Within Temptation + Delain
@Lyon (24/04/2014)

For the second time, I had the chance to see Within Temptation playing in Lyon, my hometown. They're currently on tour promoting their lastest album Hydra, and the Dutch band Delain - that most of us already know - are the support band.

The concert took place in the biggest venue of Lyon, the Halle Tony Garnier. Basically, Within Temptation were supposed to play in a smaller venue, but due to the high tickets sales, their show was moved to the Halle Tony Garnier. And indeed, there were thousands of people that night!

As said before, Delain opened the show. It's always a pleasure to see them, and they recently released their fourth album called The Human Contradiction. So, this tour was also a great opportunity for them to promote it.

I've already seen Delain several times, but it was the first time that I've seen them playing on such a big stage. They started the concert with the song "Go Away" and were obviously welcomed with enthusiasm by the audience. Charlotte was as always smiling and very happy to be there, as well as the other musicians.

Since Delain were playing as band support and had limited playing time, there were not as many interactions with the audience as usual, but this was of course understandable. Anyway, Charlotte thanked the audience several times for their warm welcome; there were obviously many fans of Delain that night, and I was quite impressed to see all this positive and powerful energy coming from so many people for an opening band that some of them might not know before!

Several songs of their new album were played, such as "Army of Dolls" and the driving single "Stardust". Some of the most famous songs of Delain such as "The Gathering" were also interpreted, and this was highly appreciated.

The musicians and especially guitarist Timo and bass player Otto were having nice interactions together, going here and there on stage and headbanging together to the rhythm of the music. Meanwhile, Charlotte was having knowing looks with people from the audience that she had apparently recognized while singing in a high tune as always. Keyboardist Martijn and drummer Sander were situated higher than the main stage so it was unfortunately not easy to take photos of them, but still their performances were as well highly enjoyable.

Delain ended their show with the song "We are the Others", a song that I love for its lyrics that mean a lot to me. I would have loved to hear "Here Come the Vultures", my favourite song from their lastest album, but hopefully they'll play it next time.

Setlist:
Go Away
Get the Devil Out of Me
Army of Dolls
Stardust
Electricity
Sleepwalkers Dream
The Gathering
Not Enough
We are the Others

Within Temptation entered the stage at 9pm. At the beginning of the concert, a huge curtain was hung all along the stage and fell down after the introduction, which was actually made up of the beginning of the dynamic song "Let Us Burn" from Hydra album. The audience was literally in ecstasy when Sharon entered the stage and was moving and jumping all along the songs.

The setlist was very diversified, and I was really glad to hear one of my favourite songs from the band, "Our Solemn Hour". We even had a return to the past with the intro that was played at the Element concert and which is also the introduction of The Silent Force album. Then we were pleased to hear "See Who I Am" followed by "Stand My Ground". Several songs of The Unforgiving album were also played, such as "Iron", Faster" or "In the Middle of the Night".

Each musician was playing with professionalism and was highlighted when they had to play a guitar solo for example, for the pleasure of photographers. Robert Westerholt gave way to guitarist Stefan Hellblad for live performances, and he was obviously feeling as comfortable as the other musicians. Ruud Jolie also interpreted nice guitar solos such as the one of "Paradise" for example and was often having fun with Sharon, exchanging knowing glances. The stage was well occupied and no side ever looked empty.

After "Mother Earth", Within Temptation left the stage under the acclamations of the audience that started asking for more songs. After a few minutes, all the members were back then for the encore. Four more songs were interpreted, and among them a cover of "Summertime Sadness" by Lana Del Rey. They also played an acoustic version of "Sinéad" that was beautifully played, but in my opinion, this song is so dynamic and dancing that it sounds much better played in its original version. Finally, the last song played was the legendary "Ice Queen".

That night, the sound was really bad though. The Within Temptation crew couldn't do much about this, since the venue is well-known for this (it used to be an old slaughterhouse...!). The bass was sounding way too loud and the voices of Charlotte and Sharon were too loud too compared to the rest of the music. This was such a pity because their performances were really nice and globally speaking, both of the shows were very good too, enhanced by great and diversified lights.

Within Temptation looked obviously happy of being there, and Sharon thanked several times her fans in French and was apparently amused by the French word "fromage" ("cheese") that she kept repeating at the end of the concert. She also explained that they all had a day-off before this concert and enjoyed it to visit Lyon. It's always good to see such a big band that remains so close to their audience and that keeps on being down-on-earth. The final photo was taken, and then Within Temptation left the stage for good. Hopefully they'll be back again soon.

Setlist:
Let Us Burn
Paradise (What About Us?)
Faster
Iron
Edge of the World
In the Middle of the Night
Our Solemn Hour
Angels
Dangerous
And We Run
Elements Intro
See Who I Am
Stand My Ground
The Cross
Covered By Roses
Mother Earth

-----

What Have You Done
Summertime Sadness (Lana Del Rey cover)
Sinéad (acoustic)
Ice Queen

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