FROM THE PIT TO THE STREAM: AVATAR AGES – AN IMPOSSIBLE CONCERT EXPERIENCE – AGE OF ILLUSIONS – JANUARY 16, 2021

After a smashing success of the Avatar Ages – An Impossible Concert Experience‘s Age of Dreams, Danny Wimmer Presents follows up with the Avatar Ages – An Impossible Concert Experience‘s Age of Illusions. Avatar would be performing songs from their 2016 Feathers & Flesh and their 2018 album Avatar Country. After last week’s performance, I was eager to see  Johannes Eckerström (vocals), John Alfredsson (drums), Henrik Sandelin (bass), Jonas Jarlsby (guitar), and Tim Öhrström (guitar) perform once again.

Much like last week’s performance, the band used three separate stages to perform their show. One had the word Avatar spelled out in lights on the back wall, another had movie screens as the back walls, and the last had multiple doors in a small room for the band to enter through. Instead of opening hard and heavy, we open with Johannes on the piano performing “Regret” from Feathers & Flesh before ripping into the heavy “House of the Eternal Hunt”. That song has some wonderful guitar riffs between Jonas and Tim. But, I absolutely loved hearing “The Eagle Has Landed”. It’s a catchy song and beat that you’ll find yourself singing along to the chorus “Ladies and gentlemen/Your hero has returned again/Everything is going to be okay-ay-ay-ay”. “New Land” was the next song that sounds like a Rush song on heavy metal. Fantastic bass riffs from Henrik and stellar drum work from John.

The music turned to a darker and heavy mood with both “Tooth, Beak, & Claw” and “For the Swarm”. And when we got to “Black Waters” the heavy and dark really set in. The bass line, the drums, the guitars all blended together to such a phenomenal song. The coolest part is they performed it in the studio with the movie screens on the walls. They displayed multiple versions of water such as beach waves, oceans, and waterfalls. But, they were all in black and white. The drum riser also had a screen at the base. So when the water was being displayed between the walls and the drum riser, it looked like the drum set was floating on the water. Truly epic.

Once again there was a two-minute intermission that had each of the band members in odd scenes. While Act 1 focused on Feathers & Flesh, Act 2 was going to focus on Avatar Country. They first played “Glory to Our King” with Johannes performing it solo on the piano. It was a much more toned down version of the song than the regal one we’re used to hearing. Jonas once again took on his King persona, sitting on the throne and playing the guitar wearing a crown and regal cape. This time, they had a camera attached to the top of the guitar so you could watch his hands running up and down the guitar as he played. They performed “Legend of the King” before they literally rolled Jonas over to the next stage to perform one of my favorite songs “The King Welcomes You to Avatar Country”. They had the Avatar Country banner on the movie screens. Johannes also pointed out that Tim had cut his hair during his guitar solo. After the song, once again like in the prior livestream, the band quickly moved over to another studio while Jonas took his time going over there leaving his robe on the throne. The rest of the band was lined up and presented themselves and bowed to Jonas as he stood before them one by one. Afterwards, a servant came out to take his crown, which Jonas had trouble removing and laughing about it, and another his brought him another guitar. They then started performing “A Statue of the King”. Avatar wrapped up their show with Jonas looking out to the cameras, as a King gazing over his lands while the music from “Silent Songs of the King, Pt. 1: Winter Comes When the King Dreams of Snow” played.

Once again, Danny Wimmer Presents provided us with amazing production quality for this livestream. And Avatar once again delivered a fantastic performance. Their setlist for Age of Illusions was:

Act 1 – Feathers & Flesh

1. Regret
2. House of Eternal Hunt
3. The Eagle Has Landed
4. New Land
5. Tooth, Beak & Claw
6. For the Swarm
7. One More Hill
8. Black Waters
9. Night Never Ending
10. When the Snow Lies Red
11. Raven Wine

Act 2 – Avatar Country

1. Glory to Our King
2. Legend of the King
3. The King Welcomes You to Avatar Country
4. A Statue of the King
5. King’s Harvest
6. The King Wants You
7. King After King
8. Silent Songs of the King, Pt. 1: Winter Comes When the King Dreams of Snow

If you want to buy merch or music from the band you can visit their website HERE. And there are still two more Avatar shows coming this month!