What is better than your favorite band going on tour? Your favorite band going on a co-headlining tour with another amazing band – and getting a great opener on top!

This is what happened in Oberhausen when the amazing ELUVEITIE and the awesome LACUNA COIL went together on a big tour! Most of you will know, that the Metal & High Heels team loves LACUNA COIL and we’ve attended many of their gigs in the past. So, it won’t be a big surprise for you that we attended this concert, too.

Moldavian INFECTED RAIN was the perfect opening act.

As the opening act, Nu Metal Band INFECTED RAIN started the evening early. The band from Moldavia, which was founded in 2008, entered the stage shortly after 7 pm. The concert was not sold out but it didn’t look that there were many tickets left. When INFECTED RAIN started their show, the venue was already quite full.

The opener has the unpleasant challenge to play in front of thousands of people, all waiting for the headliner and not actually for you. Often fans show very directly that they just want the opener to leave the stage for the headliner. But not so this evening. Lena and her boys got the attention and love from the crowd from the very first moment. Not only because of their excellent music, or beautiful Lena, and her grandiose singing skills, but also because of the charismatic and talented characters on stage.

Lena is for sure an eye-catcher with her colorful dreadlocks and her polka dot dress – she looked innocent, cute and a little bit childish in this dress. But then she started singing and we were impressed with her vocal range. It is unbelievable how such a small person can generate such tones – pretty amazing.

INFECTED RAIN’s time flew by and when they announced the last song it was strange because it didn’t feel like they already played over 30 minutes.

Another great performance by the Gothfathers – LACUNA COIL in Oberhausen.

After a short break, the first headliner, LACUNA COIL, entered the stage. Many LACUNA COIL fans couldn’t understand why the “headliner” didn’t play last. However, LACUNA COIL announced several times that on some dates they would close the evening and on other dates, ELUVEITIE would. Nevertheless, the crowd warmly welcomed the band.

LACUNA COIL released their brand-new album “Black Anima” in October. The record sounds harder than the previous one, “Delirium”, which was even harder and darker than the one before. “Black Anima” is different but still LACUNA COIL and still a masterpiece. At the merchandise, you could get it signed by the band, which was a very nice present from the band to the fans.

Since LACUNA COIL played in the middle of the evening, their show was a lot shorter than normal. They didn’t have much time to play all the hits and all the songs the fans love most. To promote the new album, most of the songs performed were taken from “Black Anima” and “Delirium”. One song which will be never missed at a LACUNA COIL show is ‘Enjoy The Silence’, which they played as the only cover song.

The new songs were not all that was new on this evening: the band wore new stage outfits and a new drummer performed with them. LACUNA COIL always deliver an amazing and powerful show: Cristina’s vocals are always on point and everything always sounds perfect. Yes, probably if you’ve seen one LACUNA COIL-show, you know them all, but the fans still love their performances. They party hard at every single show, no matter how long their set is and no matter where they play.

With only 11 Songs, the concert was too short, for sure. As a co-headlining tour, both bands should play about the same time. But maybe LACUNA COIL will be back next year for a full headline tour through Europe.

Many LACUNA COIL-fans prognosticated that the venue wpuld be half-empty after their concert was finished. But they were wrong. ELUVEITIE are every successful in Germany and so it was no wonder that they closed the evening and not LACUNA COIL.

Co-headliner ELUVEITIE close the evening and charm the audience.

ELUVEITIE truly is a live-band. They sound nice on CD, but in order to feel their power and stage presence you have to see them live. ELUVEITIE also released a new album back in april called ‘Ategnato’ from which they performed the most songs this evening.

The show started with a funny accident. Many bands use curtains for several reasons. It looks cool when the curtain falls down and the Band appears, theoretically. But most of the time this effect fails because the curtain gets stuck, like on this evening. Singer Chrigel took it with humor. He said later, that there was an important person in the audience watching the new live show, but that is what live shows are about: you never know what will happen next.

From the first minute until the last, the audience celebrated ELUVEITIE energetically. The LACUNA COIL fans, who thought the venue would be half-empty after the show probably also partied hard, because it’s impossible to stand still at an ELUVEITIE-show. You have to dance and sing with the band. ELUVEITIE is pure fun. You might not really be into Folk Metal but you will still enjoy the show.

The main people on stage surely are Fabienne Erni and Chrigel Glanzmann. Both are super talented musicians, who play multiple instruments and are both great singers. No wonder people focus on them. But ELUVEITIE are more than these two. All artists on stage are super talented and master their instruments excellently. In my opinion, they have to get more attention because without them all ELUVEITIE wouldn’t sound the way they do.

The Swiss Folk Metallers played 16 Songs, which is a short set for them – normally they play about 20 Songs. The show ended around 11 pm, so it was a long day with lots of great music.

At the beginning the combination of these three bands, all from different Metal genres seemed odd. But after the show I can say that it worked perfectly. The audience loved them all and went home impressed and happy.

For all photos please visit my Flickr-page.