Live Review 592

Let's be serious, but if have to pay respect to one musician of the younger Heavy Metal generation, then this should be honestly Tobias Sammet. And not only for beeing a brilliant singer. Surprisingly, despite to the fact, that his body shape is rather small and skinny, he puts out a hell of an aura on stage. It's like Elvis meets Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, - yeah well, something like that. In addition to that there is his big variety, which includes next to straigth hardrocking outfit Edguy also his sideproject Avantasia. 
The special thing about this last mentioned project is the sort of opera concept, which winds itselves throughout the yet released five longplayers. And this strategy and everything else included ain't easy to transfer the right way. The music of Avantasia tells stories, which are devided into seperate roles. And every part is very different. Yeah well, to all you fans out there I don't really need to explain all that. But it is indeed a fact, that something like this with so many different musicians participating has not existed so far, or better 'till 1999, when Tobias Sammet gave birth to this baby.-
The current tour is promoting both albums  Part II: The Wicked Symphony  and Part III: Angel of Babylon out of the Wicked Triology. The first part has already been released back in 2008 entitled 'The Scarecrow'. this phantastic journey is named - 'The Metal Opera Comes To Your Town' _ Tour. Contributing on stage are Tobias Sammet (Voc), Michael Kiske (Voc), Jorn Lande (Voc, Bob Catley (Voc), Kai Hansen (Voc/Git), Amanda Sommerville (Voc), Sascha Paeth (Git), Miro (Keyb), Robert Henecke-Rizzo (Bass and Felix Bohnke (Drums). 

Well, this tour slogan is not correct, as Avantasia don't come to our town. And so Music lovers and fans have to go all the way to the small city of Kaufbeuren (about 1 hour drive from Munich) at - 15 C temperature. Who the hell knows, why Mr. Sammet always tends to nicklect Munich, as he's a true FC Bayern Munich (soccer) fan. Or does he belongs to the very few people what difficult ground our town is for german Power Metal Bands. With his band Edguy he recently did support the Scorpions in Munich's biggest venue - the Olympiahalle. Well the Scorpions are standing above those rules, as they do enjoy cultstatus. So for Edguy it's not been a risk, but rather a welcome chance to present themselves to a wider audiance.
And they really took this chance. But when you don't have someone like the Scorps to back you up, then it's getting a little more difficult, most of it, when it's like in our case here, Avantasia, which includes an extensive production. So you gotta make sure, that at least the huge costs will be desolved. However, as we know the countryside, at least in Southern Germany, is exspecially for german Metalacts a much better ground than the big cities. And because Kaufbeuren is not quite countryside but also not a big town and provides in addition of that the suitable venue, they promoters have booked this Avantasia event in the so called All-Karth Hall... 

The rules of the management are strict - and it sounds like, our superstars are untouchable and don't you dare to talk to them.. And backstage passes, as far as you got one, are not valid tonight, only for very selected people. But well, some kind of image has to be provided...I presume so..

Every time, when I experience a  hardrock event outside Munich, I can see that most of the audiance is very different to the one in our town. While watching the aprox. 2.500 fans - still wearing this Eighties jackets with the many stickers of various bands on and bang their long haired heads from one side to the other. So this is a rather amusing dejavu with a nostalgic touch and the insurance, that the german so called true metal is not dead yet. No indeed, the current Avantasia project does pull quite a few of these Eighties fans out of their homes to this place here. And there are some youngsters as well, who are curious to studay this ancient concept of Heavy Metal. The beer is flowing and temperature outside is dropping even more down minus. But in here it's nice and warm and just right for a bombastic show start at 8 p.m. for the Avantasia Show. 

And as I mentioned in the beginning, it is the creator of this cyclus himself - Tobias Sammet, who deserves most of all respect. Because while True Metal heroes Jorn Lande and Michael Kiske, or the inventor of german Heavy Metal - Kai Hansen (that's how he got introduced by Toby) and Magnum's Bob Catley just appeared with interuptions, Little Toby was on stage almost all 3 hours. So did his Backing Band of course. He himself likes to comunicate with the audiance a lot, but does spare this until the last 30 minutes or so. But then he gets into a real rent a mouth mood. 

Let's put it that way: people don't really take care about the whole concept saga or whatsoever.

Most important is that the huge soundcloud takes them by thunderstorm and meets their individual taste. Because up there, there are some of their Eighties heroes and some other great musicians. In my own personal opinion some of the particpants take this chance of Avantasia here to push on their own individual carriere a little. No clue whether this will help or not. After 3 times 60 minutes the show ends in a bombastic final, where everybody up there is on stage and in front.

The only think I can really criticice are the weak sound conditions in here. And coinciding to this phantastic journey into musical Nirvana and beyond, some of the artists could have been dressed a little different to give the atmosphere a better vibe. Next to Zylinder hat a ordinary biker jacket and Jeans don't look too smart. Of course music comes first, no doubt about that. But the eye does eat as well, as we say so. 
Apart from that, the whole magic has been an interesting experience on a pretty high level. Personally, I have to confess, it's not quite my thing, but this doesn't matter here. 

http://www.tobiassammet.com/

PS: one more thing so say...
According to the noise level made by fans, when spotting one or the other musicians leaving the building for the bus, it reminds me almost on a Take That or Backstreet Boys event. Well, I think, we should stay with both feet on the ground... if you know what I mean by that....