Bang Your Head 2000 - Balingen Germany Friday 30 June 2000
Saxon gig review by Stefano 'Steven' Ricetti - Italy
E-mail : stefano.ricetti@tiscalinet.it
SETLIST : 0) METALHEAD'S INTRO 1) METALHEAD 2) MOTORCYCLE MAN 3) DOGS OF WAR
4) 20000 FT 5) DENIM AND LEATHER 6) CONQUISTADOR 7) CRUSADER
PRINCESS OFTHE NIGHT 9) SOLID BALL OF ROCK 10) STRONG ARM OF THE LAW 11) WHEELS OF STEEL
12) POWER AND THE GLORY
Started at 18.10
Finished at 19.20
Balingen, Bang Your Head Festival, probably the best festival in the world concerning
true/power/classic/epic metal... and , by the way our idols were there :
the granite Saxon !.
Before Saxon, other bands played and in my opinion the best were EXCITER and U.D.O. ;
also Biff, during an interview before the concert with BULLET TV, said that U.D.O.
were good.
The weather was perfect , sunny with a pleasant breeze; the best
conditions for listening to the fantastic heavy metal by Saxon.
The audience was quite hypnotized and in the air you could feel the electric
atmosphere just before the concert started.
METALHEAD's intro started and it was like a summons for a lot of distracted people
all around the arena and for the first time in the festival during the day the
field was crowded.
METALHEAD didn't come over very well due to a lot of problems with the PA.
After that song Biff with a big smile screamed to the technical staff in front of
the stage : " fix that @#%$ing PA !!!! " and in fact MOTORCYCLE MAN was quite good.
DOGS OF WAR started and was ok but not solid like on the album EAGLE Part.II.
20000 FT and DENIM AND LEATHER got the audience warmed up and, being in the first
row, I was often crushed.
CONQUISTADOR was , in my opinion , a disappointment ,sounding confused and unclear
and not a tight performance by Biff.
What a pity ! - but this is the truth and I must be honest.
Biff asked the audience if we preferred old or new songs and the reply was
Oooooooolllldddddddddddddddd !!! - Biff laughed and tore the setlist's sheet.
CRUSADER , PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT , SOLID BALL OF ROCK , STRONG ARM OF THE LAW were
played well and powerfully 'til the immense WHEELS OF STEEL that set all the
metalheads ( old and new ) on fire and when Biff handed the microphone toward the
kids for the chorus and the typical 'yeeeeehhhh' he was disappointed : the audience
was not hot enough and he said : CHAISEMAN ! that in English means 'man of @#%$' and
he said that in the last festival in Belgium ( Graspop ) the people were better.
Really he said "the festival in Belgium with @#%$in' IRON MAIDEN".
After this kind of baiting, the audience became crazy and WHEELS... finished
between applauses , screams , fists and horns raised.
Biff waited for a signal from the staff and after that started a huge version of
POWER AND THE GLORY in the meantime the German audience screamed ZUGABE meaning
encore.
The gig finished and it had been a good concert , Saxon had played, as ever to enjoy
themselves along with the kids and I think that everyone was satisfied.
Personally this is the eleventh time that I've seen Saxon , I hope in the future to
hear a worthy version of HEAVY METAL THUNDER like in the magic early eighties.
After Saxon,two other bands played that don't deserve to be mentionated !.
On Saturday 11 bands played.
In my opinion ( in order ) VIRGIN STEELE , PRIMAL FEAR , and RUNNING WILD
were excellent.
Saxon Rules and keep the torch of heavy metal alive !!!!.
Stefano Ricetti - Italy