11 June 2024: Red concert

I went to see the band Red live almost a week ago, but I only now have time to write a review about how the concert was. So, without further ado: let’s dive into it!

The concert took place in Patronaat, Haarlem. The balcony was already pretty full even though I stood in the queue relatively early. Okay, not that early, but the doors hadn’t even opened yet. Clearly, others had the same idea. I decided to skip the loo because there was basically only one spot left on the balcony and I really wanted a spot on the balcony. I first witnessed the support act Lansdowne and they were definitely not bad, not at all as their music sounded genuinely really good. But the mic was really soft and the instruments way too loud, so I had a hard time hearing the singer every now and then. So, I’m gonna skip them and their performance, but I will mention the setlist in passing for those interested.

Setlist Lansdowne:

• Conquer Them All
• Drag Me Down
• Medicine
• Halo
• Savage
• Falling Down
• Oxygen
• No More
• Watch Me Burn
• One Shot

Even though Red started a few minutes later, they still ended relatively on time (as the schedule intended they would). The support act was right on time, as in spot on, with what the schedule said. I don’t know how support acts always manage to be on time, but the main acts can’t even though the equipment is ready for use for about 15 minutes. Anyway, before we dive into the real review, let me provide Red’s setlist of the night:

• Surrogates
• Infidel
• Lie to Me (Denial)
• Let Go
• Lost
• Let It Burn
• The War We Made
• Your Devil Is a Ghost
• Pieces
• Already Over
• Cold World
• Faceless
• Feed the Machine
• Death of Me
• Release the Panic
• Shadows
• Emergency
• Minus It All
• Breathe Into Me

Just as with the support act, the microphone was pretty soft at times, which made it hard to understand the singer and hear him sing above the loud instruments. This was, of course, way better during the acoustic number Shadows, but it being only one acoustic number, definitely made the overall quality diminish rather rapidly. It was probably the soundcheck tech that hasn’t been checked properly or malfunctioned here and there, because each time he sung out loudly you could hear him perfectly clear, but when he didn’t, it was truly hard to understand the singer. I assumed the sound tech would intervene and clean things up as the show went along but they didn’t. One other major flaw I noticed was the enormous amount of strobing lights that was being used, way more than at your usual rock/metal show. It was very distracting and reflected off my glasses so much I definitely had to look down to the ground more than once. The singer’s voice is definitely very angelic to me, both in clean and screaming vocals, so I don’t blame him for the overall bad sound that was at play, but it definitely makes the concert less enjoyable when you have to try and drown out the instruments to even get a glimpse of his voice. I don’t have that much else to add to the review as it just wasn’t that great quality wise, but, I still had an amazing time rocking out and headbanging, even hurting my knee in the process because I went a bit too hard during one song, so it definitely wasn’t a bad concert at all. It’s just that the overall quality wasn’t super great, but it didn’t take away the fact that I was still having a good time and rocking out to the songs that were being played. If the lightshow was a little less, and if they had taken more care of the sound, it would’ve been much greater for sure! I’d give it a 7 now, but it could’ve definitely been an 8!

Love, Skye Lewis ❤

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