LIVE REVIEW: LACUNA COIL + FUTURE STATIC @ THE TIVOLI 12/02/26

Words by Rod Fletcher  Photos Charlyn Cameron

Adverse weather was not going to deter the faithful. Forty-five minutes before the doors opened a line up stretched all the way down Costin Street in Brisbane’s classic summer humidity, with light rain falling and a thunderstorm brewing overhead.

When the doors opened, a line formed immediately at the merch desk with fans looking to grab the latest in Lacuna Coil’s offerings. The vast majority were soon decked out in Lacuna Coil shirts.

Right on the dot of 7.45pm, support act Future Static took to the stage. They have been given the support act role for all shows in the Aussie leg of Lacuna Coil’s Sleepless Empire tour. Tonight, The Tivoli Brisbane is the first date of the whirl-wind schedule which goes to five states ending in Perth on 19th February.

Future Static are a five-piece metalcore band from Melbourne. Dual female vocals with Amariah Cook on lead vocals (with alternating vocal styles), and bassist Kira Neil adding harmonies and back-up vocals. The band also has a twin guitar attack, and drums.

The band played hard and heavy from the outset opening up with “Hourglass”, and front-woman Amariah very soon had the audience’s attention. She has loads of charisma, and all the band are energetic and engaging with the crowd. It was great to see the support act given a forty-five minute set which gives them time to really showcase their original music. Heavy, melodic, technical precision, diverse vocals and a good catalogue of well written songs.

Most of their eleven-song set was from their 2023 album Liminality, and they played the recently released “There’s Nowhere Elso To Go“, plus the live debut of a brand new song “State Of Mind” which the crowd really got behind. They closed their set with an absolute banger “Roach Queen”, and the crowd was definitely well and truly warmed up and primed for the main act.

The crowd continued to build during recess, not a sell-out but a healthy crowd non-the-less. As the clock neared 9.00pm, the house music (AC/DC - For Those About To Rock) faded out and the house lights dimmed. The stage lights turned blue and the prerecorded atmospheric keyboard intro to Lacuna Coil’s performance started to play. The Italian masters of gothic metal were about to shake the Tivoli to it’s foundations.

Drummer Richard Meitz was the first to walk on, geeing up the crowd from behind his drumkit without playing a beat followed by guitarist Daniele Salomone and bassist Marco Coti Zelato. Then dual vocalists Andrea Ferro and Cristina Scabbia walked on to thunderous applause.

Daniele, Marco & Richard are sporting trademark full-face make up masks, while Cristina & Andrea have less dramatic but very effective make up. Christine like an enchanted gypsy queen, and Andrea like a mischievous ringmaster of a circus from the dark-side. The band kicks in with Layers Of Time (from 2019’s Black Anima) and sets the tone for what is to follow or the next hour and half. A fusion of gothic rock, alternative rock, progressive rock and metal elements, crushing rhythms and drums, with Cristina Scabbia’s clean ethereal vocals contrasting to Andrea Ferro’s often aggressive vocal style.

Lacuna Coil has amassed ten studio albums over their thirty-two year tenure, and this concert featured tracks from seven of those albums. Their latest album Sleepless Empire (2025) is the catalyst for this tour, and the eighteen-song setlist showcased the album with eight tracks. The other ten songs on the set list were a deep cut across most of the catalogue from as far back as their 2002 breakthrough album Comalies, right through to current times.

The band was ultra-tight and they are playing at the top of their game throughout the whole concert. They finished the regular set with the very dark and heavy Oxygen (from Sleepless Empire) and then engaged a massive crowd response chanting “We Fear Nothing” within the epic Nothing Stands In Our Way (from 2014’s Broken Crown Halo) to close the show.

After much hooting and hollering from the crowd, the band returned to the stage for the obligatory encore. It was a generous encore with four more songs including the very popular dark comedic ballad I Wish Your Were Dead. Cristina promises they will try to come back to Australia as soon as possible before launching into to the finale Never Dawn (both from Sleepless Empire). That was one hell of a show!