| What
has now become my second home for gigs, sees my return to
Rio’s for what on paper promised be
an excellent show.
First
up tonight are the mighty Power Quest who have become a tour de
force since I first saw them back in 2004. Since that day
I have become a seasoned supporter of the band and have watched
them go from strength the strength. Now with three albums
under their belts, all superseding the last in quality and
musicianship, it’s a pity that they have only been allocated a
forty five minute slot for tonight’s show.
But by heck what a forty five minutes! Opening up with the
epic-like intro 'Ascension' before powering into 'Find My
Heaven', at which the near capacity crowd soon warmed to the
band.
With the crowd now behind them the lads soon made the stage
their own with lead singer Alessio
playing the crowd like a pro.
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The
rest of the band looked like they were really enjoying the gig, with
guitarist Andrea Martongelli really shredding
out the riffs as if his life depended on it. What with the rhythm
section of young gun Francesco Tresca pounding
out the backbeat on the drums, and Steve Scott keeping the impetus going
with some amazing bass playing, the whole stage was truly ablaze with
energy. Holding it all together was the Welsh wizard and backbone of the
band himself, Mr Steve Williams on keyboards.
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The
band continued their set with a song from the band's
debut album, the title track 'Wings of Forever'. Then they
unleashed two tracks from the Neverworld album 'Sacred Land' and
'Temple of Fire', all of which went down an absolute storm with
the crowd.
The final songs of this all too short set were 'Magic Never
Dies', the title track off the bands latest release, which was
followed by the power-metal ballad 'Hold on to Love', which also
heralded the appearance of Steve Williams with the now infamous
key-tar.
One thing that really stood out from this particular gig that I
can't remember being quite so prominent in their previous ones
was that a large proportion of the crowd not only knew who the
band were, but knew a good few songs and were able to sing along
with all their might to all the words. |
With
what has become a running joke with the band and their fans on their
live shows was the request spot as Alessio asked the crowd what they
wanted to hear next. As the fans all shouted out for 'Strike
Force', a song yet to be heard live and an obvious favourite of their
many fans, but alas once again their pleas were in vain and the band
finished off their highly impressive set with 'Neverworld'. None
of their fans were disappointed with this, but maybe someday 'Strike
Force' will see the light of day at a live show.
I hope this performance by the band holds them in good stead with those
in the crowd who had never seen them before and hopefully they will come
back to see them again later next month when the band tour again with
Pagans Mind and will be once again returning to this very venue.
This tour union of Power Quest and Helloween was certainly a match made
in heaven because those that did not know who the band were when they
first hit the stage were soon impressed by them and will hopefully come
back and see them again at future gigs.
A very well deserved congratulations for such a magnificent performance
goes out to all the Power Quest guys. Not did they warm the crowd
up, but they totally lifted the roof off the joint while doing so. They
certainly gave Helloween a tall order to follow them on stage after a
performance like that!
Now
to the main event, Helloween a band that I have always wanted to see
live but have always missed out on their shows for one reason or another
in the past.
It seemed fitting that the last song in the interval between bands was
AC/DC's 'For Those About To Rock' because Bradford was certainly going
to rock tonight.
As the lights went down the energy in the room hit boiling point,
as the intro slowly faded and the bands
silhouettes were seen on stage, this
heralded the way for what was going to be a memorable
night.
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The
band opened up with ‘The King For 1000 Years’ from the bands
new album ‘Keeper Of The Seven Keys –The Legacy’ and they
nearly blew the roof off the place.
With Andi Deris in superb form the rest of the band seemed to
feed off his energy and they all were definitely up for the
show.
The set
continued with ‘Eagle Fly Free’ from the Keeper part 2 ,
this seemed to fuel the already hyper crowd, the euphoria
continued with a set full of past glories with the likes of the
excellent’ Hell Was Made In Heaven’ and the 14 minute epic
‘Keeper of the Seven Keys’ the only interludes in this power
metal onslaught were the drum solo by newest member Dani Loble
and again with the guitar duel with Sascha Gerstner.
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But
the metal continued with only another 3 songs off the new album
‘Occasion Avenue’ which is even better live, ‘Invisible
Man’ my favorite track off the new album, and the spell
binding ‘Mrs. God’, most of the set was focusing on the
bands back catalogue.
The crowd favourites of the night had to be the immense
‘Future World’ and ‘I Want Out’ and the show closer
‘Dr Stein’.
This has so far been the metal show of the year with both bands
delivering the goods and once again Bradford Rio is the home of
true metal gods.
Setlist: Intro,
The king for 1000 Years, Eagle fly Free, Hell was made in
Heaven, Keeper of the seven Keys, A tale that wasn't Right,
Occasion Avenue, Mr Torture, If I could Fly, Power, Future
World, The Invisible Man, Mrs God, I want Out, Dr Stein |
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