helloween_2003_10

» Helloween 2003 10 31

Tourname: Rabbits On The Run
Special guest: Rage
City: Gothenburg
Venue: Lisebergshallen
Date: 31 Oct. 2003
Headline setlength: 115 min.
Special guest setlength: 45 min.

*******************************************************

Rage

Unfortunately someone responsible had moved the start of the concert with Rage so that it started fifteen minutes earlier than announced, being used to that concerts rarely starts on time I arrived just in time for the supposed start time, only to then angrily find that Rage already had begun playing.

But when the anger had settled what I saw was a great show, mostly with songs from their two latest releases and those are songs that really work out well when it comes to playing them live.
First song I heard was Going Down from Unity (2002) and then followed songs like Set This World On Fire and the titletrack Soundchaser from their latest album.

Don't Fear The Winter was one of two tracks we got to hear from the period before their current setting and this was the highpoint for me, excellent song and the band was delivering metal that was at its finest. Second song of the old were Higher Than The Sky and it was then I realised that Rage might be a bigger band than what I thought, Mainman Peavy lead the crowds to sing along in the chorus and I was surprised by how many that tagged along. I guess many besides me was drawn to this Helloween concert mainly to see the opening act.

Apart from the songs that I missed at the beginning it felt like a very short concert.
Why fill out their time with a guitar and a drum solo? Even if Victor Smolinski is a brilliant guitarplayer and that it is always great to see Mike Terrana being completely wild behind the drums I would have liked to hear more songs. Rage has a long history of songs to chose from so it would have been better to play some of those instead of solos. But the band seemed to be in great mood so I guess I shouldn't complain that much, what they did they did great.

Looking at the response from the crowd there is a need for Rage in Gothenburg.
So, to you guys in Rage: Please return to Gothenburg as headliners, we need you.

SETLIST

01. War Of Worlds
02. Great Old Ones
03. Sent By The Devil/Firestorm
04. Victor Solo
05. Soundchaser
06. Down
07. Terrana Solo
08. Set This World On Fire
09. Don't Fear The Winter
10. Higher Than The Sky

Helloween

What could be more suitable than a concert with Helloween on the actual day of Halloween?
And when they kicks off with Starlight followed by Murder from their Mini-LP that was released way back in 1985 I was ecstatic. And if that wasn't enough Keeper Of The Seven Keys and Future World was next in line, that is a start that no-one can complain about.

After that start I more or less got what I came for and it never got as good as this further on in the concert, but nevertheless it was worth hanging around for the rest of the show.
This was only the second time that I actually got to see Helloween and when they were in town the last time I was disappointed at their stiff performance, but that was not the case this time around.
Now the band was energetic on stage and seem to be in a playful mode making it amusing to watch them play the newer songs, with Dr. Stein thrown in somewhere along the way.

Vocalist Andi Deris was on a great and happy mood this evening leading a contest between the left and the right side of the crowd in the song Power, about which side who could sing the oh-ah part of the song loudest, listen to High Live and you gets an idea of what I mean. Worked out pretty well as the crowd seemed to be in the same great mood as the band.

The new guitarist Sascha Gerstner fits perfectly in to Helloween, plays great and has a presence on stage so I cant say that I missed Roland Grapow that much, and his energy also seemed to have an positive effect on the other guitarist and founder of the band Michael Weikath that moved around and smiled more than usually. But it was bassist Markus Grosskopf alongside with Andi Deris that were the most energetic forces on stage. Well, the new drummer Stefan Schwarzmann didn't seem to lack of energy either, he does not play on the new album but I know that he can drum from his days in Running Wild but didn't know that he was this good to see play live.
Feels like there has been new and fresh energy breathed into Helloween with the two new members, hopefully this will hold up and that they still will be around for quite some time delivering the goods.

I was afraid that this show would be cancelled since the four dates previous to this one had been postponed due to problems with Andi Deris voice. Luckily this didn't occur and even if his voice wasn't at top and cracked at some times it was no bigger problem, at least not for me that was listening in the audience, how Andi Deris throat feels today I don't know, hopefully not too bad.

I liked the older songs the best and really think that Deris's voice suits the songs originally done by Kai Hansen, but doesn't work out as good in the songs that Kiske did. Best suited his voice is naturally in the songs from those albums they've done since he entered the band but sadly those songs are not as great as the older ones. And you can tell by looking at the audience that it is the older stuff that makes it really cooking.

With How Many Tears as encore I felt satisfied with the evening, there was just two things I missed, I Want Out, probably they are tired of always playing it but if you make such a great song you ought to play it. Secondly I missed a song from the highly underrated album Pink Bubbles Go Ape, they could at least played The Chance.

But altogether it was a Happy Happy Helloween!

SETLIST

01. Starlight
02. Murderer
03. Keeper Of The Seven Keys
04. Future World
05. Eagle Fly Free
06. Hey Lord
07. Forever And One (Neverland)
08. Open Your Life
09. Dr. Stein
10. If I Could Fly
11. Back Against The Wall
12. Power
14. Sole Survivor
15. I Can
16. Where The Rain Grows
17. Sascha Gerstner Solo
18. Sun 4 The World
19. How Many Tears