doro_2013_04

» Doro 2013 04 25

Reviewed by Tobbe
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Special guest: Dirty Passion
City: Stockholm, Sweden
Venue: Klubben
Date: 25 April 2013
Doro set length: 106 minutes
Dirty Passion set length: 39 minutes

Doro

The German metal queen Doro Pesch and her band was once again back on Swedish soil. This time to promote her latest release Raise Your Fist, released last fall. Unfortunately only about 250 people showed up to this Thursday night performance and I've heard quite a few people say that they'll catch her set at Sweden Rock in June instead and therefore chose to stay at home. I asked Doro earlier if they were going to play for 90 minutes or so. She answered me that tonight's set would be longer, somewhere between 120-130 minutes probably, but we all know that our dear artists' watches ticks faster than ours…

Tonight's support came from Sweden's Dirty Passion and they played a decent set for about 150 people. The rock ballad they played and the second last song were outstanding and those two went down great with the crowd. I have no idea what they're called, as I've never heard this band before. The band was all in for it though and their performance was somewhat good, I must say, considering that they didn't have many fans on the floor.

The lights go down after a twenty-five minute change over and during the intro, all bandmembers enter the stage, all but the main attraction herself. The timidity and shyness she occasionally showed earlier during the interview was long gone. With full speed ahead and with self confidence, she enters to I Rule The Ruins. This 85 lbs women has lots of energy and lets it all out right from the start. She rocks hard and interacts with her audience and especially with the front row center, who gets to sing unexpectedly much in her mic during many choruses. It's give and give back.

Her sidekicks are like many bandmembers in solobands. Brilliant musicians and heavy rocking. Some of them also long-time members, but it's hard to keep track of them, when there's one charismatic front figure getting all attention. An attention that's well deserved too, as she's giving everything she's got. She's strong, passionate, keen and glowing, so no matter how you twist and turn, the remaining five guys somewhat stand out as extras. The people are here for Doro and nothing else. Hard facts, but also reality.

We get a set of mostly Warlock classics and four songs from her latest release. Songs like Für Immer, Metal Racer, True As Steel and All We Are tear the roof off the building and the new songs rocks as well. Raise Your Fist In The Air is even better when played live and old school replica, Revenge, is one of tonight's absolute highlights. The re-arranged version of Judas Priest's Breaking The Law, I could live without and Hellbound sounded a bit weak.

There were no encores tonight. I guess they were supposed to leave the stage after All We Are, but the crowd kept singing the words, so Doro and her band stayed on stage and she continued the sing-a-long instead. She, surprisingly to me, closed the set with two Doro songs. The Night Of The Warlock goes down better in larger venues and didn't click. Always Live To Win finished the set with a blast and I walked away with a smile. A very good performance and I will also catch her on two festivals this summer. She's still going strong.

Performance: 7 chalices of 10
Stage sound: 8 chalices of 10
Best: Metal Racer, True As Steel and Revenge
Worst: Hellbound

Setlist:
Intro
I Rule The Ruins
Burning The Witches
Fight For Rock
Rock Till Death
Metal Racer
Evil
Without You
True As Steel
Raise Your Fist In The Air
Hero
Für Immer
Earthshaker Rock
Wacken Hymne (We Are The Metalheads)
Revenge
Breaking The Law
All We Are
Hellbound
The Night Of The Warlock
Always Live To Win