Sofia In Flames

I am now sitting speechless, a few moments after modern metal leaders IN FLAMES ended their first Sofia gig ever....
Back to the start, the event was surprisingly well organized (credit must go to Joker Media and Kavarna Municipality). The show commenced at 8 PM sharp, as announced, with supporting band URBAN GREY performing a 35-minutes set. They were full of energy, their songs were dynamic and powerful and they seem to generally be worth checking out. However, UG sounded a bit too noisy and unclear to me which can be attributed to either lack of experience of the band or poor sound engineering, perhaps.
A few mins after 9 PM the lights were shut and it was time to set the Denitza Hall aflame. Daniel, Peter, Bjorn, Anders and Niclas Engelin who came in as a replacement for titular guitarist Jesper traditionally started by firing a volley of three songs without a break (the songs totalled a number of 18 or 19, see setlist below). Bjorn had taken up all the leads and solos in Jesper's absence, and did them greatly indeed, using some interesting wah-effect. Appart from doing a great job singing and screaming, Anders showed up as the perfect frontman, fueling the crowd's enthusiasm and joking all the time. The band's overall performance was quite together, synchronized and professional. IF sounded harshly in the ass-kicking parts and crystal-clearly in the melodic ones, giving us a night to be remembered. No songs from the early years were performed on this show, but almost all of the more recent hits featured within the tracklist. Many people's personal favorites were still missing, of course, as evry single IF song has its die-hard fans, but it was all the way a killer compilation. Bulgarian fans just felt why IF have been continuously named the best live-band in the world - every little detail in their performance was on a real high level. To many of us it was a long-time-dream that's come true to be included in IF's Eastern European Tour 2009 and to attend a cracking show by our favorite metal band. We sang, we jumped, we had our hands in the air, ....we just enjoyed a great time together with these Swedes.
So, guys, it was a real pleasure to have IN FLAMES here in Bulgaria, for the first time in our capital, right now when you are on the top. Thank you a lot and I hope this night has been for you as special as it was to us supporters! Be sure that we can't wait until seeing you again as soon as possible!
























Setlist (hope I did not forget anything):
-Pinball Map
-Leeches
-Delight And Angers
-Episode 666
-Drifter
-Colony
-The Hive
-Cloud Connected
-Alias
-Move Through Me
-Only For The Weak
-Disconnected
-Come Clarity
-The Quiet Place
-The Mirror's Truth
-Trigger
-Take This Life
-My Sweet Shadow