In those few last weeks we were flooded with the word ANATHEMA! Yes we have seen them in 2009 and yes they were back in 2010 for another concert but hey it ain’t the same concert, ain’t the same playlist! There is a new album and the band is touring to support it.
“We’re Here Because We’re Here” is a new album (4 month old!) which already gathered almost one million listen on last.fm.
On September 18 we went to Forum de Beirut to see the show and here is a description of what happened and how it went.
The event was supposed to start at 9 pm and was postponed to 9:05 :-P! Most shocking!
As announced, the opening act was Absolace, a Rock/Metal band from Dubai (not as nationalities) with Lebanese Vocalist Nadim Jamal. Absolace played tracks from their debut album Resolve[d] but unfortunately the sound wasn’t that good at the beginning. I kept walking from location to location looking for a sweet spot where the sound was well balanced and I could not find such a spot. In many instances, the vocalist sounded much higher than all instruments. I really did not get much good feedback from the crowd on Absolace’s performance, although I heard alot of criticism… Their performance as musicians was great but they lack some stage presence; there is something missing in what Absolace has to offer and I hope they realize that and come back with a bigger, better and meaner album!
Absolace finished their gig at about 9:50 PM; by then I have admired the lighting effects which were reflecting on the clouds of cigarette smoke shocking us to death while we were trying to take some oxygen in! Light shades and colors where really amazing adding a good ambiance to every track played.
The place was split into two sections about 8 meters: front stage was a closed VIP section and behind that was the regular tickets sections though we were expecting the VIP section to be a seated section next to the regular. We couldn’t get next to the stage this time…
Now for the real ROCK concert shock! The background music played for the crew to prepare the stage for Anathema was ELECTRONIC/HIP-HOP music. Why? No one knows. Maybe a trial to get us into that music !? What do you say !?
Anathema went on stage (10:15 PM) this time with a plan to play till they get “blisters on their fingers”!
Of course Anathema is more than a professional band and the thing they do best is communicating with the crowd, sometimes telling us to sing along, “criticizing” us for being a crazy crowd and sometimes just giving us a good speech such as: “What is music to you? The Arab world is the most fanatical of fan base! It meens much to us that you have taken our lyrics and related it to your own life”. Another time calming the crowd and giving a promise:” We are gonna play as much as we can, as long as we can, what you are shouting for!” And finally the guitarist Daniel Cavanagh gets sarcastic: “Today I watched the sunset here in Beirut. It’s amazing… I can watch that sunset anywhere in the world: it’s one world afterall”.
As expected, the playlist containd alot of tracks of the album Alternative 4 , some from Judgment, some from Natural Disaster and many tracks of the new album “We’re Here Because We’re Here”.
Talking about performance, it was all more than great! The vocals where more than beautiful, especially that female trembling vibrato voice with the light effects added.
Most of the crowd was totally moved with the tracks “Fragile Dreams ” / “Empty” / “Lost Control” / “Deep” / “Angels Walk Among Us”.
Things noticed and worth mentioning:
-Crowd went crazy from start to end.
-There was alot of smoke but the ventilating system had let in enough Oxygen for us to breath and kept the hall in bearable temperatures.
-Again Anathema amazed us with a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” performed on accoustic guitar by Daniel Cavanagh with the solo played by vocal nuanciations.
