There are nights when a band could coast, wheel out the classics, and nobody would complain. Evanescence at the O2 was emphatically not one of those nights.
Three decades into their career, and more than twenty years on from the seismic arrival of Fallen, Amy Lee and company showed up with something to prove. They proved it comprehensively.
A Night Built for More Than Nostalgia
The setlist alone signals intent. Rather than retreating entirely into the past, Evanescence wove the entirety of new album Sanctuary through the evening, opening with its title track before rolling into Tell Me When You've Had Enough. The gamble paid off. Watching an arena crowd this engaged with fresh material, despite the enormous shadow that Fallen casts, is genuinely refreshing.
Amy Lee herself is the constant that makes all of this work. Calling her voice "phenomenal" feels almost insufficient at this point. It is a generational instrument, immediately recognisable, and it remains the reason Evanescence occupy a different tier to most of their peers from that era. When the older material lands, like Going Under drawing deafening cheers, or Call Me When You're Sober arriving alongside a sumptuous light show, it is because that voice makes it feel as urgent as it did two decades ago.
The crowd, it has to be said, were strangely immobile for much of the headline set. Plenty of choruses bellowed back, but actual movement was minimal beyond a lone small pit. Whether that reflects the demographic of the room on this particular night or something else, it is hard to say. It did not appear to affect the quality of what was on stage one bit.
End Of You: The Moment the Roof Came Off
Fans have been clamouring for Amy Lee, Courtney LaPlante and Poppy to share a stage ever since their End Of You collaboration broke the internet last year. The O2 finally delivered it, complete with lashings of pyro and screams from the crowd that suggested nobody in the building had taken the possibility for granted. [Watch the moment it happened](/uprise/music/watch-evanescence-and-poppy-play-their-spiritbox-crossover-end-of-you-live-for-the-first-time-ever) if you weren't there, because it looked like exactly the kind of thing you'd have kicked yourself for missing.
It was the undeniable peak of the night in terms of sheer spectacle, but it did not arrive in isolation. K.Flay joined Evanescence for Fight Like A Girl, a rebellious feminist anthem that benefited from the collab energy running through the whole evening. Poppy herself had already done plenty of work in the support slot, opening with the arena-sized metalcore of Have You Had Enough and closing with New Way Out in a 50-minute set that ended with her visibly having a blast.
My Immortal brought the inevitable phone torch moment, the arena glowing with that particular melodramatic splendour that only Evanescence can genuinely pull off without it feeling naff.
A few people drifted out during closing song Wide Open Heart, but honestly, that happens at most arena shows and it changes nothing about the verdict.
Our Take
This was Evanescence at their most purposeful. They brought new material, they brought iconic anthems, and they brought the most talked-about guest combination in rock right now. Amy Lee remains one of the most compelling frontpeople in the genre, full stop. The O2 was a statement show, and it delivered.