Synthesis Concert Review

Ugh, the title of this post is just so lame.  But last night was anything but lame.  Last night, I attended the Raleigh concert by Lindsey Stirling and Evanescence.  I’m a big fan of both artists and when I heard about their joint tour a few months ago, I got super excited.  I got even more excited when I learned that they were playing in Raleigh.  I had wanted to go to Evanescence’s Portland, OR performance last year, but didn’t get a chance to go.  This was even better – two of my favorite artists in one night!

The concert started at 7 pm.  I live about twenty minutes away from the venue, and I was worried that I wouldn’t make it in time, but I did.  Fortunately, I got a seat and not a spot on the grass, as I hadn’t brought a chair.  It was very hot when I got there, and it was still light outside.

I am very short.  Even my torso is short, and, unfortunately, I sat behind a bunch of tall people.  I also have social anxiety, and I sat next to two guys who were, fortunately, nice.  I sat there stressing out over how sweaty I was, and my hands were sticky.  I barely even got to see the stage, but there were screens on both sides of the stage, so I could see closeups of both Lindsey and Amy Lee.

Lindsey released Brave Enough in 2016, and last year Evanescence released Synthesis, an album of symphonic-electronic reworkings of songs from their previous three albums.  Evanescence is touring to support Synthesis and because Lindsey performed on the song “Hi-Lo”, they decided to tour together.  Both are fans of each other.

They had an opening act, called Cellogram, which consisted of a cellist and a drummer.  Their set lasted twenty minutes, and it was pretty good.  I liked one of their original songs.  Then we waited about fifteen minutes for Lindsey Stirling’s part of the concert to begin, and while we did that, I watched the full orchestra assemble on stage.  Yes, both artists had a full orchestra supporting them, and they sounded amazing.  It made me nostalgic for my high school choir days.

Lindsey Stirling – Brave Enough

Her set was very colorful and energetic.  She had three costume changes for the first three numbers.  I’ve been a fan of classical crossover for over a decade now, and I’ve never seen anyone so energetic while playing the violin – and she used what looked like an acoustic violin for most of the songs.  The backdrops were also very pretty.

Amy Lee graciously came onto the stage to perform “Shatter Me”, a song from Lindsey’s second album Shatter Me, of which originally featured Lzzy Hale as vocalist.  Unfortunately, I still couldn’t see much, but I did managed to record some of the performance.

My favorite number was “Crystallize” – they performed the orchestral version, of which you can find on the Target exclusive version of her first album, Lindsey Stirling. This number was followed by an interlude based on the song, with a brief narration about how sound and emotions can affect the crystals in ice.

Lindsey did speak to the audience and had an uplifting ‘believe in yourself’ speech, as well as an anecdote about the ‘bless your heart’ saying.  Yes, she thought that it was something nice and it really isn’t.  It’s a very passive-aggressive saying, and I don’t really like it.  But a lot of people get that wrong when they first get here.  I noticed Lindsey wearing tights, and boy did I feel bad for her.  Some other audience members wore tights too, and I just don’t know how anyone does that in this humid heat.  But she was fantastic.

She ended her set with a fantastic Phantom of the Opera medley.

Evanescence – Synthesis

Their part was quite different, as all of the songs on Synthesis are moody and atmospheric.  Amy Lee, the lead singer, is also a very good pianist, and every now and then she’d sit at the piano and play.  Unfortunately, she’d be on the left side of the stage, right in front of the tall people sitting in front of me.  But I still got to hear everything, and that’s the most important part of the show anyway.

I really liked “Lacrymosa”, “Lithium” and the Synthesis version of “Bring Me To Life” which got the loudest cheers of everyone, being that it’s Evanescence’s debut single and all.  To my utter annoyance, these two chicks two rows ahead of me stood up during the entire performance, and I basically couldn’t see anything.  I also got a little teary at “My Immortal”, but that song always makes me teary.

The set ended with the original song from Synthesis, “Imperfection” of which had an f-bomb in it, but it was the only one the entire night.  There were kids in the audience, by the way, but I’m sure they survived.

And then came the encore.  Amy Lee and Lindsey Stirling returned to the stage for a medley of songs I didn’t recognize, but boy was it good.  I recorded the whole thing.  I think it was Escala’s “Palladio” (they’re a female string quartet from the UK), Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears” and Sia’s “Alive”.

Overall Experience

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I am really short – only 5’1″ – and, therefore, couldn’t see the stage very much.  I didn’t take many pictures either, and the ones I did showed people’s heads.  Ugh, so annoying.

Which brings me to some of the other things I wanted to talk about.  These chicks sitting in my row kept getting up all throughout the concert.  People kept walking in late, holding food and drinks and stuff.  The venue was pretty big, and was packed so I am sure the lines at the various concession stands was long.  But, come on!  The doors opened at 6 pm!  And do you really need to eat while watching a concert?  I had dinner before I left.

Several chicks sitting in the row behind me would not stop talking.  I couldn’t hear them most of the time, since the music was so loud, but I could hear them during the more quiet moments.  Then they decided to sing during “My Immortal” and, my god…they were off-key and pitchy.  It was bad, so bad that the guy sitting to my left turned around and gave them a look, like, “what the hell?”

And, of course, everybody stood for “Bring Me To Life” and I stood too, and even then I couldn’t see the stage.

But, it was an amazing night anyway.  Lindsey, Evanescence and the orchestra are all excellent.  I had a really, really good time.

Here is my recording of the encore.  It looks pretty bad, but sounds good.