ANATHEMA
Rosemount Hotel - Perth, Australia
November 1st2015
The final show on the Australian tour saw Anathema hit Perth at the Rosemount Hotel as part of their special acoustic tour. It was a scaled down band this time with Vincent and Daniel Cavanagh on guitar and vocal duty with Lee Douglas also providing vocals, giving fans a fairly intimate but relaxed setting. So how did it compare to an electric show?
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Opening for the night in a very early start was Skygazer who fitted perfectly as opener with their own acoustic set. Very mellow but crystal clear at the same time. Anathema came on straight after and we should be clear here, while it was almost all acoustic guitars only with no bass or drums, there was some use of electric guitars along with keyboards by Daniel. But the subtle blends of the electric instruments only added to the overall sound, the layers upon layers that could be heard in each song was cool and interesting. Daniel provided the backbeat using his hand on guitar, thumping a simple beat and looping it in whatever machine does that (OK so I know next to nothing on loop mechanics!) but however it's done, it was extremely effective as it gave the band chances to add to it even more. That seemed to be the real treat of the whole show and the backbone of how the band played through the set.
The setlist was more focused on later material, fans expecting much of the earlier work would be disappointed as the band relied heavily on tracks from albums such as "Weather Systems" and "Distant Satellites", the latter being the most recent effort which the band were touring behind. That being said, the crowd lapped it all up as the strong melody and especially with vocals from Lee saw the crowd sing along to a lot of the tracks. To be honest, I didn't expect the crowd to be so enthusiastic as they were in response to every song being played as I didn't know what kind of a crowd would be seeing Anathema. It's a bit of a weird mix because some fans know the band from their earlier more heavier an doomier work but as mentioned before, the band never played that stuff even though there was certainly a "doom" aspect in the mood and vocals of each performance. It doesn't come across as all happy and joy even though the lyrics do touch on hope and optimism.
As much as I enjoy the acoustic stuff with the different vibe and sound of it all, I would love to see this band in their more electric state. Seeing as the band have hit Australia twice in recent years, we hopefully could see them come back sooner than later. But if you get a chance to see Anathema in this type of show, don't miss it!
Photo Gallery - click to enlarge
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Review by Andrew "Schizodeluxe" Massie
Photos by Marc Buffman
