Show Review, Photos: Evanescence Bring Sanctuary To Life in Mountain View
Evanescence
Support: Spiritbox, Nova Twins
July 20th, 2026
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Mountain View, CA
Review and Photos by Katey Schoenberger
The Monday blues did not stop seventeen thousand people from showing up last night to rock out at Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheatre. The occasion for celebrating, you may ask? A tour in support of Evanescence’s sixth studio album, Sanctuary, which was released last month after a five-year dry spell. Sanctuary brings Amy Lee and company back to their roots, feeling like a continuation of 2003’s Fallen and 2005’s Open Door. The critically acclaimed band brought their highly anticipated tour to the Bay Area with support from Nova Twins and Spiritbox.
Opening the show was British Rock duo Nova Twins, founded by close friends bassist Georgia South and vocalist/guitarist Amy Love. Since their debut in 2020, Nova Twins have been playing countless festivals and racking up attention in publications around the world, going on to win the 2022 Kerrang! Band of the Year. Sir Elton John has even been quoted as saying of the Nova Twins, “these girls rock my world.” He’s not wrong. As someone who personally plays bass guitar, the band is out of this world. The sounds Love can produce from her bass and plethora of pedals are otherworldly; you’d think there was a synthesizer hiding on the side of the stage.
Canadian heavy-metal act Spiritbox followed up with a high-voltage set which feature songs from both of their studio albums - 2021’s Eternal Blue and their recent 2025 release Tsumnami Blue. The group - fronted by powerhouse vocalist Courtney LaPlante - even included tracks from 2023’s The Fear of Fear EP (“Jaded”, “Cellar Door”, “The Void”). This was my first time seeing any of these bands, and after being blown away by Georgia Love’s bass guitar skills in Nova Twins, I was equally impressed by them. LaPlante can go from clean vocals to the gnarliest metal vocal screams, all while headbanging and shaking her hips in ways I did not know were possible for metal music.
Evanescence took the stage to close out the evening, seamlessly blending songs from Sanctuary with nostalgic tracks from the early 2000s. The bulk of the set included songs from the new album, which was played in its entirety throughout the evening. After a selection of new songs (“Sanctuary”, “Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough”, “Afterlife”, and “Rapture”), the band brought out Fallen favorite “Going Under”. The new songs matched well with the hold, showing how connected Sanctuary is to the band’s roots. Amy Lee’s powerful vocals hypnotized the crowd throughout the evening, leaving them hanging on every word. Things got emotional when the piano was brought out for The Open Door tracks “Lithium” and “Like You”, but the energy picked back up with “Self Destruct” and “Calm Down”.
Nostalgia was a powerful tool used during the band’s set. During “Call Me When You’re Sober,” video screens on the stage played the nostalgic, two-decades-old music video, juxtaposed by real-time video playback. As someone who used to watch TRL after school every day as a kid, this was an incredible moment. “Beautiful Lie” featured vivid visuals and accents of pyro before the piano was brought back out on stage for the heartwrenching and deeply personal “Forever Without You”. And when the opening notes to “Bring Me To Life” kicked in? Forget it; the venue went absolutely wild.
As the show began to approach its conclusion, Lee brought out Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante and Nova Twins to accompany her on “Fight Like A Girl”. A three-song conclusion of “Who Will You Follow”, “My Immortal”, and “Wide Open Heart” brought the evening to an epic close.
As someone who had Fallen and Open Door on repeat on my iPod, Evanescence’s show was more than I could ask for, one of those nostalgic treats that contained so many new goodies as the night unfolded.
Evanescence Set List
Sanctuary
Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough
Afterlife
Rapture
Going Under
Lithium
Like You
Self Destruct
Calm Down
Call Me When You’re Sober
Beautiful Lie
Wasted On You
Forever Without You
Bring Me To Life
Imaginary
Better Without You
About Us
Fight Like A Girl (w/ Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox and Nova Twins)
Who Will You Follow
My Immortal
Wide Open Heart
