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Did I ever tell you, when motivation and looking forward to a concerts drop into the celler in advance? That's, when you've been told at the spot, that there will be three support acts before the headliner. No, don't worry, this ain't meant personally. And we all truly understand, that every smaller band is happy and pleased to receive the chance to play before the main act in front of a bigger audiance. Whereby in this case it's pretty much questionable, because it's only about 150 fans here tonight. However, as a mainly fan of Jon Oliva's pain, the thought about three bands playing in advance, the headliner goes on at 11 p.m. and the next morning we all gotta get up early for work. This ain't that motivating. And like in my case, you got quite a bit of a return path, it's even more demotivating. It's the Kantine in Augsburg (about one hour drive from Munich) where the whole bunch is appearing. A tiny venue, but for only 150 souls just about big enough. But enough with the prologue and let's start with the review, otherwise we won't make it today... :-))) 
Bamberg is a little town somewhere in Germany. And it reminds me on this popular german TV Crime series. I've never been there before, but I doubt it, that this place is a little Chicago. Anyway, the metallic intro is played from five youngsters named Backslash, coming from Bamberg. They are going now for 11 years. Almost unbelieveable that I've never heard of them before. I hope it's not too embarrasing for me now. But let's start and Al Capone doesn't understand the world anymore - untin the band enters the stage. The intro is leant on a soapy folk melody and the girl singer is dressed in a folk (Dirndl) dress. Hmmm - I have to complain about one thing. I mean, when dressed in a Dirndl, the rest of the band should put on original bavarian leather pants. I offer my advice, don't worry! Same time this kids get a big bonus from me for beeing quite original and somehow different what's up to the visuality. The girl really got some voice, which is unfortunately drowning occassionally because of the generell sound conditions here. The musical flower bunch includes three already released albums in the usual heavy metal way. There is nothing new really, which hasn't been here before, and sticks in my ear. But thanks to the unusual performance Backslash put some focus on them, which could establish over the years if the put some effort into it and of course - the business and creativity allows such a thing. Keep on going like this and next time it's be second on the bill for who ever this might be... http://www.backslash-metal.de/ Second on the bill tonight is Dionysus  And I can only say - "oh you old swede!!!" Because that's where they come from in the truest sense of the word. Okay, not quite, because Enrico Caruso's grandson listens to the name Olaf Hayer and talks to the audiance in best german. We know this guy anyway from his second product with Luca Turilli. So beeing multi culti international is pretty clever and doing two jobs ensures him not getting workless one day. But back to the land of the elks, Carl Gustaf and Ikea, where the most of the band with the greek name comes from as I said before. The question why the adopted their name from the greek god of vine is answered straight after the show - cheers ! (View Diary) Exept Caru... sorry Olaf, there is Ronny Milianowicz (ex. Sinergy) Drums, Kaspar Dahlqvist (Stormwind) on Keyboard, Johnny Öhlin (Nation) on der Gitarre, and Bassist Nobby Noberg (Nation) in the posh headbanger's club. And they are doing bombast metal, which is taken from their three yet released albums. My impression is - a great guitar, a powerful voice and an absolut brilliant bass. But.... in the end it's only one of many same sounding acts. I miss the small but fine difference to everybody else. Apart from that, there is nothing to complain on act two. http://www.dionysus-powermetal.com/ The third chapter of the prayer goes on at 10 p.m. at the mini milan scala of Augsburg and listens to the name Nostradameus.  This lot goes on for one year longer the gods of vine and the have another thing in common with the group before. - They are also swedes. But on the other hand they have nothing in common with the famous fortune teller, but rather with the De ja vu of the glory eighties, - loud, hard but still with a lot of melodie. Within their discography there are five CDs included since the change of the century, and this lot got already a certain reputation within the scene. One other thing Nostradameus prove here. It's the fact, that their frontman and singer Freddy Persson has more sexappeal beeing bold, than some of those longhaird metalheads. And he needs his aura also in normal every day's life, when he is still working as a police officer in his home twon Hönö in Sweden. He's a great singer too, but somehow you get the feeling he's doing his own thing up there. Very often the musical and vocals structures seem to drift apart from each other. Or is it only me, having this feeling and this is a wanted effect to the get an individual flavour. I'm not quite sure about it. To be honest I don't get the whole clue about this here, and I do not have the time to explore it, because the band has to leave the stage early because of time reasons. Finished - that's it. http://www.nostradameus.com/ ... and the stage is ready for Old Jon’i Boy and his Pain and Glory  Yiippiieeeh, here he is again, our Heavy Metal Teddybear. And all those fans standing in the back while the supportacts have been playing, shoot to the front within seconds to be as close as possible to their hero. And of course Goliath is standing in the front row, while little David has to pull his head off his neck to get at least a bit of a sight, because the stage has only a height of about 3 feet or so. However, next month it's gonna be 21 years, that I know Jon Oliva personally and also have seen him so often live on stage. Savatage was mainly him and his brother Chris. Jon was the voice, which has gonne lost for a while.With this and also the dead of Chris, Savatage went somehow down the drain, and nobody knows, whether the band will ever raise up again. Fortunately the Transsibiran Orchestra secured Jon's existance and Pain.... yeah Pain is his hobby, his baby beside it. Or should I rather name it the recarnation of Savatage. Pain have put out a few albums yet, but first of all, everything carries the note of Savatage, and if it's only the remarkable voice of Jon, and second, - a pain show always includes a lot of Savatage tunes. So everytime I ask myself, whether Jon sees at least a bit of Savatage in it. I mean whether there is Johnny Lee Middleton and Chris Caffery up there or now Matt Laporte and Kevin Rothney doesn't really matter. Because all of them are real good musicians. And Chris won't come back from beyond. But it's the spirit of the past metal legend, which is still very much alive. And let's be honest, this spirit is carried most of all - once again throughout Jon's voice, which is fortunately great as ever and keeps the memory alive about Chris and Savatage.
Jon is still a very
impressing figure on stage with an even more impressing voice receiving
100 percent recognition. You can realize, that he is a long time
professionall in this business. He seems to take things easy an not too
serious - take it easy with a twinkle in his eye, and not this usual
killer look which is so popular exspecially in german heavy metal biz.
He dedicates one song his personal hero - Freddy Mercury and Queen. But
you can see, that the audiance don't appreciate this very much, because
some of them know Queen only by the name, nothing else. Probably the
general stubborness of many Hardrock fans doesn't allow a broughter
favour for other kinds of music. Upps, sorry, this is only a guess,
okay. Do whatever you want out there.
The songs get stuck
in our grey cells like concrete, which makes us sing along and bang our
heads off and like I said before, wakes up memories. Most of all 'Gutter
Ballet' - what a great song!!! And it doesn't sound any worse or
different than ever before. And the encore is, - how could it be anyhow
else - the ultimate hymn of Savatage 'Hall Of The Mountain King'. Yep
operation is well done, patients are k.o. In the end the whole event
shows only one weak point, which goes to the lack of audiance. apart
from that, it's been a great night out including all four acts, and the
trip has been worth while for another experience which ain't new, but
therefore better than ever what's up to Pain. |
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