Live review: Seether/Lostprophets in Amsterdam, NL

It’s Thursday June 5th, we’re in Amsterdam and we’ve got tickets for the Lostprophets. A little over a year ago the band played the same venue and blew us away with their energetic performance. We didn’t hesitate one second about getting tickets again, especially when the new album should finally be released this year and we’re expecting to hear a few new songs. The show is a double headliner with Seether, who are playing first.

Seether

Shortly after we take our places on the balcony, Seether starts their set. We notice immediately that the sound quality is great. Better than most bands we have seen at the Melkweg. Lead singer Shaun Morgan’s voice is full and smooth, and it suits their songs very well. Though we don’t really know any of their songs, the show is definitely enjoyable. Of course we do know their recent hit single Fake It, which receives a huge reaction from the crowd. They also play Broken, the song they did with Amy Lee from Evanescence. We also get treated to a cover of Nirvana’s In Bloom. Because Morgan’s voice is very similar to that of Kurt Cobain, it’s rather eerie to listen to. When you close your eyes, you can almost find yourself at a Nirvana show. Morgan misses the rough edge Cobain had, but it’s a nice version of the song. The only thing the show lacks is crowd interaction. Seether do what they’re here for: play some songs. That’s it.

Lostprophets

That the majority of the crowd is here to see Lostprophets is easily shown by the amount of noise that’s made when said band emerges. The Prophets grin and pick up their instruments, kicking swiftly into a high tempo set. We’re happy to be upstairs, seeing the people below us being squished, moving from left to right without their feet touching the ground. The difference between this band and Seether is not so much the music, but also their way of performance. Where the sound may not be as perfect, or Ian Watkins voice not being as good as Shaun Morgan’s, they make up for it by their super energetic performance and as much crowd interaction as you can possibly imagine, ranging from sing-a-longs, to sharing bottles of water and holding entire conversations with the pit. Watkins borrows a girls Russian hat because it looked cool, but makes sure it’s passed back to her when it becomes to hot on his already overheated head.

The band apologises for looking so uncut and scrubby, they had spent the last months in the studio. In fact, this is their first show in ten months. A try-out before heading off to Rock am Ring and Rock im Park the next day. Watkins explains that when their management asked where they would like to play the warm up show, they immediately chose Amsterdam – not Cardiff or London – because they had such a great time here last year. Well, so did we! They play all the crowd favourites and hit us with some new songs, sounding darker and more post hardcore than the Liberation Transmission ones. During the encore, Watkins has the crowd form a circle pit and in the end he jumps in to the crowd himself. Not as amazing as last year, but definitely a hell of a good show!

Verdict: It might seem like a weird combination, Seether and Lostprophets playing a double headliner. The two bands are very different. But somehow it worked and we had a great evening. While Seether played and sounded better, Lostprophets’ show was more energetic and much more entertaining.

Imre