A Blind Guardian Concert, in fact two of them....
BLIND GUARDIAN - LIVE AT THE TROCADERO (and Roxy Theater)
It was a frosty night in Philadelphia on that Saturday, the second day of December 2006. December is not a month to stand outside in the cold night for more than an hour in any city in Pennsylvania. The Trocadero is a small club which hosts numerous concerts, mostly of the heavy metal genre or anything heavier. 6 years ago, I was day dreaming of watching the Bards of heavy metal, live in a concert and here I was, with an incredible mix of emotions waiting with a crowd of 20 people, 2 hours before the show so that I could get a spot right up front to watch those amazing musicians. It felt so much like home. Teenagers from ages 14 to 17 with only a handful of people older than 25 were all around, some wearing hoodies of several power metal bands. There was this one guy walking around with a boom box playing Megadeth. All of us were jamming in the cold pumping adrenalin for the show. There is no one in a rock concert who is too old or young. The only measure is the spirit to kick ass. The line grew and became more than a hundred long.
We were in. The indoor arena had a capacity of about 200 people, both on floor and a semicircular balcony around the stage. I got a spot about 4 rows away from stage. The openers were this bunch of people from Norway called Leaves Eyes. My God, I have never seen such a horrible performance by a band that travels overseas to promote itself. The singer, Liv Christine was the only talent in the band, besides the stunning red dress she was wearing. Otherwise the band was a bunch of pansy goof balls that should have been wearing turbans and loin clothes playing 2 stringed instruments at Khumb Mela. The lead guitarist, if I should call him so, was plucking strings and trying to gel his lead with the song through the most impossible pissant connection. What a farce! Before the second song could start and immerse me in some more displeasure, Liv’s husband, a huge man with the longest hair I have ever seen (until the shins) stormed in. This guy should have been in advertising before making a band with his wife, because all he could do was cheer the crowd and get them to clap and shout. His growls were weak and drained, making him sound like cat fart. But the best guy was the bassist, apparently from Transylvania as heralded by the mighty cat. The most useless one but worth a thousand laughs. All he was doing with the guitar was tapping the four strings with a thick piece of metal around his thumb. O God of almighty foolishness, if you could ever grant me humor, it was through him. The glorious idiot of the band, giving such a blank look, whilst furiously showing off the ‘thumb tapping’ technique made his expression overly comical. And I anoint this Transylvanian dude as the leader of the turban and loin cloth band. The songs were so bland and lacking in any kind of vigor that I was almost annoyed to watch them and their raging pseudo publicity. With the eager intent to watch my heroes come on stage, I withstood the doldrums for an hour and finally, the wretched band left with a friendly crowd cheering them.
Ah, now comes the part I would love to tell you all. The crowd was shouting chants “Guardian! Guardian!” over the top of its voice. Then it erupted to the football cheer “Ole, ole ole ole ole….” I was aroused to suspicion that the crowd could be European. But, it was an American one, full of hard core Blind Guardian fans. The projector started with animated scenes of Mordor on the screen. ‘War of Wrath’ started. I screamed as hard as I could, with the 200 others giving me company. ‘Into the Storm’ burst, finally giving me the chance to watch my heroes perform live. All through the show, animated scenes were shown on the screen behind the band, trying to depict the song as much visually as possible.
Besides the fact that I am an intense Blind Guardian fan, giving room to my countless praises and ecstatic emotions about the Bards of heavy metal, which overwhelmed me so much that I saw them once again in the same week in the Coca Cola Roxy Theater in Atlanta, I am not going to tell you how the band played every song. I am going to tell you what it means to be in a Blind Guardian concert.
Blind Guardian has been a heavy metal band whose songs are about mythologies of the ancient and fantasies of the child and adult. So, what is so metal about themes like Lord of the Rings, Peter Pan, King Arthur, Merlin and countless demons and wizards? With a little bit of reading, you will observe that the themes focus on a time so pure and untouched by the melancholy of the current or futuristic that you have to tell tales by singing them. To be evil and purely evil, to give life for a cause even if it might be trivial but holds the banner of goodness and to love or hate passionately are somehow a myth to us at this age, whilst there are some believers left here and there. Metal after all is the purest expression of angst and aggression in music. But, Blind Guardian brings this unbelievable mix of metal and myth in its compositions that it is almost impossible to fathom any flaw in the spirit of metal in their music. Choruses - that is their strongest expression and the most distinct characteristic from any other band, be it metal or non-metal. To sing of myth in chorus means to drift in time and space to that age and purity. Every word gives you a glimpse of the world and makes you remember the tale. As you listen to every song over and over, you will ponder why such a beautiful tale became a myth and crave that the fantasy become a reality. And in that pondering you try to find meaning in the mythology. Now, imagine all of this being forced into your mind in one second by one riff or a twenty second lead. It is the pinnacle of emotions you can possibly experience. If you can fathom 200 people like this in front of a band yearning for more, the experience is indescribable. Every one of us knew every word of every line of every song, be it the verse or the chorus. Moshpits, crowd surfers, pushing, pulling, sweat, heat and insufficient space to stand seemed trivial to us. We were one with the band. The audience became the performer and vice versa. When there is such an intense belief and following for the meaning of the myth, you don’t need a band to tell you or show you the way. You join the band in its chorus for the quest. In fact, when Hansi was about to announce the Bard’s song, he made a comment that he should be fired from the band, as they don’t need him to sing, for the crowd does it all. And it did happen. Twice. In Philadelphia and Atlanta, the crowd sang every line, verse and chorus. Hansi pointed the mic to the crowd and took a 4 minute vocal break, while Andre and Marcus faithfully played their strings for us.
In my 9 years of being a metal head, I have never seen or heard of a band whose audience is so faithful that they know every song and sing it, besides the stuttering and cheering. I think Blind Guardian has the second most sincere fan following in the world (of course, the first being Iron Maiden), be it the United States, Europe, Japan or the handful of Indians like yours truly. And the reason for that is not because they are the best metallers. On the contrary the music is quite simple. But, the content and melodies involved in delivering the myths and their wonders strike us in such awe that it simply makes the choice of not listening to Blind Guardian sound almost insane. As long as Blind Guardian stays true to their genre and distinct sound, I think their fans will be more than ecstatic when they release a new album or start touring. After all, it is not the individuals in the band we like, it is the group effort of the band and the crowd, which makes the Blind Guardian experience complete.
For those of you interested in what they played in Philadelphia and Atlanta, here it goes:
The Trocadero Philadelphia PA
War of the Wrath
02. Into the Storm
03. Born in a Mourning Hall
04. Nightfall
05. Script for my Requiem
06. Fly
07. Bright Eyes
08. Valhalla
09. Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)
10. Welcome to Dying
11. Skalds and Shadows
12. Another Stranger Me
13. And Then There Was Silence
---Encore---
14. Imaginations from the Other Side
15. The Bard's Song
16. Mirror Mirror
Coca Cola Roxy Theater Atlanta GA
War of the Wrath
02. Into the Storm
03. Born in a Mourning Hall
04. Nightfall
05. Script for my Requiem
06. Fly
07. Bright Eyes
08. Valhalla
09. Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)
10. Majesty
11. A Past and Future Secret
12. This will Never End
13. And Then There Was Silence
---Encore---
14. Imaginations from the Other Side
15. The Bard's Song
16. Mirror Mirror