Delain, Serenity and Cellar Darling in Utrecht (NL) – What a party!

Delain, Serenity and Cellar Darling in Utrecht (NL) – What a party!

When I (finally) made it to the venue, Cellar Darling were already on stage. Honestly, I’ve never heard of them, but they made more than a great impression! Later when I looked up the information about them I found out where I know this voice and that not very usual instrument from: Eluveitie. This band will stay on one of my playlists. Their show officially started with song called Black Moon, but I remember myself entering the venue into their third song – The Hermit. After that followed a song requested by some of their fans – Avalanche, where Anna‘s (vocals) hurdy-gurdy plays an important role. This is one of the new songs that stayed in my mind even after they’ve left the stage. Avalanche was followed by three another songs: Rebels, Starcrusher and Challenge. 7 songs in total and Cellar Darling were at the end of their performance for that evening. They shortly thanked the audience which, I must say, welcomed them with warm response.

After a short break of re-setting the stage we had the opportunity to see band number two for that evening: for me very well-known Serenity. An Austrian band that I’ve already had a chance to see once in the past accompanied by Tasha. Great show as that time I’ve seen them for the first time and slightly longer setlist than Cellar Darling had – containing 9 songs, opened by a Deus Lo Vult (which is a latin phrase meaning „God wills!“ used by different orders in Western Europe) followed directly by a song number two – United. Already by the fourth song – Iniquity the audience (at least in the front rows) was jumping and screaming the chorus of this song, which was really, really amazing to hear such a powerful crowd we’ve been in a sold-out Tivoli Ronda! Five following songs really warmed up all the people in the venue, by the end of Serenity’s show we were loud already, I must say.

By the last song, Follow me, was also Serenity’s performance by its end. We all together (the crowd and the band) took a picture and guys left us in waiting for a headliner of that night – Delain.

Image may contain: one or more people — Photo Credits: Laili Soeng

Headliner of that night, Delain, entered stage after a short intro The Monarch and a very amazing animation (the Moonbathers cover with some falling petals, then changing into a “post-mortem Moonbathers”) in the back of the stage. For this show, they were projecting directly onto their backdrop (which had a clearly designed moon serving as a screen), which was a highlight for many people. Intro was directly followed by Hands of God with a guest appearance – George Oosthoek, which was really great experience. The setlist contained together 15 songs and 4 songs long encore, which we also were very lucky to get. The visuals were giving the show that extra push, but I need to mention the superb light work. There is a reason why this is a great band and venue. You got great music (and sound), projections, lights, smoke, bubbles, confetti! With such an impressive deployment of forces, you knew the show would be something special. So special, in fact, that it ended up being documented by several cameras for future release.

Right after the first song came a well-known We are the Others that really got audience into a full spin. And from now on it was a bigger and bigger party with each new song coming. I’ve almost screamed my voice out and could barely catch my breath after all that jumping, but I that’s a thing that I will never regret. Delain also announced that, on this 6-concerts long tour, they will be accompanied by a guest singer Marco Hietala (Nightwish) who also did some male vocals on several of their recordings. Not that a Delain show was not special on its own, but the Danse Macabre tour attracted many people who wanted to see the magic duet live, especially since Nightwish have been on a break for the last year. The audience was eagerly waiting and were rewarded when Marco got on stage in the second half of the show. First, we could see (and hear) him in a song Your Body Is a Battleground. He actually almost did not leave the stage until the very end. If he did, the audience chanted his name fanatically.

I can’t even remember myself not jumping to a song that night. Oh yes, when Scarlet (with guest appearance Elianne Anemaat on cello) started to play, I just waved my hands in the air into the rhythm and sang along. Then sadly, it felt so short, but everything has its end. The last song, and also, one of my favourites, The Gathering (followed up by The Monarch) closed up the whole show.

And the only thing I can add to this is: what a party! What a great show! Can’t wait for the recording of this show to be released. This was totally worth it waking up early morning, flying across the Europe to see this, fantastic job and shout out to everyone involved! Really enjoyed this one and I hope to see some more in the future, because it seems like I’ll never have enough of these guys! The best show I’ve been to so far and will hardly be beaten by any other. I totally loved it and was so happy that I could be there, that I could see this and live that moment! Oh, did I say that I loved it? Yes, I totally loved it and I would wish to do it again, if it only would be possible. What a night!