Last Night: Evanescence at the BankUnited Center

Evanescence
October 23, 2007
BankUnited Center

Better Than: Entering a bat cave with an angel by your side.

It seems only natural that Amy Lee is perfectly at home in arenas. After all, her voice is the size of the sky. Even at a coo, it rises from the horizon; when it breaks to belt, then it soars ever heavenward, at play in the fields of the Lord.

Not that this dark angel lets any kinda Bible to her belting, mind you (remember: “that was a Ben thing”), but that the girl makes myth meat of the things that go bump in our hearts. And last night the divine Ms. Lee not only bumped a whole lotta hearts, she had a whole lotta fists pumping in utter joy.

If you don’t know Evanescence, then you don’t know Amy, who, despite a rather adept team of metal hard rockers behind her, is really the whole of the band. It is for her that the crowd comes, and it is for her that they swoon.

Taking the BankUnited stage in ball gown and combat boots, she went from wow to kapow, and each and every syllable in each and every song was sung by a choir of thousands. I tell ya, from my privileged vantage point in the pit (thanks Danielle!), even I was lifted.

Yeah, I know, there’s that sky again, which really shouldn’t make sense when tracks like “Weight of the World” and “Call Me When You’re Sober” and “Going Under” are falling from it. Then again, Amy Lee and the band do too come through with suitable exaltations such as “Your Star” and “Cloud Nine” and “My Immortal.”

And, yes, exaltation is the right word, as in “elation of mind or feeling, sometimes abnormal or morbid in character; rapture.” Really. You try standing among a horde of rabid mascara while a goddess is prancing about and not feel exalted.

But it was when Ms. Lee settled down into the pure croon and piano of “Good Enough” that the horde and I became truly exalted, for it was then that we got unadulterated Amy, and didn’t I say that’s why we came in the first place? – John Hood.

Personal Bias: I’m not afraid of the dark.

Random Detail: Evanescence fans really know how to screech.

By the Way: Amy was seen on the beach over the weekend; of course it was at night.