| EDGUY + LULLACRY + NOSTRADAMEUS + HEAVENLY |
November 19, 2001 |
MADRID |
Here are my impressions of the Edguy show with Nostradameus, Heavenly and Lullacry I saw last Monday, November 19th at Arena (a small venue with a pretty tiny stage which hasn't very good acoustics). Another 5-hour journey to Madrid, and it was well worth it. I really enjoyed the gig and I know that others with me had a brilliant time.
Opening the show were HEAVENLY from France, who played a 25-minute set. A very professional and sympathic apparence. Their show started with a little delay. The band was working without their vocalist ("Ben is very ill" Pierre-Emmanuel announced in good Spanish), but they stood for it with guts and musicianship. Fred and the other guitar player took the vocal duties. The band bombards us with 4 songs, including the title track from the new album "Sign Of The Winner" and "The Sandman" plus a song from their debut album, the fantastic "Riding Through Hell". A small moment to take our breath and Fred announces the last song, the beautiful "The World Will Be Better". Heavenly performance was just too short, but, well, we had such a great time with them... Lots of cool interplay between the two guitar players and an overall sense of fun made this a great perfomance. They were also entertaining the crowd with jokes and their elementary command of Spanish, which only endeared them to the crowd even more. They were having fun, the crowd was having fun, that’s how I like concerts! Well done guys!
Swedish band NOSTRADAMEUS, playing their first gig in Madrid, followed the Heavenlys on stage. They did a good show, the gig never got boring and they had a good sound. They played 6 songs, including "The Power’s In Your Hand", the fast "Hymn To These Lands", "The Crown's Inn" (from the debut album), "Murder", "Gathering Resistance" and the last song is once again from the debut album: the hymn "One For All, All For One". Freddy Persson is a good frontman and I really enjoy the way he acts on stage and the new drummer (different from the one on their CD's) really kicked ass, sitting there behind his drumkit like an engine of power. Excellent band that plays some excellent music, I really enjoyed it. If Nostradameus keeps on growing like they are doing at the moment magnificent things can happen... let's wait and see...
Next up was LULLACRY from Finland. Honestly I didn’t give them too much attention. Lullacry wasn’t bad, but their music was unremarkable to me. They played a cover of WASP’s "L.O.V.E. Machine" though the original is muuuuch better (but how is anyone going to top WASP?) ... sorry, this band is not exactly my thing...
With a background intro ("A New Dimension" from Avantasia) and without a single note played, we can already hear a lot of
EDGUY fans eager to see their favorite band! Big "Edguy, Edguy" chants were raised while drummer Felix climbed behind his kit. With the intro over, the two guitarists Dirk and Jens were the first who jumped on stage, followed by bass player Tobias Exxel. The band starts with "Fallen Angels". After the first few chords, the man himself appeared from behind the amplifiers and was now given a great welcome by the audience. All the band were fully into it right from the start and grinning all over their faces as they saw the positive reaction from the audience. As the song was finished, the band went straight into the second number ("Tears Of A Mandrake", from the new album). The audience even took the time out to wish Tobi Sammet a happy birthday :-) Next song was "How Many Miles". Like the previous two tunes, this one also got a great reception from the audience. After this song, song number four, which was "Land Of The Miracle", a great vibe and one hell of an atmosphere! They continue with one more song from their new album, "Painting On The Wall". It's time to speed things up again, Tobi said after that. Then the band did a journey back to their first album "Kingdom Of Madness" and played "Wings Of A Dream". The show goes on with "The Headless Game". "Pharaoh" was fantastic! The guitars were great and different from the album version and the song was extended a bit. Next song was "Vain Glory Opera". With its galloping rhythms, this song was probably the one in the set that got the best audience reactions, besides "Avantasia" which had also gone down very well. The show continues with a drum solo of Felix followed by the excellent (and funny) high-speed "Save Us Now". A surprise for me was the appearance of "Babylon" in the setlist.
The band continues with "Avantasia" (from Tobias Sammet's Metal Opera)... Tobi was in his element introducing the song, and everybody started singing along. As the band went into the chorus, a lot of the fans formed one big choir whose "We are the power inside, we bring you fantasy..." was very loud. That was a great moment really, full of energy. The guys return to the "Vain Glory Opera" album with "Out Of Control", the last song of the night. Big cheering from the audience after the last song, and big happiness on stage. The band threw guitar picks and drum sticks, Tobi looked more than satisfied with the performance and said that they will come back... The entire gig was a huge success for the band. As for the first Edguy show I saw in 1999, supporting HammerFall on their "Legacy Of Kings" tour, the songs were wonderfully executed, and they got the crowd to participate in a few of those, most notably "Tears Of A Mandrake", "How Many Miles", "Pharaoh", "Vain Glory Opera" and "Avantasia". They played 5 tracks from their latest CD "Mandrake", though sadly they didn’t play "Nailed To The Wheel" which is among my picks for best song of the year. They took photos from the crowd and the show was recorded for a possible live album. The guys are giving their 100% and they know how to spread fun over a crowd. Besides his talents as a musician, Tobi Sammet could also probably make a living as a comedian and when he didn’t have the crowd in the palm of his hand with his voice, he was entertaining them with stories and jokes (I think someone should follow the edguys around with a video camera and make one really funny movie 
). There were no special effects. Just pure Heavy Metal and fun!
-Review & photos by Marina-
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