Tivoli Oudegracht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
28th August 2013
Emilie Autumn
Tonight’s show is part of EMILIE AUTUMN’s ‘Fight Like a Girl’ aka F.L.A.G. world tour which will take her to several countries in Europe, Russia and to the USA. Arriving at Tivoli, a modest but properly filled ground floor of fans was waiting excitedly for the arrival of Miss Autumn.
American singer-songwriter, violinist and poet Emilie Autumn brings an absolutely unique mix of burlesque, glam rock, industrial, gothic and classical music she defines herself as: Victoriandustrial. Her Facebook page describes her as a world-class violinist, fashion icon and famously bipolar, which about sums up the many sides of this artist. 
Her diversity also shows from her list of accomplishments: Emilie Autumn has released three studio albums and two instrumental albums, has written a few books and poem bundles and even appeared in a movie or two. Furthermore, over the years she appeared on Leno and Letterman, glossy magazine covers, and guest spots on the albums of such artists as Courtney Love, Otep, and Billy Corgan. In 2012, Emilie Autumn released the album ‘Fight Like a Girl’, a concept album based on her autobiographical novel ‘The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls’. In 2014, a musical based on the same story will hit the theaters. Her current live tour is a prelude to the musical. Emilie Autumn describes her live shows as ‘stepping into a dark version of Disneyland’. www.emilieautumn.com / www.facebook.com/emilieautumnofficial
Music & Performance
Patience seemed to be the main theme for the intro before the show. Several “false alarms” with speculative lighting and the music turned up, made the obvious front row fans even more enthusiastic. And then finally EMILIE’s showgirls appeared on stage – not too much later followed by Emilie herself. Dressed in her famous corselets, stockings and Victorian mask but with a huge and very cool Mohawk hairdo, EMILIE starts the show with ‘Fight Like a Girl’. EMILIE AUTUMN is assisted in her shows by Naughty Veronica and Captain Maggot; who each also have their own part in the performance as well. After quite an energetic kick-off the atmosphere turns eerie in the blink of an eye with ‘4 o'Clock Reprise’ and ‘What Will I Remember?‘ where Emilie is stripped of her glamorous outfit and sings from a staged psych ward. 
Followed by motivating songs such as ‘Take the Pill’ and ‘The Art of Suicide’ I am getting a little depressed. Not for the fans though, of whom some sing, cry and hysterically laugh along with the emotional rollercoaster on stage – almost so sincere it scares me. And just when we’re about to hit the bottom of this trench of sadness, it’s time to get on the upside again. The cute and entertaining Captain Maggot starts reading some erotic fan fiction with an obvious comical undertone, while Emilie and Veronica make those words come to live. After this little warm up Naughty Veronica plays her famous rat game, picking a girl from the ecstatic audience for a kiss while being encouraged by the audience, who were acting like overemotional teenagers. …o …wait… many of them were… all in all, quite an easy score.
After a short intermission, we get a little more up with one of the most happy songs of their set ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’. In an instant, Tivoli seems to be the centre of a cheerful burlesque circus. But what goes up must come down as we learn ‘How to break a heart’ and get a peek into Emilie’s nightmares with ‘Scavenger’, where a huge rat-like creature appears on stage. The show comes to an end with the strong ‘One Foot in Front of the Other’. During this evening we’ve seen Emilie Autumn Liddell happy, angry, vulnerable, strong, determined, everything in between and absolutely berserk, but beautiful all the time. Tonight’s show is not a concert imho: with the exception of a keyboard I haven’t seen any instruments (no violin this time) and let’s just not discuss vocals. The Emilie Autumn show is entertaining and unique. It links more with a very dark musical slash therapy session for the performers as well as some of the audience. 
Lighting & stage performance were absolute candy for the eye (and camera) though and not unimportantly: Emilie and her showgirls were visibly enjoying entertaining the audience. I didn’t get bored one minute during their performance and predict their upcoming musical will likely be a success!
Setlist
01. Intro
02. Fight Like A Girl
03. Time For Tea
04. 4 o'Clock Reprise
05. What Will I Remember?
06. Take The Pill
07. The Art of Suicide
08. Captain Maggot: Introductions
09. Dominant (Veronica Burlesque show)
10. Comedy bit: Erotic FanFiction
11. Naughty Veronica Playing The Rat Game
12. Girls! Girls! Girls!
13. Dr. Stockhill's speech
14. We Want Them Young
15. How To Break A Heart (Poem)
16. Scavenger
17. Gaslight
18. The Key
19. Hell Is Empty
20. Gaslight Reprise
21. One Foot In Front Of The Other
Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 9
Sound: 7
Light: 10
Total: 8 / 10
All pics by Ruth Mampuys (www.ruth-less.nl)
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