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Fates Warning + Omen,
Tuesday June 9th
live at Noorderligt, Tilburg, The Netherlands
By Carry Oomis
This was the first time ever I had the chance of seeing Fates
Warning
live. Previous shows were frequently cancelled beforehand, but
this time
it seemed that I would really see them at last. Since I had never
seen
them perform before, I had no idea what to expect.
Fates Warning were preceded by Omen: a really bad choice, since
Omen
plays "old-fashioned" metal in the vein of Manowar (but worse).
This kind
of music in no way resembles the complex progressive metal played
by Fates
Warning. My guess is that the real fans weren't too pleased with
Omen.
Some gave it a try, but after a few songs soon gave up. Omen's
songs are
not very interesting to begin with, but to make matters worse,
they were
played very badly (though with great enthusiasm) and much too
loud. Added
to this, Omen's sound was terrible. My husband and me fled to the
foyer to
have a drink and some peace and quiet for a moment (and really!
We are
used to loud music; we visited so many concerts over the years,
but this
was the limit!).
Luckily we didn't suffer for nothing. Fates Warning played a
really
fantastic set. They started off with the full version of their
new CD
A pleasant shade of gray, which sounded live even better
than on the
CD.
They had no trouble at all with the complex structures of these
songs and
their timing was excellent. Luckily their sound was also much
better than
that of Omen (not a hard thing to do).
With their music, which sounds so smoothly, but is in fact so
very complex
and melodic, they created an intense atmosphere. Kevin Moore is a
great
addition to the band: his keyboard parts go really well with the
songs.
The members of Fates Warning are all masters on their
instruments, but
their talents are even surpassed by Ray Alder's voice. He sings
with an
ease I have rarely seen in any other singer and has no problem at
all
going from the higher to the lower passages. It was his singing
that
dominated the concert. The atmosphere was just awesome. Long time
since
I have seen such a great and enthusiastic crowd and long time
since music
could give me shivers.
After A pleasant shade of gray the band members
disappeared back
stage in order to return a moment later and to play some old
favourites.
The crowd loved them and sang along happily. More the pity that
this
second part of the show turned out to be the encore. After 1 ½
hours of
playing Fates Warning left the stage and did not return, no
matter how
long (10 minutes) and how loud (I guess you could hear it
outside) the
audience yelled and screamed for more. It turned out to be all in
vain.
The crew began to clear the set and after a while everybody gave
up and
left, a bit disappointed. Yet this was the only setback in an
otherwise
unforgettable show.
Fates Warning are:
Ray Alder - vocals
Jim Matheos - guitars and guitar synth
Mark Zonder - drums
Joey Vera - bass
Kevin Moore - piano and keyboards (formerly Dream Theater)
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