SAXON @ Filharmonie Filderstadt/Germany 26-09-2004

[Karsten]

Hi all,

came back late last night from the Saxon show in Filderstadt/Germany.

They did no less than 9 out of 11 songs off "Lionheart" only Justice and Searching for Atlantis were left out...

I have a lot to say about the receiption of the new songs played live, the new drummer, a new but not yet confirmed gig in Mallorca and many more things..Hope to find the time to write a more lengthy review somewhen this week.

Here's a few facts from last night

Support : Metalium and Dream Evil

SAXON @ Filharmonie Filderstadt/Germany 26-09-2004
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The Return
Lionheart
Power And The Glory
Motorcycle Man
Beyond The Grave
Flying On The Edge
Never Surrender
Broken Heroes
Man And Machine
Medley : To Live By The Sword > Unleash The Beast > To Live By The Sword
747
Jack Tars
English Man O' War
Dogs Of War
Witchfinder General
Crusader
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Solid Ball Of Rock
Princess Of The Night
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Denim And Leather
Wheels Of Steel
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Strong Arm Of The Law

Total 119 min.

Sticked exactly to the setlist, probably due to the new drummer (one exception was that Solid Ball or Strong Arm were supposed to be done before Dogs of war in the regular set, the songs were played in the encores...).This will most definitely be the setlist for the upcoming shows as well, the setlist I saw didn't have any date or venue on it.

More later....

Karsten

 

[Karsten]

Well, here's my thoughts on the concert.

The concert took place in one of those newer multi purpose civic center /city halls with a center hall with removeable walls so that the venue can be adjusted to any size...not a venue that sees much rock concerts I'd say and quite the opposite to the "Longhorn" they played the past years when doing Stuttgart.

Went inside and found their soundman Ulli already doing pre soundcheck work (checkin all mics and cables,..).We had a quick chat about personal issues.When I checked the venue later on I met Nibbs outside with a hood over his head.Had a nice chat about the new album, the crowd receiption to the new songs and especially about him being more of a night time guy...He said that his right time is the night time, he loves sleeping all day long and only comes out at night.Then he felt like eating a bit and we both looked for the catering service.
Later on Biff came up to me and we shook hands and spoke a few words.Being a huge fan since the early eighties it's a great feeeling to actually met Biff at shows and see him remembering my face. Biff moved on to instruct the light guy about how he'd like to see the show.They spoke about several effects he'd like during "Lionheart" and "The eagle has landed"...since the guy didn't know the songs Biff was talking about he showed him the songs on the setlist and even sang parts of it to him to make sure what light he wanted during what part of the songs...cool...
Later on they soundchecked some 30 minutes beginning with several chords from "Rock N' Roll Gypsy" followed by mostly new tunes (Man and Machine, Witchfinder General,Beyond the Grave,..).When they were done Dream Evil entered the stage to do two songs.

On a very short notice local favorites "Metalium" were added to the line up and opened the show at 19.15 pm.They played for some 40 minutes playing songs from all of their three albums.I wasn't really impressed, simply not my cup of tea...

After a 10 minute break Dream Evil played another 40 minute set.Crowd reaction at first was a bit lame but later on they got the crowd going.I cannot say that I'd go and see them again...

At 5 past 9 the lights went out for the main act but it took another ten minutes before Ulli got the "OK" over his headphones to start the CD with the "The Return" intro..

The show was great, good to hear most of the new tunes live here.It didn't change my overall opinion on the album though but a lot of the songs sound even more energetic and better in concert.The band really had much fun upstage and the crowd celebrated the band like I've hardly seen it before.

The band apparently enjoyed what they were doing.I was especially surprised to see that even Paul showed some emotions from time to time, I've never seen him laughing and enjoying him so much in the past years.

As for the new drummer...I don't think it's fair to judge him after a single show I heard which was just his fourth overall Saxon show.He's a good drummer, no doubt, but his playing sounds just too sterile and smooth in my ears.He plays the drums just like a clock, maybe a bit too accurate, almost like an atomic clock....more like a drum machine than a human drummer.There's no real life in it, no surprises.Looks to me as if he still needs to warm up with many of the songs and gets used to playing them.He also seemed highly concentrated not to do wrong here.Fritz made playing the songs look much more easy here, he seemed to "live the songs" more.
Jörg also forced a change of speed on several tunes due to his drumming:Wheels of Steel was played a lot faster than usual,Solid ball lacked a bit of speed..
But this will probably change once he played some more shows with the band, up to now for me he still sounds a bit like a foreign body to the Saxon family.

Ticket prices were again very reasonable (some 28 euros) and also the merchandising was far from being overpriced.Regular T-Shirts were 18 euros, hoods only 25 euros.Been to "The Darkness" and "Whitesnake" recently and charging 30-40 euros for a simple t-shirt is nothing less but theft.The new Saxon shirts look killer and sold very well. They were made from Fruit of the Loom heavy quality shirts, another good thing here.Especially the black ones with the blue Lionheart logo sold. I personally Prefered the white one with the english flag ....My estimate would be some 80-100 shirts being sold here this evening.They also sold CDs, DVDs, posters and even picture vinyls of "Heavy Metal Thunder.

If you really want me to bring up a single point of criticism here, it may be the setlist though...maybe playing 9 out of 11 new tunes is a bit too much here, doing the best 5 - 6 would have been fine with me and instead play something different ...Since the album was only out for 5 days, most people were not familiar with the new songs and this is when crowd receiption went down a bit.....but hey, on the other hand they are to promote their new album on this tour and this is what they did..

All in all it was a great night.Will most definitely go to the second to last gig in Pratteln/Switzerland saturday november 13th..let's see who things develop in the meantime...

 

[Karsten]

The second thing I disliked about the show was the horrible sound they had that night..Since Ulli usually does a wonderful job and has mixed almost all Saxon shows in the past decade, one has to put the blame to the hall but also to the crappy PA Saxon brought along this time...They speakers to the left and right of the stage looked like they were some 20+ years old and the sound came out way muddy... They also had way too few speakers that night..I don't know where they got their gear from this time or what company hooked them up with such a lousy PA system...Since I was with Ulli behind the mixing desk, the sound we had was as good as it got that night.Ulli was also not satisfied here and we got several slight complaints after the show....I can only hope that they use the house PA as often as possible on the upcoming shows, can't get much worse than this...

 

[Paxoman]

Nice review Karsten. I agree with your point about too many songs from the new album being played live. Five songs is plenty enough, 9 out of the 11 songs on the album is rediculous. That is not to say that Saxon should just play all the old songs, because I don't think they should. Saxons career didn't end in 1982! There are enough great songs on Unleash The Beast, Metalhead, and Killing Ground to be played live without filling the setlist with a few songs off the new album, plus a load of songs from the early eighties. I hope Saxon cut down on the number of new songs in the setlist, just for the sake of better crowd reaction if nothing else.