At the Pacific Coliseum on Thursday, January 18

Pumping out platinum albums is second nature for Evanescence, but as Vancouver witnessed last week, the Grammy-winning goth-rock quintet could use more intuition when it comes to playing live. Memo to frontwoman Amy Lee: you titled your sophomore release The Open Door, so isn’t it time to let your music breathe?

Atmospherewise, a dark and rainy West Coast night seemed appropriate for showcasing the Arkansas band’s melancholy. But for this final Canadian tour date, the weather regrettably forced many young ladies among the 7,000-strong crowd into fur-lined hoodies and jeans instead of black corsets and fishnets. Lee compensated by strutting out in a black sleeveless top and a pink skirt resembling a flamingo that had just swallowed a hand grenade.

Cool. But then, the spotlight rarely left our raven-haired, operatic heroine during the tightly choreographed hour-plus show. Guitarists Terry Balsamo and John LeCompt lurked in the shadows on a bare-bones stage that was occasionally enlivened by dry ice or fake snow. The pair supplied bombastic riffage on “Weight of the World” and “Going Under”, which replicated the studio versions. Drummer Rocky Gray amused himself by metallizing arrangements, adding huge double-bass rolls and tom-tom fills.

Lee never introduced her band members to the mostly seated audience: what, no chance to welcome back Balsamo, who survived a stroke in 2005? Still, perhaps it’s better to be faceless than immortalized like Seether singer Shaun Morgan. The floor-level faithful rocked to the slamming of Lee’s ex-boyfriend in “Call Me When You’re Sober”.

Vocally, Lee sounded almost note perfect, although backing tapes generated her harmonies plus layers of ethereal strings. The 25-year-old’s between-songs banter consisted mostly of thank-yous and “You rock!” but she did joke about her fear of eating bad sushi while touring Japan.

Her best moments came during the encore with “My Immortal”, the anguished ballad from 2003’s Fallen that will outlive Evanescence. Her voice quavered and she missed some notes on her piano, but you could feel the fans respond. For someone so open in her lyrics, Lee seems to need reassurance that it’s okay to make some mistakes in concert.