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Read MoreAnother winters night and another gig in the most populous part of Scotland, the OVO Hydro was host to one of the legends in modern rock, and that band was Evanescence, they are to finally hit the road after many postponements and just after the band supported Korn in a handful of US shows earlier this year.
Like the many shows that were affected during COVID, this gig had to be rescheduled twice with the Glasgow gig initially scheduled for April 2021, with the band expressing their frustration on social media over the constant postponing of their shows, but the UK tour eventually went ahead with a stop in Scotlands premier music venue.
There was a great buzz around the arena on the night and everybody was looking forward to the occasion.
It was a co-headliner show with Evanescence due to perform at the unusually late time of 9:45pm rather than the more common 8:45 / 9pm times. Support act Veridia was first on the night, with the Nashville based act giving the early goers a reward with a formidable performance.
Within Temptation was the first headliner of the night, a band hailing from The Netherlands, Sharon den Adel put on an outstanding show and gave the crowd an hour long set of awesome guitar riffs as well as the spurts of flames that happened during several songs. Their set illustrated what was to follow and was a great warm-up for the headliner. The stage layout was just as impressive as the performance itself, with a huge floating head dominating the set, and the amazing light show to match, Within Temptation are a band to definitely check out.
Evanescence was due to come on as the lights dimmed, a huge roar followed along with the usual HWFG chant, with some sections of the audience shouting "Amy! Amy! Amy fucking go!", it was a nice variant to hear.
The band entered to an enormous welcome from the Glasgow crowd and began the set with Broken Pieces Shine, a song from their latest album release as well as Made Of Stone, delivering that familiar energy and adrenaline that made them what they are in the modern rock scene, lead singer Amy Lee delivering that unique voice of hers even after 27 years since the bands formation.
The band continued that commitment with hits like Take Cover, the well received Going Under and Wasted on You, it is exactly what you expect from a rock outfit and you can clearly see how they are still relevant and still selling out large venues after being in existence for almost 3 decades, they were killing it.
A grand piano then rose to the center of the stage, and Amy proceeded to play some of the bands more laid back songs such as Far From Heaven. I asked myself before the show began how the piano showed up in their earlier shows in London and Birmingham as the center stage was empty, there was the answer.
Amy paused the set to speak to the crowd, talking of her relief that the band are able to play once again, her struggles during the pandemic and the things she learned during her "torrid time", she stressed the crowd to "live for today", "who knows if tomorrow will come!", "you are here and living the moment!" as the audience cheered to those wise words.
The grand piano lowered back down and the likes of End of The Dream and Better Without You were performed to the jubilant audience, as Call Me When Your Sober ended however, the show was briefly stopped as someone in the crowd required attention, but resumed just after the member in the crowd received it.
Evanescence continued to take the place down with the likes of Imaginary, Use My Voice and Blind Belief, with drummer Will Hunt showboating by throwing his drum sticks in the air and catching them constantly.
The grand piano rose once more, and Immortal was the second last song to be played on the set, with Lee demanding the crowd to sing along as she is "sick of singing it herself", the audience sang along as she played the song on the piano, "lets see those lights" she then said as phone lights shone throughout the 13,000 capacity arena, which was a spectacular sight. The gig concluded with arguably their best known song, Bring Me To Life, ending the gig with 2 songs from an album that came out almost 20 years ago.
Good things come to those who wait and Evanescence returned to Glasgow with perfection, a triumphant night all around as the audience left ecstatic.
You can view a photo gallery of the show by clicking the link below.
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Review and Photography by Stewart Fullerton.
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