Amy Lee is a force of nature. She's everything the competitors on "American Idol" and the rest of the TV competition shows want to be. But in addition to being able to sing, she can write and play too.

This trifecta used to be the bedrock of the music business. And it still is, flavors of the moment are just that, they come and go, but more than twenty years after the band's breakthrough, Evanescence is still selling out the Forum.

Like in the old days.

This was not nostalgia, they played almost all of the new album. You remember before everybody became a greatest hits machine, when you had to go see this tour to hear the new repertoire, because only a few songs would survive the next time around, when the tracks from a new album would be injected.

This means the show is not set in amber. It's alive.

Not that most people in L.A. knew it was happening.

If you were around back in the seventies, you know that either KMET or KLOS promoted the show. And they'd talk it up for weeks, broadcast from the location, pass out bumper stickers. The whole city could feel that a band was in town. Back when music superseded the hype and desire over Christopher Nolan and his latest project. Then again, rather than play it safe Nolan made a movie of "The Odyssey"? He earned the right not to listen to the suits, whereas everybody who has made it into the Spotify Top 50 is afraid of losing status, so they do what the label tells them, mostly work with outside writers and specific producers and remixers such that the original identity of the artist, assuming there ever was one, has been smoothed-over, essentially eradicated.

Now Evanescence were beneficiaries of the last gasp of the power of MTV. Before the world was completely blown apart. And don't underestimate that, Coldplay has been milking it for over two decades.

But Coldplay never really leaves the news, they hoover up cash in stadiums around the world, Chris Martin was even in charge of yesterday's halftime show, which every review says was blah. Pointless. No one criticized the performances themselves, they just questioned what it all meant.

And there you have today's music in a nutshell. Spectacle, with the nutritional content of Pringles.

But the thing is about hard rock...the fans never forget. It's the last bastion of loyalty.

And we can argue about the definition of Evanescence's music, but except for when Amy sits alone at the piano, it's heavy. It's not for casual listeners, but true believers.

And they were out in force. Wearing the merch they bought that night. Even the guys.

And that's another thing I noticed, the audience was split pretty evenly between men and women. This is so rare today. Once something leans heavier or more muso...the women tend to peel off. But not for Evanescence.

And the amazing thing is unlike the lords of heavy metal, Amy Lee is not a caricature of herself.

You know, with the tattoos and the piercings, you have to look DANGEROUS! When in truth you're just the guy who grew up down the block. And the women in this world aren't that much different either, both sexes look like they emanated from the gutter as opposed to the halls of your high school. Therefore, so much metal ends up living in its own private backwater. It's heavy, sans melody. There's noodling.

Yes, there's anger, but do you need the external trappings for that?

Heavy music is about alienation. And I'd augur that people are more alienated than ever. But in a winner-take-all culture, where everybody is boasting how fantastic they are, no one admits any flaws, any chinks in the armor.

So who is truly going to understand you, who can you relate to?

That's the role music used to provide. You listened to the lyrics and said THAT IS ME! The tunes got you through the night, they prevented you from committing suicide. Truly.

But how can you relate to someone who is corporate, all about brand extensions, hanging with a class of people you have no access to, and don't really want to hang around with anyway. Oftentimes, the only thing they have is money. Whereas rock stars possessed so much more.

So Amy is singing from the heart. And boy is she singing. I was stunned she could keep it up for the entire show. She's cutting loose. And her vocals are smooth, not rough, and they're up front and center.

Unlike so many acts in the hard rock world, the numbers were not long and extended, she played twenty one songs in an hour and thirty five minutes. That's a rarity.

So what we saw on stage was talent. It was raw and undeniable.

But that's not the only element in evidence.

There were songs and playing and...

It was the same as it ever was. If you remember, back before the days of Mariah Carey and divafication.

Amy's dressed in black, but her dress is not twelve steps beyond what the audience has access to.

But they can't sing like her. They can't evidence the same power.

They come to connect, to let loose.

And it doesn't matter if you care...

Because so many do.


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