By Mick Stingley
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) — Amy Lee cut a ravishing figure onstage as Evanescence appeared before a sold-out crowd of screaming fans Monday at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. Sporting a black tank top and fluffy red-and-black skirt, the raven-haired poster girl of goth-pop led a decidedly brief set that cemented Lee as the primary focus of the band.
Opening with «Sweet Sacrifice» from the band's new album, «The Open Door» (Wind-up), Lee bounced about the stage, pumping her first in the air, inciting the crowd with the crunchy tune. She was at center stage and the center of attention for the entire show. Although the male members of Evanescence —— John LeCompt and Terry Balsamo on guitars, newcomer Tim McCord on bass and Rocky Gray on drums —— played capably, they were overshadowed by Lee's flamboyance. Dressed in black and lingering in the shadows, they might as well have been session players.
Steeped in the gloomy trappings of goth on their records and in their videos, Evanescence's live show was curiously bright. Bathed in green, pink and white lights, Lee sparkled on «Going Under,» from the band's multiplatinum debut, «Fallen.» But the dark, mournful lyrics about breakups and depression —— notably during the performance of current single «Call Me When You're Sober» —— were mitigated by Lee's cheery disposition between songs. Her announcement that she is taking up residence in New York drew the anticipated enthusiastic response as Lee beamed and giggled with delight. No mysterious, brooding Anne Rice character is she; this is a girl playing dress-up, as innocuous as Avril Lavigne or Ashlee Simpson.
But Lee's strength is in her vocal power, and she soars when she sings, especially on ballads, which are her forte. Although she wailed on the high-energy rockers («Tourniquet,» «Bring Me to Life,» «Lacrymosa»), when a grand piano was brought out, Lee held the audience enraptured as she performed alone on «Lithium» and «Good Enough.»
The evening concluded with an encore of Lee at the piano for «My Immortal.» She was booming during the song's sweeping crescendo and filled the house with her tremendous wail. Although the goth girls in the crowd swooned, Lee was far more Betty Buckley than Siouxsie Sioux, her prowess befitting an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The band finished with the uptempo «All That I'm Living For» from the new album. But the show had already been stopped one song earlier.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter