Well delivered and impressive set

When Lacuna Coil visit Birmingham there are always a number of lads in the audience chomping at the bit just to get a glimpse of front woman Cristina Scabbia. And tonight is no different as over half of audience members in the Birmingham Academy are of male gender.

Yet Cristina does not feel much like dressing up tonight and appears on stage dressed neatly in shirt and trousers, looking almost like a schoolgirl. Tonight is solely about the music and Cristina, who looks so much smaller in real life than you would imagine, jumps her way up and down the length of the stage, geeing up the crowd at every opportunity.

Their grinding guitars and grungy bass line go in-sync with Cristina’s vocals well when live and there is an air of importance about them.
It is not long before we hear their successful single ‘Fragments of Faith’ but it is performed different to how you are used to, Cristina concentrating only on the lyrics and not the vocal solos or powerful wailing.

As they quickly follow this with a song dedicated to ‘all the guitar hero fans out there,’ ‘Our Truth,’ you quickly realise that although it seems they have been bobbing around in the metal genre for years, Lacuna Coil are actually not that old a band and have only four albums to their name.

They span their career tonight though, offering an eclectic mix of old and new with first ever single ‘Heaven’s A Lie’ and ‘Swamped’ off their first album, ‘Comalies,’ being greeted with outlandish applause. They offer a more grinding sound to most live acts as they concentrate on hitting the right notes rather than going as loud as they possibly can and the result is a well delivered, impressive set.

Guitars are distorted and mixed as Cristina’s vocals soar ever higher and are even more haunting and spine-tingling. Lacuna Coil have played some of the biggest touring circuits in the world but still know how to put on a more intimate, down-to-earth display as they show tonight.

The music dims down as the band have small chats with the crowd but before long Cristina is often shouting and screaming, excited and demanding movement within the audience. For such a small figure of a woman she certainly enjoys herself on stage! Lacuna Coil may not be the loudest of groups live and there is no extreme behaviour but they do create an atmosphere that is both personal and thoroughly enjoyable.

They let their songs stand up on their own merit, delivering professional, tuneful songs and working the crowd just enough to give everyone a good time. In short, it was a great show – they can come again!

By John Edden