Very special night this one, where we for the first time went to the O2 in Shepherd’s Bush to witness Paradise Lost’s 30th anniversary of the release of ‘Icon’, where they would play it in its entirety supported by My Dying Bride. If they had added Anathema, we would have the Yorkshire triumvirate playing like in the early 90’s (although I have no proof that they have ever played live together but at least they did in my stereo). This time besides me, my girlfriend Inês, and our friend Inês (no mistake here, they have both the same name), we had the company of Pedro and Joana, who came from Portugal to witness this historical night. First impression of this O2 wasn’t the best one as we did not get impressed with it, it seems small, especially when you have a sold-out house. To go to the toilet was an adventure, and I had to resign to see the last 2 songs from My Dying Bride in the stairs because we couldn’t move from there to the floor without someone else doing the opposite. Weird, so I did not become a fan of this place. But well, let’s go to the good things: the concerts!! First, we had our main reason to be there: My Dying Bride!! And man, what a beginning!! They opened with ‘The Thrash of Naked Limbs’ followed by ‘The Songless Bird’, both songs also commemorating thirty years of being released!! Followed by ‘Catherine Blake’, ‘Like Gods of the Sun’, and my favourite all time My Dying Bride song: ‘The Cry of Mankind’. The band was as tight as we could ask, everything played on the spot, and Aaron vocals were amazing, bringing back the more growled parts and not missing a note!! Fucking hell, it was awesome!! And they still played ‘She Is the Dark’, ‘Turn Loose the Swans’, which is a massive song when played live, and finished with ‘The Forever People’, which surprisedly enough, at least for me, brought again the mosh to the pit. Yes, there was a lot of mosh during My Dying Bride!! How weird is that???
After them came Paradise Lost, and
we were again in the front, just close to the mosh pit, lovely, innit? As expected,
they played ‘Icon’ in the exact order like it came out in 1993, opening with ‘Embers Fire’ (the
best song from the album) and closing with ‘Christendom’ (which for what I’ve
read was played live for the first time ever just like ‘Poison’ and ‘Weeping
Words’). Just like My Dying Bride, they were tight as hell, with everyone
having a lot of fun on performing this mythical album three decades later. Nick
Holmes, spoke like I never seen him before, although with his Yorkshire accent,
we had some trouble in following him ahaha!! Again, there was quite a bit of a
mosh pit, which at some times was fun to see the moshers reacting to the slower
parts ahah!! Priceless!! In the encore they played some even older stuff like ‘Pity
the Sadness’ (from ‘Shades of God’) and newer stuff like ‘Ghosts’ from ‘Obsidian’.
I’ve missed ‘As I Die’ but well maybe they are a bit tired of playing that
one!! In the end, it was worth the while, the trip from North to West London,
the price of the one beer I had (no cheap beer nowadays but with those toilets
of hell I did not want to risk it), and the price of the ticket!! We ended the
night at the Black Heart for some Lightbulbs, Heavy Metal and to mingle with some familiar
faces!!! And another one bites the dust!!! We will be back!!!
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