Kamelot/Threshold – Astoria 2 2007

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The first Kamelot show in London in over 5 years was always likely to draw a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd, and with a support package of Serenity, who opened the whole European Ghost Opera Tour, and a one-off appearance by English progressive metal heavyweights Threshold, it was guaranteed to be a good show.

A typically strict curfew of 10:30pm at the freshly renamed Astoria 2 forced Serenity to start their set just five minutes after the doors opened. Why they couldn’t just open the doors half an hour earlier remains a mystery. I caught their closing song and they sounded superb. Very high energy, great sound and the crowd that had managed to make it into the building to see them seemed to enjoy them.

To say 2007 has been an unsettled year for Threshold would be an understatement. It started well enough, with the completion of an excellent new album and several tour bookings, but on the eve of rehearsals for a handful of festival appearances vocalist Andrew “Mac” McDermott contacted the band to say he wouldn’t be coming. He later clarified his position, citing money as his reason. The band moved quickly and former vocalist Damian Wilson agreed to step in and sing for the rest of 2007′s touring commitments. Wilson was always a popular part of Threshold’s history, so his return was not unwelcome. His future is still uncertain, but if the level of fun and enjoyment the band, including Damian, were getting from tonight’s show is anything to go by, I don’t think any of them would be upset to welcome him back as the full-time vocalist. And nor would any of the fans.

Wilson is much more of a showman than McDermott (you’d never see Mac stage diving!) and, bearing in mind every song tonight came from an album recorded with Mac, did an excellent job of working up the crowd. His interaction with the other members of the band, these days including Soliloquy front-man Pete Morton on guitar (also fitting in brilliantly and doing an excellent job), was also a very good sign that he was enjoying being involved again. Of the seven songs played tonight, four came from new album Dead Reckoning, with two more from last album Subsurface and Light And Space from Hypothetical.

Having been in the band before Mac, Damian had never played any of these songs before this tour, so he’s done an impressive job to learn them all (and more for headlining shows, presumably) and gave an incredibly confident performance, only sounding unsure of words a couple of times. His singing, as always, was simply magnificent, proving that he is one of, if not the, finest vocalist in metal.

And to the main event, the first show of Kamelot’s Ghost Opera European tour. They’d previewed the title track from Ghost Opera on the One Cold Winter’s Night tour earlier this year before the US leg of the new tour in August. The set now includes five tracks from the album and five from the last one, the incredibly popular The Black Halo. This was welcomed by the fans in London, as the tour for that album failed to come to England.

But the evening was characterised by an unbelievable display of courage, determination and showmanship from touring Kamelot bassist Sean Tibbett. Standing in for regular bassist Glenn Barry, and the former full-time bassist with the band, Tibbett launched into opening number Rule The World, from the new album, with a full-blooded passion that saw him leaping around the stage like a lunatic. This, it turns out, wasn’t such a good idea. Within about two minutes he landed very badly from a particular ambitious jump and was seen to limp off the stage behind guitarist Thomas Youngblood. The rest of the band continued, having not noticed what had happened.

Tibbett remained off stage, receiving attention from crew, the in-house sound-woman and backing vocalist and soprano Anne-Catrin Maerzke while the band, still unaware of the problem, continued with When The Lights Are Down. At the first opportunity vocalist Roy Kahn went off stage to find out what had happened to Tibbett, where he found his friend sitting on the steps in pain. Kahn returned to finish the song and announced to the crowd what those who could see had suspected, that Tibbett had broken his leg.

Youngblood and keyboardist Oliver Poletai visibly couldn’t believe what had happened. Kahn said the band would continue without bass, and they played another two songs. Before Descent of The Archangel Tibbett could be seen strapping his bass back on at the side of the stage. He had refused to go to hospital and insisted on playing the rest of the show. A stool was brought out and he played the entire show sitting down, with his leg on a flight case. The respect flooding from the audience and the rest of the band, particularly a surprisingly jovial Kahn, was tangible.

It has since been confirmed that the leg was not broken. Tibbett dislocated a knee which, and I can personally back this up, is incredibly painful, but provided it is kept in a comfortable position, and elevated, shouldn’t prohibit him from doing most things as normal – except walking around, of course. He played the following night in Holland in the same way that he finished the show in London – on a stool.

Tibbett’s injury aside, the band put on an excellent show. Kahn was in fine voice and in a much better mood than their last UK appearance, the ProgPower UK festival in March. Some fans complained of bad sound, but the sound you hear in the Astoria 2 (formerly the Mean Fiddler) varies greatly depending on where you stand, and from night to night. In actual fact, this time, the sound coming through the speakers in the sound-proofed upstairs section on the left of the stage was superb, and much louder than normal. Often it’s very poor there, and consequently very few people watch shows from there, unless their main purpose is to chat through the gig.

Ghost Opera hasn’t been out that long, so it didn’t seem like many in the crowd were completely familiar with the new songs, but they were certainly familiar with the ones from The Black Halo, and with the help of Maerzke (and a backing tape of Dimmu Borgir‘s Shagrath), those epic songs were brought fully to life. The rest of the set was scattered with tracks from older albums, main-set closer Karma, from the album of the same name, and Center of The Universe from Epica getting the most enthusiastic receptions.

Kahn promised it wouldn’t be as long before the band returned to London, and with a date already booked in May next year in Norway, perhaps another tour is in the planning.

“ determination and showmanship ”

Threshold Setlist: Slipstream / Pressure / Mission Profile / Hollow / Pilot In The Sky of Dreams / Light And Space / This Is Your Life

Kamelot Setlist: Rule The World / When The Lights Are Down / Soul Society / Mourning Star / Descent of The Archangel / Abandoned / The Human Stain / solos / Center of The Universe / The Haunting (Somewhere In Time) / Forever / Keyboard solo / Ghost Opera / Love You To Death / Karma // March of Mephisto

Photo(s): John Tucker

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Progressive, Kamelot, Threshold