[Epidemic Reign]

Venue: 910 Live


Wintersun

When Time Fades Away (intro/recording)
Sons of Winter and Stars
Land of Snow and Sorrow
Winter Madness
Time
Beyond the Dark Sun
Starchild


Eluveitie

Prologue (intro/recording)
Helvetios
Luxtos
Home
Santonian Shores
Scorched Earth (Anna Murphy on vocals)
Meet the Enemy
Neverland
A Rose for Epona
Havoc
The Uprising
Hope
The Siege
Alesia
Tullianum
Uxellodunon
Epilogue (outro/recording)
---
Otherland (intro/recording)
Everything Remains as It Never Was
Divico
Lament
Inis Mona [with crowd sing-along]
Tegernakô


I missed the first local band, Ex-Amore, but I caught half of Adavant's set (our local desert folk metal legends) and they were fantastic as always. Check them out on YouTube or something.

Varg was next, and it was their first show ever in the United States. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with their material so I can't provide a setlist. I can tell you that they played the title track off their new album "Guten Tag". They were a lot of fun live, and I'm definitely going to seek out their music when I get a chance.

WINTERSUN was pretty much the main reason 90% of the people were there, of course. Also their first show ever in the US. They were AMAZING, they sounded great and played almost flawlessly. Really the only thing to complain about is that they didn't play more songs. Jari's vocals were just as good live as on record and he seemed to be really enjoying himself on stage.

Eluveitie played last. It was my third time seeing them and the best performance I've seen from them so far. They tend to get a mixed reaction from the greater metal community, but personally I love them and think they're fantastic live. They played Helvetios in its entirety and they sounded incredible. Chrigel's vocals sounded much better even than on record, and Anna Murphy did a wonderful job on the mic too, providing much more of her vocals than when I have seen them in the past. One of the highlights was her vocals on "Scorched Earth", which I enjoyed much more than the album version. I'm sure they followed up the album with at least a 2-3 song encore, but I left after "Alesia" because I had a shitty parking spot, the place was packed and I wanted to hit the road before the show let out.

Overall it was a great show, all of the bands did a great job. If this tour is coming to your town, be there!