Evanescence

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Evanescence Live at the Riviera in Chicago

Riviera Theatre – Chicago, IL – October 17, 2006

by Shayna Moskowitz

Evanescence performed live at the Riviera Theater in Chicago on October 17, 2006 to a sold out theater. The show was absolutely incredible, with Amy Lee’s vocals ringing out loud, and crystal clear, and with a very musically talented band backing her performance. Evanescence currently are: Amy Lee – Vocals/Piano, Terry Balsamo – Guitar, John LeeCompt – Guitar, Will Boyd – Bass, and Rocky Gray – Drums. Regardless of the fact that this band has completely revamped all of their musicians besides Amy Lee for their newest album “The Open Door”, it almost seems that they now have a stronger alliance in album masterpiece creating, and live performances. Evanescence last released their debut and Grammy winning album “Fallen” back in April 2004 before the current October 2006 release of “The Open Door.”

The show that Evanescence performed was an even mix of both “Fallen”, and their most current CD release “The Open Door.” The opening band was Revelation Theory, and while they were good, they were definitely the “”nice appetizer before the main course arrives” opening band. Evanescence opened their show with Amy Lee wearing a gothic looking tutu complete with pink frills at the bottom, and she started their show off with the song “Sweet Sacrifice.” In the middle of the show, for the song “Lithium”, a grand piano was brought out, and Amy Lee played piano while singing for the entire song accompanied by her band. After this song was over, she pulled a solo act on the piano with the song “Good Enough.” I can say that I have seen some grand performers in my time, but the hauntingly beautiful way this song revertibrated off the Riviera’ theaters walls was absolutely amazing. She did not miss one note, and this was definitely the highlight of the entire performance. Prior to this, she humbly announced to the crowd “This next song I will be doing solo, so you guys be nice to me if I squeak.” I don’t think Amy Lee is actually capable of “squeaking”! With or without the rest of her band, I have to say that her voice, accompanied with her very enigmatic, and feeling performance, seemed to carry this band for the evening. This is not saying that the rest of the band did not perform well, as I feel they all were very remarkable musicians in how clean every instrument sounded accompanying the vocals to each song. I do, however, feel that Amy Lee is definitely the key reason the show was sold out.

The one low point of the evening was when the band performed their most radio airtime played song “Bring Me To life.” It started off a little choppy, and it seemed as if the band went through this song rather quickly, and off beat compared to the other 13 songs they played for the evening. I will have to personally say this was ok by me, I feel their newest release “The Open Door” is an utter masterpiece, and this song from “Fallen” has been played way too often for this to really affect the evenings performance as a whole, and I believe most Evanescence fans are grateful they have come back with a new album. I imagine some die hard “Fallen” album fans may disagree, but based off the intensity level of their newest release “The Open Door”, I would have to say that it would be hard to find a fan that would say this song should have been the highlight of the night!

Evanescence ended the evening with “My Immortal” and ” All That I’m Living For”, a finale that featured both albums nicely. Unfortunately, the band only has 7 US dates left in their tour, and most are on the West coast such as Arizona, Colorado and California to name a few. Their tour then takes them to Europe in November of this year. If you have the opportunity to purchase a ticket to any Evanescence show, I highly recommend doing so since this has honestly been one of the best shows I’ve seen all year. I would also recommend to anyone reading this to purchase Evanescence’s newest album “The Open Door”, I guarantee you will not be disappointed!