So What, Gouda, Netherlands6th of May 2005
Nemesea
Tonights’show started fairly late, around 22.30, because Nemesea were doing this gig without a supportband. They have been touring as a supportband for Afer Forever for over one year and have made a huge progression along the way. After the release of their very succesful debut ‘Mana’in november 2004, the band have now started to tour on their own.
Music
Nemesea have been around since 2002. The greatest attraction of the band is singer Manda, who has a very natural and clean voice and an ever growing stage presence. The rest of the band are: Hendrik J. De Jong- guitarist, Martijn Pronk, guitarist, Sonny Onderwater- bass, Berto Booijnk- keyboards and Chris Postma on drums. They can be categorized as a gothic metal band, but that is not all there is to say about their music. What makes them stick out from the dozens of bands operating in this genre these days is the fact that these people are technically skilled musicians, this can be atributed to the fact that four of them attended music college. They showcase this by adding progressive elements to their music, which gives their sound an original twist.
Nemesea have been around since 2002. The greatest attraction of the band is singer Manda, who has a very natural and clean voice and an ever growing stage presence. The rest of the band are: Hendrik J. De Jong- guitarist, Martijn Pronk, guitarist, Sonny Onderwater- bass, Berto Booijnk- keyboards and Chris Postma on drums. They can be categorized as a gothic metal band, but that is not all there is to say about their music. What makes them stick out from the dozens of bands operating in this genre these days is the fact that these people are technically skilled musicians, this can be atributed to the fact that four of them attended music college. They showcase this by adding progressive elements to their music, which gives their sound an original twist.
Performance
Their set was a nice and long one, considdering the band only has released one album to date. They always play some covers and the upside to this is the fact that they play different ones every performance- it is done as a tribute to the bands that influenced Nemesea ( mainly Manda judging by her comments whilst anouncing the songs) and they do a great job at handling ‘Strange machines’ in particular. A nice gesture was playing ‘Forlorn hope’ to mark the presence of After Forevers’bassplayer Luuk in the audience. The downside to playing so covers is the fact that I think they do not need to play so many of them, their own material is very good and it would be a better option to showcase more of the Nemesea material during a performance, since this is their chance to win the crowd over with their own songs.
Their set was a nice and long one, considdering the band only has released one album to date. They always play some covers and the upside to this is the fact that they play different ones every performance- it is done as a tribute to the bands that influenced Nemesea ( mainly Manda judging by her comments whilst anouncing the songs) and they do a great job at handling ‘Strange machines’ in particular. A nice gesture was playing ‘Forlorn hope’ to mark the presence of After Forevers’bassplayer Luuk in the audience. The downside to playing so covers is the fact that I think they do not need to play so many of them, their own material is very good and it would be a better option to showcase more of the Nemesea material during a performance, since this is their chance to win the crowd over with their own songs.
During the set a new version of ‘Angel in the dark’ was played, it was a much shorter version then the one featured on Mana. The explanation for the changes made to the song are given by Hendrik:” Angel in the Dark was the first song I wrote for Nemesea. During the recording proces and playing the song live I got fed up with some musical parts of the song. I think the song deserves better. I learned a lot since the recording and writing process. I think the next album will be more compact, the songs will be tighter and I think Angel in the Dark will fit better played this way. It's a song we always want to play, certainly in the future, between newer songs.”
Altogether they appear to be a tight band on stage, handling the more technical songs very well and performing with obvious pleasure. Ofcourse So What is not the greatest of places to perform, with the stage being fairly small and the near impossibility of getting a decent sound in there.All that never scared off bands like Within Temptation or Epica to perform there, so Nemesea were putting in a lot of their energy like the others before them, to make it a nice gig- in spite of everything- and did a good job at that. Still there is some work to be done in establishing contact with the crowd and overall performance skills to make it a more attractive show. I think that having a good lighting on stage will prove to add to the impact of the band as well. There was not much going on in that department during the gig this time.
My overall conclusion: this band is one to watch! I am sure they will prove to cristalize into a major player in the scene given their obvious talent at songwriting, singing and playing their instruments and if they continue to progress the way they have been doing.
Setlist
1. Intro+ threefold law
2. Disclosure
3. Strange machines (the Gathering cover)
4. Angel in the dark
5. Mortalitas
6. Going under (Evansecence cover)
7. Violated lady
8. Bless the child (Nightwish cover)
9. Beyond evil
10. Empress
11. Forlorn hope (After Forever cover)
12. Lucifer
1. Intro+ threefold law
2. Disclosure
3. Strange machines (the Gathering cover)
4. Angel in the dark
5. Mortalitas
6. Going under (Evansecence cover)
7. Violated lady
8. Bless the child (Nightwish cover)
9. Beyond evil
10. Empress
11. Forlorn hope (After Forever cover)
12. Lucifer
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 6
Light: 5
Total: 7 (6,6)
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 6
Light: 5
Total: 7 (6,6)
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