The UK tour dates that I went to were simply Fantastic. The whole stage perfomance had really stepped up quite a few gears since the last time I saw them play a full show, last October. Lacuna Coil have become so much tighter as a band, more in tune with one another and the energy coming off them and bouncing back from the crowd was Incredible. There also seemed to be more movement between the guitarists as they swopped around and also took centre stage for the odd guitar solo.
The
Karmacode songs proved to be so much bigger live than on disc. I really enjoyed hearing the newer songs, especially my favourites from the album...
In Visible Light, You Create / What I See, Fragments Of Faith and
To The Edge. I was never a fan of
Closer before. To me it was the worst song on the album, but after hearing it live and getting on down and strutting the 'Closer Dance', it has changed my opinion around completely. We had so much fun with that song and it became a big highlight of the shows and will be something to remember and giggle about for some time to come.
It was also good to hear some of the songs that you'd expect to hear, such as
Swamped and
Heaven's A Lie, and found that they sounded as fresh, if not fresher than all the previous times performed.
Virtual Environment sounds absolutely stonking live. That was definitely another highlight for me, as was
1:19.
The setlist changed slightly for the London show at Kings College. They also played an additional acoustic set there and we got to hear
Within Me which was very dreamy and gorgeous. They performed an acoustic version of
Closer too which was rather different, but worked really well.
There was no barrier at this London show. It was a very small venue and was to be a more intimate show for the tour. I was right underneath Cristina and it couldn't have gotten any more intimate for me than the view I got there, not to mention the odd sweat shake.
The band's outfits were very cool too. Cristina and Andrea in black & white with the LC ties, looking very smart and sexy. Andi's tie was tugged on playfully and teasingly by Cristina on occasion during the dramatic vocal interplay of
Entwined and
In Visible Light. The rest of the guys were in pinstripe shirts with the ties. Very smart look indeed and it added more to the visual show, not to mention the masks that Criz, Marco and Maus wore, complete with static poses throughout the intro of the show. Awesome!
Poisonblack supported and I enjoyed their set more and more as the tour went on.
I took a fair few photos and I have most on a slideshow on my MySpace (down below) if anybody's interested.
Hopefully it'll not be too long before they tour here again (got to be next year, surely). I had such a great time on this tour and miss it so.