Lacuna Coil at Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Lacuna Coil – Shepherd’s Bush Empire – 5 February

Words by Rant Chick / Photo’s by Daniel Gray

The London stint of Lacuna Coil’s Shallow Life European tour satiated the appetite of hungry London fans at Shepherd’s Bush Empire this evening. It is always a pleasure to watch the gorgeous Cristina Scabbia strut her stuff on stage as her record perfect voice penetrates the enveloping air, and the Italian songstress did not disappoint. Of course, Lacuna Coil is more than Cristina and it is the power of the six that sparks the crowd’s excitement. Tonight the band successfully showcases its versatility with a mix of goth-rock ballads and heavier tracks with a metal kick.

Supporting acts Dommin and Dirty Little Rabbits start things off with performances that grab the attention of an open minded audience. With red roses draping the stage, a background graphic of a skull with a rose for a brain, and Lurch from The Adams Family as a drummer, Dommin’s goth-rock-with-a-touch-of-emo was spelled out visually for those who didn’t get it. The red roses dangling from band equipment are dramatically smashed on the ground by singer Kristofer Dommin who makes a dramatic statement in final song Without It. The band serve the crowd an impressive cover of 80s hit Dying in Your Arms Tonight. It’s hard to go wrong with rocked up 80s covers and the crowd dig it.

Dirty White Rabbits is the side project of Slipknot psycho Clown, aka Shawn Crahan, who has replaced eight ugly dudes with goth Barbie and her ballet moves. Crahan’s band has a carnival-gone-wrong vibe and singer Stella Karsoudas has a weirdly high-pitched, Barbie-esque voice that would scare the bravest soul on a dark lonely night; a combination that, I guess, is cool and quirky in its own right.

Lacuna Coil open with open with Survive , which sets the tone for a confident performance that reflects the message of the band’s latest album. Moving away from the empty spiral of the darkly poetic, Shallow Life makes a statement about materialism and says a big ‘F You’ to those who jeer in the face of the freedom and independence that exists at the core of creative thinking and art – a point emphasised by the anthemic Our Truth, which is performed by the band as an encore song. As suggested by the name of the tour, Lacuna Coil’s set is dominated by songs from the band’s newest album, which has attracted a host of new fans. Old fans were not forgotten as preceding favourites Closer, Swamped, 1.19, Fragile and Heaven’s a Lie reared their heads in the band’s set and elicited a roar from the crowd. Andrea Ferro’s gruff vocals are the ying to lucid melody of his female counterpart’s yang. One compliments the other and within the context of the band the one cannot do without the other. Wide Awake is however all Cristina and her live rendition of the song seems to induce a spine-tingling intensity that is not as tangible on the album. It’s beautiful but also sublimely imposing. In the band’s performance of Depeche Mode cover Enjoy the Silence, Scabbia pits one half of the audience against the other to see who can sing the loudest. It only half works because when it is the left side of the auditorium’s turn to sing, the right side cannot help but belt out the words as well, and vice versa. Nonetheless, the effect is one of those “Wow!” moments when an entire crowd sing along to an awesome song. Tonight’s performance is testament to the fact that there is a special relationship between Lacuna Coil and the band’s London fans who greatly appreciate the Italian sestet’s effort and energy.

Set list

Survive

Underdog

Closer

I’m Not Afraid

Fragments of Faith

Tight Rope

1.19

I Won’t Tell You

Heaven’s A Lie

Fragile

Wide Awake