LACUNA COIL & SLAVES TO GRAVITY
LEEDS COCKPIT 02/10/10
I was debating with someone this evening about whether or not you would consider Lacuna Coil as an underground band, to which my argument was that while a few years back I would have considered that a reasonably fair assessment, here in 2010 when their albums and even t-shirts can be bought in any HMV countrywide and the face of Christina Scabbia regularly adorns the front cover of a certain unnamed pop music rag, it would be grossly inaccurate. Many a respectable metal fan including no doubt a number of our readers will have avoided this tour like a towny-infested bar on a Saturday night and I’d be lying if I said I thought their last album wasn’t pure commercial pap with the sole purpose of pacifying the masses. That said, they are a band I have a certain fondness for and having not seen them before I was quite happy to go watch them in nearby Leeds.
Their popularity is made all the more apparent by the sold-out venue and it’s a mixed bag in the audience with the front few rows dominated by vaguely alternative student types and angst-ridden teens while further back there’s a significant amount of older rock/metal fans who look as though they probably only venture out twice a year at most. It takes a while to get served at the bar and navigate the crowd in order to watch the last couple of songs from Slaves To Gravity. Now, these are a band I have heard of but never paid much heed to and frankly this sort of ill-fitting performance is an apt demonstration of how money talks and clearly there was a hefty buy-on fee involved and the core Goth-metal fanbase was not kept in mind when choosing the support as there must be a hundred more suitable bands out there. This is alt-rock at it’s most radio-friendly and while I really don’t see them as a suitable opener for a band in the vein of Lacuna Coil, I can’t deny they put on an admirable performance. There’s tons of energy on display with indie-rock posturing of stadium proportions and these boys look genuinely happy to perform tonight. Big noisy riffs and rocking solos almost have me thinking of Velvet Revolver while there’s a bit of a grungy feel at times on the appropriately named ‘Heaven Is A Lie.’ There’s nothing challenging about this performance and musically it’s all a bit too safe for my liking, but there’s definitely a market for this sound and I guess they’ll be big in student union bars everywhere before too long.
Trapped in the corner with no beer (oh, the agony!) I wanted to make sure I had a decent spot for getting photos considering the voluminous crowds at sell-out gigs can make it quite tricky. That said, I’m taken aback by just how mellowed out the vibe is once Lacuna Coil hit the stage. When one is accustomed to moshing and the surging forward of crowds at shows, it’s actually quite surreal to be able to stand with both feet on the ground without getting bashed about (perhaps due in part to the large female > male crowd ratio) and the only challenge tonight is trying to snap photos over the sea of extended hands. Kicking in with ‘Underdog’ from the recent Shallow Life album, a varied setlist is unravelled taking in songs from the early days and recent hits alike. The band put on an energetic performance and are genuinely rather fun to watch – the guitarists as well as the two vocalists have a great presence and seem to interact with the crowd at every opportunity. Christina Scabbia is definitely a strong and charismatic frontwoman and attention is regularly drawn to her simplistic vocal delivery. Her vocals are sweet and pretty but have a kind of rawness to them that stops it from sounding too polished and false. ‘Honeymoon Suite’ is a particular highlight with the fiery exchange between Christina and her male counterpart Andrea Ferro which does seem a little staged but it adds a certain theatricality to the performance. Andrea’s vocals are equally on form, although his nu-metal bounce is a tad irritating to watch at times. It’s good to hear favourites such as ‘Heaven’s A Lie,’ ‘Swamped’ and ‘To The Edge’ while their cover of Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy The Silence’ really gets the crowd going as we are invited to sing along. An encore of ‘Spellbound’ and ‘Our Truth’ brings the show to a close and rounds off an enjoyable show and finishes early enough to get in a few beers before home time.
Luci Herbert
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