First up tonight were The Howling. They were on stage pretty soon after the doors opened thanks to the venue having an early curfew so they could run a club night after the gig. As a result the place was pretty deserted when they hit the stage, but filled up steadily during their set so by the time they finished, the venue was around half full. This young five piece band blend rock and punk and put in a suitably high energy performance. The bass levels seem excessively high though as you can feel it vibrating the floor and that does detract slightly from the quality of the sound. The singer drops or throws his microphone down regularly with a loud thud – presumably an attempt to show how ”punk” he is but really just making him look like a clumsy fool...
Read MoreCategory Gig/Festival Reviews
Tonight’s gig had four bands, but sadly they decided on a stupid idea of opening the doors at 6pm on a weeknight, so too early for most people to get home from work, change and come to a gig, so the first band apparently played to a pretty small crowd. Like most people, I missed them and only arrived just in time to see the band I’d really been looking forward to seeing – German power metal band Orden Ogan.
Orden Ogan are a German power metal band whose latest album (To the end) is very impressive, so I was looking forward to hearing them play some of the songs live. Right from the start they played as they meant to continue – heads banging furiously as they played some great guitar-heavy power metal...
Read MoreThe night started with the support band – Seven, who come from the Czech republic. Doro fans may know of the band purely because of their guitarist, Honza, who guested at Doro’s 25th anniversary show in 2008, which was recently released on DVD. That is the only reason any of the fans here tonight are likely to have heard of this band. They play progressive metal, but really don’t seem to excite tonights crowd – while they get applause between songs, during their set the crowd seem fairly unimpressed and theres little sign of enthusiasm. Perhaps Doro’s crowd isnt the right audience for Seven.
Next up was the Metal Queen herself – Doro Pesch...
Read More172 minuter Steve Vai. En klar kandidat till årets spelning
Gitarr-legendaren Steve Vai har länge varit önskad åter till Sverige. Så nu när han äntligen skulle komma till KB, Malmös bästa klubbscen, fick många av oss gåshud innan han äntrat scenen!
Det är fullt och avslappnat när jag kliver in på KB strax innan avfärd till galaxernas mystiska världar. Publiken är mogen med kanske en medelålder på 40 år och står lugnt och sansade, prydligt uppradade framför scenen.
När såväl allas hjälte springer upp på scenen som en virrande orkan så kan man inte göra annat än att stå still och häpnas av Steves magiska kraft. Han har stil. Han har energi. Han är självsäker men har samtidigt en självdistans och vågar driva med sig själv...
First up tonight were Wisdom. Despite being on fairly soon after the doors opened, there was already a large crowd by the time they came on stage (well done to the venue staff for opening the doors on time and also getting fans in so quickly and efficiently). In fact the venue was probably already 60% full. Wisdom are a Hungarian power metal band who put in a highly energetic performance with the band members racing around the stage (indeed it’s hard to photograph the singer as he never stays still for more than half a second) or headbanging furiously. The crowd certainly give them a good response, and their cover of Iron Maidens ”Wasted years” goes down particularly well. A fairly short set but a very good one.
Wisdom setlist:
Fallin Away From Grace
Somewhere Alone
Live Forevermore
...
Last Friday night streets of Göteborg was loud by sounds of the weekend, and something other: retro metal in the air..!
Too bad, that this night wasn’t longer… Dödaren, and another, a bit older metalgroup, Year of the Goat took the party-line this on 27th of October at the famous Sticky Fingers Pub. Unnecessary to over explain it. Dödren from Göteborg made something new, something unusual, giving an incredible mood of music listening by it.
Somebody asked me before the concert, how could I paraphrase the music of this band. I’ve just told them: it’s like young Pink Floyd, in a metal version. And the audience liked it...
Read MoreFirst up were Pain, on a rare visit to the UK. Singer/guitarist Peter Tagtgren is probably the only person who’d attempt to play guitar while wearing a straightjacket (with the sleeves unfastened obviously). They’re an odd choice of support for Nightwish as they are so different musically, and quite a few Nightwish fans had expressed disappointment when they were announced yet again to support Nightwish in the UK. Despite this, once they started playing they did actually go down very well with most of the crowd. Musically they’re a hard band to describe – I’d say its mainly industrial metal but there’s also a strong electronic feel to the music too, and this really lifts the music up a level making it far more catchy and entertaining...
Read MoreThe habitants from the village Dobroslavtsi have been trained to endure noise from planes, cause it is a small airport, but on the 22th, 23th and 24th of June you can’t hear the planes – only the three massive stages and the singing crowd for the second edition of Elevation Festival Bulgaria.
The first “warm up day” of the event passed relatively peacefully and with great attendance on Sunday June 23, and thousands of people gathered from all over Bulgaria, who nearly filled the capacity of the location.
The scorching sun and high temperature did not stop the hundreds of people hungry for music and festival experience to roam the airbase from early afternoon on the second day of the Elevation...
A few hours before the concert. There are thousands of people in front of the hall. There are hundred of sings “Looking for tickets”, but none with “Selling”. People with t-shirts, bandanas, body paintings waiting without any patience for everything to start. The picture was beautiful.
This is pretty much the expectation for a band like Red Hot Chili Peppers. They have been in Top 10 for decades for their talented, yet very different music and to be here in a small country like Bulgaria was a one life chance.
At exactly 20h everyone was inside the hall in ecstatic mood. On there stage, though, were an English band, called As Able As Kane. They are from the rave generation and had kind of a career in late 80s...
Det är en i det närmsta full lokal som väntar Haparandas hjältar när de kliver på scenen vid midnatt. Och det är en blandad skara folk, allt från stekarfrisyrer till skogshuggarskägg och längst fram – ett gäng gotare. Vad de här lackbeklädda figurerna ser i Raubtiers musik vet jag inte, i vilket fall som helst kan man konstatera att bandet tilltalar många.
Sin vana trogen inleder de med Det finns bara krig, och rusar sen vidare in i Sveriges elit. Det blir mest material från de två första plattorna, men de nya låtarna får ett lika varmt mottagande.
Tyvärr är L’Orient ingen bra konsertlokal. Scenen är så låg så står man inte längst fram är det svårt att se bandet, och ljudet är inte heller optimalt...
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