(no subject)
So there was a Blind Guardian concert Sunday night that I attended that I've yet to write about. I blame this stupid cold.
Attending a concert on a work night while feeling somewhat irregular and with the beginnings of a head cold is probably not the most sensible thing I've ever done, but it was well worth it. Plain and simple, BG kicked ass. The openers, Leaves Eyes, were your typical goth metal band with the heavy growling male vocalist and the operatic clean female vocals side by side. They weren't anything special, but they were far better than some of the other terrible opening acts I've witnessed in my concert going career. I'm looking at you Hypocrisy, Fireball Ministry, and Trivium.
When Hansi and his band of Bards came out it was quite cool. Hansi is yet more proof that anyone can be a rockstar. This guy's stage pressence has Dungeon Master written all over it, but it works for him. He's smart and witty and talks about places Tolkien wrote about in between songs. The setlist was solid and they hit most of the highlights. This is it for the most part. I believe I have them all, but the order is probably not entirely correct which the exception of the first song, the last song, and the encore.
Into the Storm
Bright Eyes
Nightfall
A Script for My Requiem
A Past and Future Secret
Fly
Born in a Mourning Hall
Valhalla
This Will Never End
Welcome to Dying
Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)
And Then There Was Silence
Encore:
Imaginations From the Other Side
The Bard's Song (In the Forest)
Mirror Mirror
The first awesome part was when they did "A Past and Future Secret." Those guys can play the hell out of acoustic guitars. It just had an awesome quality to it that transcends the album version. The next great part was when they did "Fly" which is probably my favorite song from the new album. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed "Valhalla." The album version of this one just does not to it credit, especially when in the end they sorta dropped out the distortion and did it stripped down and semi acoustic with the audience providing the vocals. It was quite powerful. My one disappointment was the lack of more songs from A Night at the Opera, but the closer to the set "And Then There Was Silence," ("...in Houston" as Hansi introduced it) more than held its own as the single representative. And truth be told, I completely understand how the nature of the songs on that album would make them damn near impossible to recreate live without 4 guitarists, 2 keyboard players, and an entire choir.
Perhaps my favorite part of the whole show was when they got to the "Irish drinking song" (as I have dubbed it) portion of "And Then There Was Silence." The band dropped out and led the crowd in the "Dadada da da da da da da da the nightmare shall be over now there's nothing more to fear" (if you don't know the tune, you're lost now) portion of the song acapella about 5 or 6 times over. That was really cool. It was almost eclipsed by the awesomeness that was "The Bard's Song," but that's not to say that the latter was any less impressive. At any other show the second encore song would have stolen the show. Same for the first encore song.
Truly a remarkable performance. Shame on you all for not being there.
Attending a concert on a work night while feeling somewhat irregular and with the beginnings of a head cold is probably not the most sensible thing I've ever done, but it was well worth it. Plain and simple, BG kicked ass. The openers, Leaves Eyes, were your typical goth metal band with the heavy growling male vocalist and the operatic clean female vocals side by side. They weren't anything special, but they were far better than some of the other terrible opening acts I've witnessed in my concert going career. I'm looking at you Hypocrisy, Fireball Ministry, and Trivium.
When Hansi and his band of Bards came out it was quite cool. Hansi is yet more proof that anyone can be a rockstar. This guy's stage pressence has Dungeon Master written all over it, but it works for him. He's smart and witty and talks about places Tolkien wrote about in between songs. The setlist was solid and they hit most of the highlights. This is it for the most part. I believe I have them all, but the order is probably not entirely correct which the exception of the first song, the last song, and the encore.
Into the Storm
Bright Eyes
Nightfall
A Script for My Requiem
A Past and Future Secret
Fly
Born in a Mourning Hall
Valhalla
This Will Never End
Welcome to Dying
Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)
And Then There Was Silence
Encore:
Imaginations From the Other Side
The Bard's Song (In the Forest)
Mirror Mirror
The first awesome part was when they did "A Past and Future Secret." Those guys can play the hell out of acoustic guitars. It just had an awesome quality to it that transcends the album version. The next great part was when they did "Fly" which is probably my favorite song from the new album. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed "Valhalla." The album version of this one just does not to it credit, especially when in the end they sorta dropped out the distortion and did it stripped down and semi acoustic with the audience providing the vocals. It was quite powerful. My one disappointment was the lack of more songs from A Night at the Opera, but the closer to the set "And Then There Was Silence," ("...in Houston" as Hansi introduced it) more than held its own as the single representative. And truth be told, I completely understand how the nature of the songs on that album would make them damn near impossible to recreate live without 4 guitarists, 2 keyboard players, and an entire choir.
Perhaps my favorite part of the whole show was when they got to the "Irish drinking song" (as I have dubbed it) portion of "And Then There Was Silence." The band dropped out and led the crowd in the "Dadada da da da da da da da the nightmare shall be over now there's nothing more to fear" (if you don't know the tune, you're lost now) portion of the song acapella about 5 or 6 times over. That was really cool. It was almost eclipsed by the awesomeness that was "The Bard's Song," but that's not to say that the latter was any less impressive. At any other show the second encore song would have stolen the show. Same for the first encore song.
Truly a remarkable performance. Shame on you all for not being there.