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Within Temptation - 7/27/2013 - The Circus - Helsinki

After two years Within Temptation comes back to Helsinki, and even if not sold-out, the place is surprisingly nearly full. The only other time I have seen the upstairs open at Circus was with W.A.S.P. for their 30th anniversary gig, and I am sure part of the audience has been diverted still to see Muse at the stadium, as well as at other events in town (busy weekend!).
There is a lot of Russians in the audience, which makes me guess they don’t have a gig planned in St. Petersburg, some of them have signs dedicated to the band, and one gives me a rose bouquet to pass on to Sharon on stage. After making the fans wait a bit, the show starts with a short movie, "Mother Maiden", leading into the opener "Shot In The Dark". I haven’t seen the band myself since 7-8 years ago, but I must say they still know how to fire up their audience, and the guys have some unexpected humor, given the funny faces made by the singer, bass player and guitar players during the gig.
"Stand My Ground" and "Ice Queen" come surprisingly early for me in the set, to the enjoyment of the fans which are sometimes going really insane. Which is also surprising in a way. I didn’t know there was all this following for WT here in Finland. Sharon den Adel seems almost never-aging, jumping all around in her silver/white dress, and inciting the crowd, to which she bows thankfully in more than one occasion.
Meanwhile, another short movie introduces the song linked to it, "Sinéad", while there is even space for a Lana Del Rey cover, "Summertime Sadness" (although the season is appropriate, maybe the mood is a bit higher at least). "Never-Ending Story" precedes instead the break before the encore, which obviously includes the big missing hit of the band, "Mother Earth".
It was a much more enjoyable gig than I honestly was expecting, and it was almost impossible to move downstairs for the amount of people. The ending was maybe a bit more sudden than expected, and all the people have been quickly invited to leave the venue. Within Temptation seems in a pretty good shape despite not being in their prime anymore, but they still hold it very well together, and I got nothing to complain about their performance today. Nor I guess do most of the fans, of different ages, seen their response to the show.

Photos (click on the image to open the complete gallery):


Setlist:
Intro - Mother Maiden (Short Movie)
01) Shot In The Dark
02) In The Middle Of The Night
03) Faster
04) Fire And Ice
05) Stand My Ground
06) Our Solemn Hour
07) Ice Queen
Intro - Sinéad (Short Movie)
08) Sinéad
09) What Have You Done
10) Angels
11) Summertime Sadness (Lana Del Rey cover)
12) Iron
13) See Who I Am
14) Memories
15) Never-Ending Story
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16) Mother Earth

Report a cura di Marco Manzi