet, but it would still take half an hour to arrive at our destiny.

But there was nothing to be worried about, the band before Nemesea was still playing when we arrived, so we unloaded the backline and the band had enough time to put everything in place.

But what a difference it was! Not even two hours ago Nemesea was playing before a crowd of almost 2000 people, and the maximum of people present at this smaller venue was at the most 50 people. Of course, there was barely any time to check the sounds, which could be heard immediately. The sound was well balanced and a couple of  times the person handling the monitors caused major feedback. Because the venue actually was  a small theater, the lights were barely interesting.
But it’s the experience that counts and even though this performance was less good than the first one of the evening, it was nice to see and the crowd responded enthusiastically, even though their small number.

Everyone was pretty exhausted after the gig, so the band loaded the van again and we made our way to Groningen, Nemesea’s home town. After loading most of the stuff into Martijn’s house, everyone went home.

For the band, this surely was a night to remember, with the first performance definintely the best of the evening.

  



More Photo's

Comments powered by CComment