On 19 September, in Vienna, Visions of Atlantis kicked off their “Armada” tour, a series of thirty concerts to promote the album “Pirates II – Armada”, recently released by Napalm Records. Illumishade and Seraina Telli are accompanying Visions Of Atlantis on this tour. And so, on Thursday 3 October, these three bands cast off from the DVG Club in Kortrijk for the only Belgian date of “Armada”.

This was the very first time that a concert had been given in the large hall of the DVG Club. Until now, all dates have been held in a smaller (and already well-equipped) venue next door. You can feel that the work has only just been completed and that there are still a few finishing touches to be done here and there, but on the whole, we’re already pretty good and the welcome is as warm as ever. I’m delighted to have a venue like this open its doors just forty minutes from my home. The only big negative is that the crash barriers are practically stuck to the stage, which doesn’t leave enough place for photographers to move. In short, it was a real struggle to get a shot of the evening, especially as access to the photo pit was limited to the first three songs, there were a lot of photographers and the lights weren’t really in our favour.

It was a good evening, though, with my particular favourite being Seraina Telli, who played a set lasting just under thirty minutes. For this one-off Belgian date, the venue was packed to the rafters with a really committed pirate crowd. The Armada tour is far from over. There are still a dozen dates to go, including one in Paris (already sold out), Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the last, a homecoming in Graz, Austria.

Seraina Telli

Illumishade

Visions of Atlantis