Lindsey Stirling, Evanescence orchestrate a night of magic on symphonic co-headlining tour

Ed Masley | The Republic | azcentral.com

Lindsey Stirling was five songs deep into Wednesday's performance at Ak-Chin Pavilion when the Gilbert native took a moment to acknowledge her Valley connection.

"I'm an Arizona girl," she said. "This is my home. Driving in today, seeing the desert and then getting to see all you guys out here, it feels great to be home. Thank you so much for coming out tonight. This is a really special show for me."

Of course, it's been a special tour in general for Stirling, playing her own music with an orchestra while co-headlining with her childhood heroes, Evanescence.

Stirling even showed a video of "15-year-old Lindsey with my two best friends," who were in attendance at the concert, dancing and miming along to the Evanescence song "Bring Me to Life."

The violinist made her first appearance of the night when she danced on stage during Evanescence's set to revisit her role as a guest violinist on "Hi-Lo," a track on last year's "Synthesis," the Evanescence album that paved the way for the orchestra tour.

And Amy Lee, the voice of Evanescence, returned the favor during Stirling's set, giving a powerful reading to "Shatter Me," an emotional Stirling ballad that originally featured Lzzy Hale of Halestorm on lead vocals.

As often happens on a co-headlining tour, the acts have been alternating opening and closing duties from city to city.

Evanescence bring the drama

In Phoenix, it fell to Evanescence to follow the opening set by CelloGram, an experimental duo blending classical and rock with jazz and other flavors in a performance that ended with a brilliant reinvention of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir."

The audience applauded when the members of the orchestra strolled out and took their places in anticipation of a truly different type of concert than they'd seen from either artist.

When we spoke about the tour, Lee said, "It’s been a dream my entire life to play with an orchestra," adding, "There are certain moments that are just this epic thing where I always dreamed of that being full classical and now I can go all the way with that moment."

There was no shortage of epic in Wednesday's performance, Lee bringing the drama with an at times operatic sense of purpose as the orchestra musicians surged behind her, underscoring the emotional intensity of such hard-hitting highlights as "Never Go Back" and "Lacrymosa."

But they also explored the full dynamic range of the material, the understated moments allowing the dramatic peaks to hit with that much more intensity, as on "Bring Me to Life" and "End of the Dream."

There was also a nicely orchestrated cover of the Beatles' "Across the Universe" in a set that peaked with "My Immortal," on which Lee's request of "Lemme see your lights" resulted in a sea of shimmering smartphones through the audience.

But first, she took the opportunity to thank the fans for being there for her and Evanescence.

"We’ve been doing this a long time," she said. " It’s been, like, 20 years. You guys are such a huge part of our story. I am so, so grateful for all of the heart and the truth and the love and the struggle that you guys have shared with us. It makes it so much better to go through it together."

Lindsey Stirling can do magic

Stirling's set was less dramatic, more theatrical, with dancers, costume changes, props and even magic.

There were dancers in skeleton costumes prancing through a graveyard scene in "Moon Trance," where one of the tombstones read Piers Morgan, who famously sized up her performance on “America’s Got Talent” with “You’re not untalented, but you’re not good enough to get away with flying through the air and trying to play the violin at the same time.”

But that's exactly what she did for the duration of a crowd-pleasing performance, from the time she hit the stage for "The Arena."

She rarely stopped moving – this despite dressing in layers for an outdoor concert in the summer heat in Phoenix.

"Do you want to know just how much I love you?," Stirling asked. "I love you so much that I started tonight's show in three layers of costumes. I'm a sweaty mess up here. Those of you guys in front-row seats, we call that the splash zone."

Growing up in Arizona may have helped her through it, though, the violinist added.

"I did sports. I was a cross-country runner. Why? I don't know. But as we were getting ready to perform tonight, feeling the heat, I was like 'Oh my gosh. This is why I'm so tough. It's like my whole whole life has led up to this moment.'"

After making her way through such obvious highlights as "Shatter Me" and "Crystallize," she seemed to appear out of nowhere inside a glass case during a soulful rendition of "Hold My Heart" with piped-in vocals.

"Oh, I can do magic," Stirling told the crowd, adding "Just so you know, I am not a magician. I am a witch."

The conversation turned more serious as she eased into talking about her struggles with depression and "pretty severe anorexia" in college by explaining how she manages her stage fright before a performance.

"I fill myself with so much positivity," she said, "that there's actually not very much room left for the fear and I can walk on this stage with confidence and do what I absolutely love."

She tooks that same approach, she said, to overcoming those self-loathing urges in college.

It was an uplifting story. And by the time she finished, it was clear that she sees her career as living proof of the power of positive thinking over the negative energy that can come from within (as it did for her in college) or from outside forces (say, Piers Morgan).

And seeing the joy she brought to that performance while sharing the stage with the heroes who inspired her when she was growing up in Arizona, it certainly seemed to be working its magic.

Evanescence setlist

Overture

Never Go Back

Lacrymosa

End of the Dream

My Heart Is Broken

Lithium

Bring Me to Life

Unraveling

Imaginary

Across the Universe

Hi-Lo

Lost in Paradise

Your Star

My Immortal

The In-Between

Imperfection

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