SAXON 25/05/99, Plato, Helmond, The Netherlands
Plato in Helmond is a cool small stage, I guess it can hold 500 people or
so. It was not crowded at all, the hall was not even packed. The support
act
sucked. We first thought they were roadies, because they were busy with
installing their equipment. Suddenly the "roadies" started to play.
Although
their music was not that bad, the band had no charisma at all. I believe it
was just a local band.
It took quite long for Saxon to start with their concert. Finally they came
out and played this setlist (songs may not be in the correct order):
Metalhead
Motorcycle man
Dogs of war
The eagle has landed
Song of evil
20.000 feet
Conquistador
Crusader
Travellers in time
747 Strangers in the night
The thin red line
Princess of the night
Strong arm of the law
Wheels of steel
No encores. The concert was damn short, about 1.5 hours.
Metalhead and Motorcycle man were played really good, solid and Biff's
voice
was in perfect shape. Dogs of war was played quite fast, which makes the
song less relaxed and less powerful. The eagle has landed was a surprise
for
me, didn't expect them to do it. Really good to hear it. Great guitar work
from Paul. Really a good live song. Song of evil too, the song roxx! Just
as
20.000 feet, which was also played hard and solid. Conquistador had nothing
extra in my opinion, it was played quite plain, like the album version. It
was a shame the clean guitar sound had some crackle in it. But the
conquistador vehicle contains the drum solo from mr Randall - which was
GREAT. It was a much better solo than last year when I saw them in Tilburg.
He really made a great show of it, it was really great. One of the best
drum
solo's I have heard!! After the drum solo they finished conquistador and
Paul started Crusader.
The rest of the songs were played quite basic and plain. Exept for another
surprise: The thin red line!! This is one of my favourite Saxon songs and
they just did it!!! I couldn't believe it when I heard it. Biff
demonstrated
his great vocal range at the end of the song. After wheels of steel I
expected them to do at least one encore, but cd music was played over the
speakers and the lights went on - that was it, the end. I was a bit
disappointed since they played over 2 hours last year in Tilburg. The
atmosphere was ok and everybody got @#%$ing crazy, but I think Saxon did
not
really experienced it that way, the reason could be that the audience was
quite small and they didn't seem to hear us scream all the time but we just
couldn't make more noise!!
All in all, it was a good concert, but it was not a very special one. To
me,
it seemed like just another concert for Saxon. There was not so much
interaction with the audience as I am used to from Saxon. Biff usually
jokes
more with the audience. However I could see that the band did enjoy
playing,
Paul Quinn was all smiles, as well as Doug Scarrat.
See you next time, Saxon!!
Gerard Alberts
The Netherlands