Let the concert year 2024 begin – with a bang! This show was long anticipated, since ILLUMISHADE are currently in my top 10 favourite bands and this was the first time I would see them live. Yes, we’re back at the „let’s go abroad to see the support act“ game – and it was worth it. Here’s my little concert recap of my first concert in 2024. (Note: This review was written the day after the show, but published significantly later)
The venue
I have to start this review with a few words on the venue, as De Pul in Uden was yet another prove that Dutch venues are superior. Honestly, I haven’t been to that many concerts in the Netherlands yet, but every single one beat the German venues by miles, even though this time we didn’t get any e-mails in advance with information (which is what happened at the last concerts we’d been to in the Netherlands). Parking is okay, you can either park in the street in front of the venue or on a small parking lot a few metres away – and it’s free. Next to the venue are a few restaurants (like a Döner kebab store) where you can get some food or use the restroom.
Getting into the venue went smooth, although at first there were apparently some struggles with scanning the tickets. The venue itself is small and kinda cosy, I think there’s some balcony upstairs but I don’t know if it was open that night. The concert room is not very deep, but fairly wide and in the back of the room the ceiling is very low, which was a little irritating, but didn’t bother me too much (for Illumishade I was in the front row anyway, I only noticed the low ceiling later when we went to the back for Delain). The toilets are clean and in a good condition. The venue has lockers in different sizes (if you have thick winter coats, use the lower, floor level ones) that cost 2€ each and if you don’t have coins there’s a machine where you can either pay by card or I think banknotes and you’ll get a 2€ coin in return.
Prices for drinks were okay, my personal only downside with most Dutch venues is that they sell Pepsi, 7Up etc. and I personally can’t drink that for the sake of my life. That stuff’s way too sweet in the most disgusting way, so not to my personal liking. I don’t drink beer though, so can’t judge the beer prices.
Also one thing that I personally noticed as positive was that there was a wheelchair area right in the front row which was clearly visible as such, as there was a little fencing around to prevent people from standing there.
Illumishade
The show started at 8:15 pm with Illumishade, who played for about 45 minutes if I remember correctly. The first thing I noticed much to my regret was that their bassist Yannick was missing (we later heard from Fabi and Mirjam that he was sick and had to miss the first show. He joined the tour at the second show though). That was more of a personal downside, as it didn’t do them any harm.
Illumishade are amazing live performers with great stage energy. In case of Fabi and Jonas, that wasn’t much of a surprise for me as I’ve seen them perform with Eluveitie before, but I had no idea what to expect from Mirjam and Marc – especially considering that this was the first time Mirjam was on tour altogether (and she seemed so excited about it). Watching them interact with the crowd and with each other on stage was heartwarming. The whole band radiates so much positive energy that I couldn’t help but have a good time. Given that Illumishade are still a fairly new band, you can see they have a lot of experience and now exactly what they’re doing.
At this point I need a moment of appreciation for Fabienne Erni. When she replaced Anna Murphy in Eluveitie I was, mildly put, hesitant. I was worried that Eluveitie would never be the same again and I wasn’t all too convinced by the first album after the line-up change either. When I saw her perform live for the first time, my opinion changed immediately because her stage energy and her voice just blew me away. Fabien Erni is a goddamn queen, an incredible singer and performer and she also seems like the kindest soul ever. I’d defend her with my life against any of the haters that are still after her and won’t stop comparing her to Anna Murphy. Good thing that is not an issue with Illumishade.
(I’ll spare you of any more individual appreciation paragraphs, because I can’t put my love for every single Illumishade-member into words anyway. I love them all. They’re incredible musicians and I am beyond thankful that this band exists.)
The setlist didn’t include big surprises, as they only had 45 minutes and had to use them in the best possible way to advertise themselves and their upcoming album. So obviously all the latest singles were part of the set. It was a perfect mix of energetic bangers like Enemy or Crystal Silence and calmer cooldown-songs like Rise and Cloudreader (which is such a fantastic live song, it almost made me cry). My personal biggest surprise was Tales of Time, which is one of my favourite Illumishade songs and I somehow did not expect to hear it live.
Also I loved the stage set up which fit the vibe of their latest music videos and the aesthetics of the upcoming album and I’d personally love to see the stage set up when they’re headlining.
Since I was lucky enough to snatch a setlist here’s the full set:
(Also, short mention of the merch: Average, fair prices – the tour shirt was 30€, the zip hoodie 60€ – actually a bit more since I paid by card and the payment was processed in Swiss francs. The zip hoodie quality feels good, it’s a „Just Hoods“ jacket. Can’t say much about the tour t-shirt though as the label was taken out and replaced by the band branding, but at least it didn’t feel like Fruits of the Loom lol. At the merch they also had their album available and a QR code to preorder their upcoming album. You could also buy signed guitar picks, used drumsticks or a signed drumhead with a drawing from Jonas. Later during the tour it turned out that Jonas made individual drumheads for each show.)
Delain
As I have mentioned before, this concert was one of the shows I attended to see the support – so when Illumishade were done, we left our spots in the front row and gave them to some Delain fans. Instead, we first retreated to the merch and then to the back of the venue to watch Delain. I didn’t expect much as I hadn’t listened to any Delain songs before, at least not actively – and I’m generally not that much into Symphonic Metal.
They started at 9:30 pm and I gotta say that I really enjoyed the first part of their set (later on, I was starting to feel too tired to pay much attention and I was bugged by a massive backache that drew my attention away from the show). Musically, I liked their songs. Diana’s vocals weren’t always my cup of tea, but that’s personal preference (one reason that I don’t listen to much Symphonic Metal is that I simply don’t like sopranos too much – with only few exceptions. And that is absolutely just my personal taste and no judgement of anyone’s abilities or performance in general). But I liked the growls 😀
Also, as far as I could judge (as a very short person standing in the far back I mean), their performance was also very energetic. You could clearly see how much they loved playing on stage and I personally love that. I’m not a big fan of watching grim faces emotionlessly play a set with zero interaction with the crowd. I like it when I can see that the band’s having as much fun as the crowd and that was definitely the case here.
I can’t say much about their setlist in general as I don’t know their music at all and don’t remember anything in particular that stood out, but I had a good time before my long work day took its toll and made me sit down in a corner to rest and wait for the show to end. I hope when we’ll see them again in Bochum I’ll have a better day, feel more rested and that I’ll be able to enjoy the show even more.
Their set was also quite long, more than 1.5 hours if I remember correctly, so definitely worth the money for Delain fans.
So … yeah, I’m excited for the second round and I’m kinda happy that we picked the first and the last show of this tour to attend.
