Music-Live-Reviews

Every now and then, there’s a concert that you know you just have to go to. Whether you’re a big fan, or just an on-again, off-again listener. But sometimes you don’t always follow through. For this band, I added their concert to my schedule the day I found out they were coming close. And there it sat, until the night when I traveled to St. Paul to see Epica live in concert.

I was introduced to Epica through Kamelot. Seeing that the band name Epica was influenced by the Kamelot album Epica, it was easy for me to understand that this was a band worth getting to know. A few years ago, Epica actually opened for Kamelot at Station 4 in St. Paul, which unbeknownst to me was probably one of the greatest concert combinations in my music collection. I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to make it to that concert. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

Epica started to grow in my music collection as I began to listen to more symphonic metal bands. Clearly, they sat towards the top of that list.  Just before buying tickets, we found out that we also had the chance to buy meet and greet tickets for before the show. I, of course, did not want to pass that up.

My brother and I got to Station 4 at around 5:30 p.m., got a custom Epica poster from Swordlord (shout out to the metal man of the cities) and walked onto the concert floor. There were other band merch tables set up on the floor, but it wasn’t hard to see that the table of interest was the autograph table with Epica. We headed over to the band and decided we would get our posters signed, even though the picture of the band on the poster was not the most recent band picture.

I decided I wasn’t going to start-up conversations with the band, mostly because I didn’t want to look creepy. Arien signed my poster first and instead of being like “you rock \m/” I thought I’d just be polite and thank him for their autograph. Yves and Issac signed my poster next. I again just said thanks and said a couple of  “have a good show tonight guys.” Isaac and Arien were probably thinking, this guy probably doesn’t even know who we are, we’re not even on the poster! But really, it was just cool to meet them. Simone signed my poster next. I heard after the concert that she hadn’t been feeling the greatest, so I was happy that she actually acknowledged me after she signed my poster. And of course, I said thanks. Next up, Mr. Oliver Palotai, Kamelot’s keyboardist. He took the place of Epica keyboardist Coen Janssen for the North America tour. I have already seen Oliver before with Kamelot, but there’s nothing wrong seeing that man play again, one of the best keyboardists in my opinion. And sitting at the end of the table, Mark Jansen! I handed him my poster, he signed it and I said thanks. He looked up at me and handed back my poster. I think he thought I was going to say something more, but I didn’t, so he just smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up. Haha, awesome!

We thought that was the end of the meet and greet, but we decided to hang out on the floor a little longer, since doors didn’t open for a bit. We watched Epica stand up from their chairs, only to walk in front of the autograph table and say “Who’s first?” Even though I brought my camera, I didn’t expect they were going to allow pictures with fans, but it was totally worth it because people started snapping pictures. I waited a while before we went up to get a picture, and I have to say, some of the people there were not cool with taking pictures.  They made the band wait because they didn’t have their flash on, or someone blinked. Really people, this is Epica. My brother went up first and I got a good picture with him and the band. I went up a little later, but the band was starting to get distracted by how long this was taking. Arien was standing to my left, but was focused on someone else. I was so close on tapping on his shoulder to say “pay attention!” but I’m glad I didn’t. Instead, I got a great picture with Simone, Isaac and Mark. I walked away from the picture and said “thanks for the picture guys.” Again, I felt that being proper with them was what they deserved. They sat through how many autographs and pictures, but still had the will to be patient and smile in every picture. Top class guys, I’ll never forget that.

Even after all of that, there was still a concert to come. We decided that after the meet and greet, we would go get something to eat. Personally, I didn’t want to wear myself out before Epica. We got back to Station 4 right before Blackguard went on. We also heard Threat Signal open just before Epica. They were heavy, and pretty good, but again, I didn’t get into them that much because I came for Epica. It was 5 hours from the meet and greet until Epica came on, but all was worth waiting for as the lights went dim and “Samadhi” started playing.  Station 4 was packed, comparably to all other concerts I’ve gone to at Station 4. And what was cool was all those fans were there for Epica, not half for the opening band, all Epica! They rolled into “Resign to Surrender” and the energy in the concert hall became fervent. Simone came out just before her lyrics started and it finally hit me, this is Epica!

The next song featured, what is, Oliver Palotai in “Sensorium.” Keyboard open, double bass, clear vocals, Mark Jansen growls, crowd chanting, AHHH! Too awesome. After that, they featured some songs off of Design Your Universe. That is their newest album, but I think it may be their best. It’s all around solid. Their first single “Unleashed” was so good live. Simone is amazing to be able to sing like that every day. Then they had to play “Martyr of the Free World.” It flows so nicely and the chorus is always cool to hear. And, of course, everyone sang  the lyrics “a martyr of the free world,” or maybe it was just me.  And with Mark to follow that with lyrics…rock!

Thanks to a recommendation, I purchased Epica’s The Classical Conspiracy a while before the concert. It’s a live concert album which features a 40-piece orchestra and a 30-piece choir.  The first half of the tracks feature all orchestral songs from various composers and movie soundtracks. One of which is universally known, the “Imperial March” from Star Wars. Epica broke in to the instrumental version as everyone in the crowd cheered and sang the melody. After that, everyone walked off the stage and Oliver began playing a keyboard solo of the classical touch, an unexpected surprise. As always, it was an awesome solo. And to top that off, they rolled into my favorite Epica ballad. That’s hard to classify, considering my favorite songs from Epica are ballads, but it’s hard to top “Tides of Time.” For the opening, Simone came out and faced the crowd, as a dim spotlight hovered over Oliver. Simone’s voice was dead-on from the album, if not better than I ever heard. My favorite part of the song is when the band kicks back in and Simone hits those two high notes, followed by a guitar solo. I tried to soak in the moment as much as I could, enough to bring tears to my eyes.

The cheers from “Cry For The Moon” turned into a chant and clapping to the rhythm of “Quietus.” One of the singles off of Consign to Oblivion, “Quietus” seems like it was meant to play live. At this point, it felt that I was witnessing one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, especially at Station 4. It was an epic night of a wide range of melodies that is Epica. Everything I was hoping for when I added them to my schedule months before. But the night  was not yet over. The lights started dark, the sound started low, and began to grow and grow. Arien and Oliver added their beats and chords. The orchestral background added to the intensity. At that point, a cool breeze began entering the hall from the back, almost cold. And then… \m/ (-_-) \m/ …”Consign to Oblivion!” This was the song that pulled me in when I first started listening to Epica a few years ago. And any day that I need to get away and just turn it up, it most likely will be “Consign to Oblivion.” A highlight during this song was when the lead singer of Threat Signal walked down the stairs in front of us to get to his merch table, but we, and a couple people around us, were into the song so much, he stuck around enjoyed it with us. Kind of cool to say that we rocked out with the opening band during Epica’s encore. Honestly though, it’s hard to explain how good “Consign to Oblivion” is live, but I can remember every moment of it in my head. You can talk about this concert as much as you want, explain it the best you can, but you can only get the best concert experience by going. Consign live would be enough for another ticket, in my opinion.