Our fourth time seeing Delain and our first visit to the Manchester Academy. The first problem was trying to find the venue. Having parked around the back (in a surprisingly empty car park given that all three venues in the Academy were in use tonight, and two of them were sold out) we eventually found the queue for Gary Numan. We decided to ask for directions and collared a very well attired but slightly camp gentleman who pointed us in the right direction, who then clocked my T-Shirt and told me he 'loves' Destruction. Not sure that's entirely true, but still...
Eventually we came across the place and after being showed in by an even more camp security guard and then giving our tickets to the tallest man in the world. We attempted to penetrate the sold out venue. Of course Delain were delighted to have sold out, whereas we were just irritated by it.
We caught the last 4 or 5 songs of Anneke's set, which were okay. It was a lot more rocking than last time we saw her, it sounds like she's been listening to a bit of Therion or something. Added to that a couple of Gathering tunes which now sound very old and not that great really... and it was all a bit, yeah whatever. Not bad, or actively annoying but not exactly inspiring either.
Anneke had a tiny female guitarist (Merel Brechtold) who was on double duty tonight, as she is Delain's new guitarist. More on her later...
After Anneke left the stage the venue seemed to empty a little, I guess when you have a name support act there's going to be a few people who leave (just ask WASP what happened when they took Slayer out on the Electric Circus tour), it wasn't a dramatic exodus, but there seemed a little more room to breathe, which was nice for us anyway. We moved a bit closer to the front in anticipation and managed to stumble on a very short lady to stand behind (awesome luck!).
As the band took to the stage I was taken aback to see Keith Lemon playing guitar stage right... really quite bizarre, and then Merel turned up and stood next the bass player with Dee Snider's hair, who's about 6ft 6". She did look slightly ridiculous, and it didn't help that when Charlotte tried to sing to her she sort of stooped as if talking to a child. Frankly, it looked a bit like a poorly child had written to the Make A Wish Foundation and got to play with Delain.
Delain were solid, but unfortunately this year the quality of gigs has been extremely high. I can't really think of that much to say about them, they played their songs in an entirely inoffensive manner and then left. It was all very nice. The fans were happy, Delain were happy (even the little one) and that was that. Oh and there was a tinsel cannon near the end, but even that was a bit underwhelming compared to Nightwish (and even Loud 'N' Nasty at JB's).
On the way home Rose and I rated the gigs for this year, this being Rose's last (I still have to see Paradise Lost in November). It was agreed that the top gig was definitely Nachtmahr, probably followed by Mesh (Pre-Verse then Mesh for me)... the bottom was definitely U.D.O., then WASP, then either Delain (for me) or Birthday Massacre then Delain for Rose.
With gigs like Bad Religion and Aesthetic Perfection in the mix, Delain need to try a lot harder to make an impression, but that said, it was perfectly okay.
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