Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Pordenone / Palatenda centro sportivo Armando Lupieri / Italy
Concert date: November 26, 2016
Attendance: 550
Ticket price: €28.75
Lacuna Coil, the long-running gothic metal fortress from Milan, who put out their eighth studio album »Delirium« at the end of this May, have been hanging out right next to Slovenia’s western border these days as part of their new tour. In Pordenone, with a refreshed lineup armed with two new members, guitarist Diego Cavallotti and drummer Ryan Blake Folden, on a sprawling autumn-winter European tour, they set foot on Italian soil, their home turf, for the first time.
This show was originally announced for Il Deposito Giordani, which had to shut its doors over complaints from the neighbors, who claimed the late-night »racket« right next to their homes was bothering them. A great venue where we enjoyed more than a few gigs, W.A.S.P., DTA Death to All Tours, Soulfly and The Aristocrats among them, got slapped with a »seal« and a ban on operating.
So the concert was hastily moved to the grounds of Pordenone’s Sports Park, which also houses the stadium of the Villanova football club. In other words, the southwestern part of Pordenone, called Villanova. The band played in a sports (multipurpose) hall that, judging by the tent roof, reminded me of the former Teatro Tenda (today, after its renovation, Gran Teatro Geox) in Padua. So, no mistake. Standing outside while the show was on, you could hear way more noise rolling down the streets than ever when bands played at Il Deposito Giordani.
Anyway, the local promoter saved this concert, which almost went down the drain, with sheer heart and stubbornness. And that’s what counts. The RockLine crew, because of unavoidable obligations, couldn’t »peel away« from Ljubljana until a quarter to eight in the evening and so had to skip both support acts entirely this time, but it’s only right to at least give them a passing mention in this report. At half past eight, GOD (Genus Ordinis Dei) started warming up the crowd. The »almighty« quartet from the Italian city of Crema presented their debut studio album »Great Olden Dynasty«, released this year. They were followed by the Danish outfit Forever Still, who hit the stage at a quarter past nine and presented their debut studio album »Tied Down«, released this October. The quartet, led by the charismatic young Maja Shining got, just like their predecessors GOD, a half-hour slot for their show.
RockLine actually arrived at the venue right before Lacuna Coil went on! At ten in the evening, give or take a minute, the lights dimmed, the stage wrapped itself in fog, and the instrumental part of the quintet showed up on stage, though positioned behind an improvised stage set of »asylum security fences«. The scenography and costumes of the band’s theatrical show on this tour were thus entirely devoted to dark, delirious tales from the madhouse, which the new album’s title already hints at. A pre-recorded intro with Ultima Ratio, let’s say »final reason« in translation, right before you snap and they strap you into a straitjacket, and then the band explodes on stage with Spellbound, where the charismatic Christina Scabbia and vocalist Andrea Ferro finally leap onto the stage. The band kept changing outfits throughout the show, mostly giving off the vibe of lunatics in straitjackets, with bassist Marco Coti Zelati »Maki« and drummer Ryan Blake Folden treating themselves to face paint bordering on »black metal corpse paint«.
There’s not much point wasting words on the performance itself. In one word: strictly professional. Sound-wise and performance-wise. Tip top. Everything under control and glowing with outstanding live form. You can tell the band has racked up a pile of shows on this tour and that mileage, routine and experience simply count. What holds the band up is the charismatic stage presence of the phenomenal Christina Scabbia, who once again bewitched the admittedly not exactly packed venue, not only with her incredible vocals, which effortlessly and with unbelievable power conquered everything, even those sky-high, almost mezzo-soprano registers, but also with a superb feel for talking to the crowd. A passionate and incredibly dedicated singer, she worked the audience in an especially cunning way, with theatrical addresses along the lines of: »Finally. After two months, we’re playing at home for the first time and I can talk to you completely in our language!« and then »There are piles of concerts going on every single day these days! We really appreciate that you took the time to come to our show tonight, because there’s really a lot to choose from and sometimes it’s hard to decide which concert to prioritize.« (or something like that). The crowd literally ate out of her hand. The front rows were, of course, occupied by an especially fanatical bunch of fired-up Italian fans of the band, who knew every single lyric by heart.
The band thus developed their symphonic, melancholic, dark gothic metal character, laced with spices of industrial and also modern »breakdown« inserts, as expected. Immensely professional. Played and sung at the highest level. Flawless. Precise. Though with the support of pre-recorded backdrops (keyboards, programmed loops). More than half of the entire repertoire was dedicated to material from the last two albums , and out of that, Lacuna Coil played no fewer than seven songs from the current »Delirium«!
If not before, Lacuna Coil got the whole hall on its feet with their cover of Depeche Mode’s "globally beloved" Enjoy the Silence, which of course everyone knows by heart, while the regular set was closed by Nothing Stands in Our Way (»Broken Crown Halo«, 2014). The obligatory encore unfolded the same way. With newer material, and before Delirium the crowd pulled A4 sheets out of their pockets with the song title written on them, which fueled the stage theater of the unfolding events.
An hour and fifteen minutes. Seventy-five minutes, that is, which flew by in an instant. The crowd got exactly what it came for. A show that combines high melodicity in just the right doses, a hefty serving of mournful gothic »fatal attraction«, a touch of delirious »horror«, and that thing that especially gets our western neighbors going. A solid chunk of stage glitz and kitsch. A show and theater that demonstrates the incredible poise and confidence of Lacuna Coil. After this gig the band headed south to Rome, more than 600 km away, and then, via Milan, back up for their fourth Italian show in Bologna. Lacuna Coil arrived in Pordenone straight from Barcelona, Spain. Routes that connect to each other with no rational logic whatsoever and that, with that kind of planning, can end up wearing the band out. But in Pordenone Lacuna Coil constantly radiated enthusiasm that their tour was finally tipping into its closing stretch, and also a huge sense of relief at finally being on their home turf.
Setlist
LACUNA COIL:
1. Ultima Ratio
2. Spellbound
3. Die & Rise
4. Heaven’s a Lie
5. Blood, Tears, Dust
6. Ghost in the Mist
7. The Ghost Woman and the Hunter
8. Trip the Darkness
9. Downfall
10. You Love Me ’Cause I Hate You
11. Our Truth
12. Enjoy the Silence
13. Nothing Stands in Our Way
—encore—
14. Delirium
15. Zombies
16. The House of Shame
Photo gallery
