The Sevendust, Coal Chamber, Lacuna Coil tour rolled into Hartford, Connecticut and played to a packed and crazy house at the Webster Theater.
Just joining the tour is the California based experimental metal band Stolen Babies. This is a name that I have heard only in passing, and this would be my first time experiencing them live or otherwise. Their sound is a quite interesting mix of metal, cabaret, polka – how’s that for an eclectic mixture? The band is fronted by female vocalist Dominique Persi; she also plays the accordion throughout most of their set. Yep, you read that right, a metal band with a full time accordion player. They played for about 30-minutes and I was impressed with their performance. They had a lot of energy and they eventually won over the crowd. Most impressive was the drummer Gil Sharone – he attacked his kit non-stop through the whole set. They are touring in support of their new album “Naught” – which I’m told is “pretty good.”
Next up was the veteran Italian metal band Lacuna Coil. I have to give kudos to the crew for a quick change over which resulted in a short wait between bands. I have never seen Lacuna Coil before, so I was looking forward to this – and they did not disappoint. The band stormed the stage with “I Don’t Believe in Tomorrow” from their newest album “Dark Adrenaline” and followed that with “Kill the Light”. Next, they went back a few years with “To the Edge” from “Karmacode”. The band were simply ferocious live as the vocalists Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro play of each other so well, usually mouthing the words while the other is singing. My only complaint? The set list was made up entirely of songs from their last three albums only with a vast majority being off of their new one “Dark Adrenaline”. I mean, where was “Heaven’s A Lie”, “Our Truth”, “Enjoy the Silence” and “Swamped”? I would think that those songs would be mandatory to play live. Fortunately the positives far outweighed the negatives and the band was on fire and appeared to be having a great time. I’m glad I finally got the chance to see Lacuna Coil and in my opinion they stole the show. Hopefully next time they’ll be headlining or at least they’ll get more than 40-minutes.
Next up was the return of Coal Chamber. I will admit to not being the biggest of Coal Chamber fans, but I was curious to check them out just the same. They certainly put on an energetic, mean and aggressive show. Lead vocalist Dez works the crowd quite well and he whipped the crowd into a violent, frightening frenzy at times. Coal Chamber continues to use a female bassist as Chela Rhea Harper was impressive. She has a great, captivating stage presence and how could you not love a bass player with fluorescent green strings on her bass. Overall, Coal Chamber was not bad, but I still can’t claim to be a huge fan.
Once again, there was a quick change over between Lacuna Coil and Coal Chamber and all was running smoothly. That all changed between the Coal Chamber and the co-headliner Sevendust as we had to wait nearly an hour. Not that I’m complaining mind you, but when Sevendust finally came on stage and did their thing it all seemed anti climactic and the audience was a bit worn out following the previous three bands. Nonetheless, Sevendust are a veteran band and they certainly have an intense, loyal following.
This was a long and loud night of metal that satisfied the packed crowd. Coal-who? Seven-what? Sorry boys (and girl) the night belonged to Lacuna Coil.
Lacuna Coil setlist
I Don’t Believe In Tomorrow
Kill The Light
To The Edge
Upsidedown
Fragile
Survive
Intoxicated
Trip The Darkness
Spellbound
Coal Chamber setlist
Loco
Big Truck
Fiend
Row Boat
Something
Clock
Drove
Not Living
Dark Days
I
No Home
Oddity
Sway
Sevendust setlist
Decay
Praise
Denial
Home (snippet)
Alpha
Waffle
Strong Arm Broken
Rumble Fish
Black
Pieces
Bitch
–encore–
Splinter
Face To Face