Epica Tickets

The Epica show at the Masquerade was amazing. We got a bonus band, Tortoise, that were surprisingly excellent. Eclipsed By Sanity impressed. Blackguard were as awesome as I was hoping. Threat Signal were a good change of pace. And then Epica really put on an incredible show. Simone Simons is the most talented vocalist in metal, and she's even more beautiful than the photos and videos would have you believe. It was the last leg of the North America tour, and the three primary bands all had a bunch of fun with it. Threat Signal started it by pranking Blackguard -- feeding them sandwiches and various shots on stage while they were playing, playing along on drums on a second set during a song, etc. For Blackguard's finale, their vocalist retreated backstage, and a large shirtless guy in a speedo came out with a Mexican wrestling mask on, pretending to do the vocals. During Threat Signal, Blackguard repaid the favor threefold. They rubbed Threat Signal's guitars with cloths while they were playing, pushed a giant broom around the stage, fed them bananas, and came out with their instruments, pretending to play along. Then during Epica's show, both bands came out, repeating the above pranks, crowd-surfing, and even brought out a large recliner and footstool, upon which they sat and drank beer as Epica rocked out. The sound was great, the bands were amazing, the atmosphere was playful -- an absolutely unforgettable night. Thanks for such a great show!

With the last show of their American tour, Epica were clearly in a playful mood, and the members of Blackguard and Threat Signal were too. Members of the support acts frequently crashed the stage during Epica's performance to bang their heads and spray water from bottles onto the crowd. During several songs there seemed to be at least 10 heads banging their long hair recklessly. It was evidently not a typical set for them, and was extremely light-hearted, and they did not seem to play more than 10 songs. Of course, the main attraction in EPICA is their incredible lead singer, Simone Simons. She was in fine vocal form, tried hard, hit all her notes, and gave a truly special performance. She's really quite an amazing woman - the true bright star with this band. Her voice cut through the din like a razor, high and clear, and unexpectedly powerful. Wearing leather pants and her traditional leather corset, Simone is sexy without being dirty, she doesn't dance or try to act in a sexual way - this is most refreshing - she is a songbird who stands there and sings her heart out. Unfortunately the 'cookie monster' vocals that are a part of EPICA's sound were too over-used: Rather than sing the verses to "Quietus", the gruff-voiced guitarist grunted them out, and Simone sang only the bridge and refrain. My honest opinion is that those guys need to shut up and let her sing - on every song - it's really Simone that we came to see, and she's the real jewel in this band. They would be far more successful showcasing her - for practical purposes, she's singing only about 60-70% of the time, and with talent like hers, that is inexcusable. It appears that the keyboard player for Kamelot was on keys for this concert, and that he is Simone's boyfriend. He was excellent as always, and she hugged on his arm, or laid a head on his shoulder frequently, once, they joined hands and briefly danced. It seems rather obvious that they are in love, and it was kind of nice to see. Innocent and sweet. A very entertaining, albeit short, concert. You better take your chance to see them when it presents itself... I'll always remember seeing Simone Simons in her absolute prime, and what a lovely, talented sight it was!

Epica did a fabulous job with their performance. Quite entertaining and on queue and tight as a band. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because of the sound system. The actual FOH cabinets were probably 15 - 20 years old, which would be OK if care had been taked to time align and balance the system. Also I noticed at the console (which I think was a mackie 8-buss expansion), the main outs were running into clip continuously. I would assume the same for the amps because when the full band was playing everything sounded over compressed, giving a "pumping" effect and much of the clarity of the mix was lost. This became very evident during Tides of Time during parts were its just Keyboards and Simone. There was a noticable increase in volume on her voice which indicates the amps were out of headroom when trying to amplify the wider spectrum of audio created by all the instruments. Back by the console, the time alignment issue became very obvious with the kick drum. There was a noticable difference between the arrival of the click/attack (around 3 - 4Khz) and the low end. To be honest, The kick drum was the loudest thing in the mix and if the FOH engineer would have reduced the gain just a little, it probably would have helped a little with cleaning up the mix since there were so many other issues. The sad part is something as simple as a FOH Signal processor (Like dbx Drive Rack series or similar) could have solved some of these issues right off the bat. I am familiar with alot of Epica's songs so I knew what parts were coming up and when, but I brought someone with me who had never heard them and they were having a hard time following along. For comparison, I took the same person to see Dream Theater a few years ago the comments she made was that she could hear everything clearly. However that was a $40.00 ticket in a 2500 seat venue and a DigiDesign digital console. For the price for the tickets, I can't really complain. I don't know how you would hire a quality sound company for a room that holds less than 1000 peope at $13.00 USD. But I do expect any act to have an engineer and system that can resolve some of these very trivial issues.

Great time !!!!! great band , nice (dark) place woudl go again

The show at The Masquerade in Atlanta, GA was absolutely incredible. The opening bands were entertaining and Epica was AMAZING! Simone has a beautiful voice and she rocked it last night! Also, the venue was really awesome, I liked it a lot!

Epica bring an exclusively professional style to the metal vibe mixed with symphonic sounds. I admired their professionalism and outstanding ability to entertain the audience and to satisfy everyone's needs as their style incorporates goth and symphonic metal at once! Extremely charming and passionate. Talented and unique! DEFINITELY NEED TO COME BACK TO THE USA! Will recommend!

Epica is an awesome band, i say go to there shows every chance you get. they have a lot of energy and obviously love what they are doing. after the show a few members of the band came and mingled with the fans, poising for pictures with the fans and giving autographs. and Mark Jansen was patient with me despite my camara refusing to work, which tells me that they are not some group of jackasses just doing it for money and damn the fans. also the opener band Blackguard from Canada put on an awesome show as well, and from what i saw great with fans, in love with there music, and pretty good people. but on the not so positive side i was a bit pissed that i paid extra for V.I.P. tickets and there was no posting of when the meet and greet was to take place, not on the tickets, the venue website, or if you called the venue. i talked to several other people who had the same problem and one who got to talk to the venue manager said that the responce was basically 'oh well' and refused to do anything about it or say he would change the way the information was put out or anything. short version, great bands, not so great customer service from the venue.

I didn't care much for either of the opening bands (thus the lower rating), but Epica was amazing!

Epica was much more than I expected. I bought the tickets as a present for my sister and went with her. I'm not a metal fan, but Simone Simons was AMAZING! It wasn't just a bunch of guys on stage screaming. The fact that the lead singer actually SINGS is awesome! I was very happy with the show. People who like harder rock would love the show.

1st band was tight, 2nd band blew chunks and EPICA ROCKED! Great night, great time.

Upon entry to the show, Blackguard had finished setting up and had begun to play. These guys, Blackguard, is one of the most energetic bands I have ever seen live. Tons of movement and stage presents. A terrific band to get the crowd all warmed up. Their song, This Rounds on Me + audience participation = hell of a lot fun!!! The second band, Threats Signal, was the downside of the show. Once Blackguard warmed up the band, Threat Signal put them to sleep. There generic sound with terrible vocals took little skill to play was no fun to watch. A few good riffs, but nothing I haven't heard before. The chanting of "EPICA" brought the band on stage. Epica is definitely one of the best bands live. The live sound is about 5 times that of the album. It truely was Epic!! The only reason I gave it 4 stars was because of Threat Signal. otherwise it was 6/5 stars!!

Those of you that missed this one REALLY missed out. I'll probably never forget this concert for the rest of my life, unless Epica comes within 1000 miles of me again ^-^

It was a very good show. Both Blackguard and Threat Signal were great. Epica was better then I had hoped for.

BlackGuard was an amazing opening band, unfortunately Threat Signal completely failed. Epica was, of course, incredible. Their set was long and they played all of their greatest songs.

Simone Simons of Epica was awesome. Her voice is amazing. I was annoyed with Mark Jansen constantly ruining perfectly good songs with his growling. The opening bands were equally annoying. Simone is so talented that I was able to enjoy the show in spite of all the growling and barking.

The concert was great. THe sound was excellent, the place was packed. The crowd loved Epica, and they delivered with a bombastic heavy metal show. Simone looked as beatiful as ever, and what a voice. When she sang 'Tides of Time" i got goose bumps. What an amazing voice. They played lots of stuff of the new album "Design Your Universe" as well as songs off all three of there other cds. The setlist was great. One of the best concerts ive seen in 25 years i have been going to them!!! Horns high for Epica!!!

The show was amazing. I had a lot of fun, I would for sure go to their next concert whenever they come back to California.

Black guard opened and was amazing. Their music was fast paced and hard hitting the band was vary interactive and even mingled in the crowd after they where done with there set. Thret Signal was cool music was modernwith an 80's metal flair that made it vary cool. Epica was simply amazing i dont know how to describe them past that. i mean the music never disapoints the band has an amazing stage presence that you can feel before they even start to play and then the music just hits your soul and when you here simone start to sing its just magical. this is a must see concert for anyone that has any intrest in metal clsical or even opra epica will not disapoint any of these music tastes.

Epica was epic! Why is it that so many genius symphonic metal bands come from the Netherlands? After waiting impatiently through the other two bands Epica finally came out on stage. They played allot of songs from their new album Design Your Universe which resulted in several mosh pits. There were a couple guitar solos, a drum solo and a keyboard solo, all top notch. They also played two of my other favorites "The Obsessive Devotion", and "Cry For The Moon" the audience really got into it. What delighted me the most were the vocal talents of Simone Simons and Mark Jansen. Amazing. They sounded just like their recordings. Above all, my hat is off to Simone, the best female head banger I've seen in a female vocal fronted band, (probably the only one I've seen). Just amazing!!!!

the greatest show i have ever seen, thats all i gotta say