Hi everybody,it was my FIRST Saxon show, I missed others due to several reasons in the past,one was cancelled the very same day of the show,in other occasions I was away or sick or busy without the chance to go.. ok stop wasting your time with crap.
The show was awesome,it's been one week ago in a club in a very little town called Cortemaggiore near a bigger town called Piacenza,Just for curiousity Filippo Inzaghi was born here(I'm a big AC Milan supporter).
The most interesting thing about the support act(Chinchilla) was the girl at the lights board,a pretty german girl(I guess),probably the girlfriend of one of the members of the Chinchilla(Hi, if you're reading guys),just kidding,they're a good and honest metal band,a couple of songs they played have really good melodies,the rest was quite typical power metal from germany the sound was so so during their set so it was quite difficult to review the band in such a short time,on a nice note the drummer was Klaus Sperling(or something) from Primal Fear,the bass player was really nice as were the other guys,cool guitar licks,thumbs up for the attitude,I should hear some studio stuff to be more accurate.
Saxon:awesome!I heard several bootlegs of the band and I know that it can happen to hear a night when Biff is not at his top and that can ruin a little bit the perfection of some songs,I feared that a little bit,well, not only it didn't happen the show was great and longer than we expected,or better I expected a long show after having read the other reviews and especially the setlists for the previous dates but a friend of mine kept on saying that the band had to go playing in Prague the next day and they had probably to cut some songs to start earlier to prepare the stage for the very long travel,fortunately my friend(not very good with the english)got it wrong,Saxon had to play in Pratteln(Suisse-CH)the next day so there was all the time to play the usual long set.
One of the many cool things about Saxon is they truly feel their crowds and if the crowd is into the show they're not going to end playing till they've given everything on stage,that's something I have a tremendous amound of respect for.
As to the setlist,being my first Saxon show and being a collector of setlists,and one with such a strong passion for certain particular songs-albums I wanted to hear many things,I got many of my wish,for the others I hope in the next shows.
I wanted to hear:
The major classics(Denim,Wheels,Princess..):
Dallas 1pm and 747 Strangers in the night(I know they're superclassics)
Eagle has landed and possibly Broken Heroes
at least one song out of almost all the album
something off the Unleash the beast album,possibly not just the titletrack
something off Killing Ground
I knew they'd play much of the new one(live the songs are better than on studio)
Well, the interesting thing about the Saxon setlist is that Biff decides live what to play,that's awesome cause it means the band can play 30 songs and not just 16(or less) tracks like the most of the other bands.
Now with my big pleasure I got the chance to put my hands on the setlist that Jorg Michael had on his drumkit:
This should have been the setlist:
Lionheart
Backs to the wall
Power and the glory
Motorcycle man
Beyond the grave
Flying on the edge
HM Thunder
Travellers
Broken // Eagle // Crimson
Man and Machine
Atlantis // Live by the sword
747
Jack Tars
Manowar // 20.000 ft.
Srong arm // Solid Ball
Dogs of war
Witchfinder
Crusader
Saxon that night played:
Return(taped intro)
Lionheart
Backs to the wall
Power and the glory
Never Surrender
Motorcycle man
Beyond the grave
Flying on the edge
HM Thunder
Are we travellers in time
Strong arm of the law
Man and Machine
Live by the sword-Unleash the best-reprise of Live by the sword
Eagle has landed
747
20.000 ft.
Witchfinder general
Dogs of war
Crusader
--------
Princess of the night
Solid Ball
Wheels of steel
---------------
Denim and leather
-----------------
Dallas 1 pm
-----------
And the bands played on
(probably not in the correct order apart from the last songs and the first 1,lol)
After Denim and Leather I really thought it was over and I'd have missed tremendously Dallas 1 pm,the break in the middle of the song and the atmosphere-mood of the song I dig it so much(same thing for 747).
On an interesting note you can see that Biff picked one song on this kind of lines in the official setlist in most cases(but for the last line when they played both Strong arm and Solid ball(though the smae friend of mine that understood Prague for Pratteln didn't remember they played Strong arm of the law.. and he wasn't drunk.. not at that moment..)
Broken // Eagle // Crimson
Atlantis // Live by the sword (Atlantis is Searching for Atlantis,a new song)
Manowar // 20.000 ft.
Strong arm // Solid Ball
This means in most cases if you've already heard Eagle has landed no Court of the crimson King or Broken heroes..
Interesting that they had in the setlist even Jack Tars and Man o war(which is the fave song of the new album of that friend o' mine)
As to the sound it was certainly good,better in the new tunes,less wild to play than stuff like Never Surrender or Backs to the wall..
As to the band members I've seen Michael with Stratovarius and other bands before but never that tired like at the end of this show,when he was almost disappeared in the backstage and Biff called him out announcing him And the bands played on Jorg used his last energies and one can see he was definitely tired but happy at the end of the song.
Nibbs live is an experience in the experience,the guy is on fire since song one till the last track and he's the most athletic bass player I've ever seen live, and he's even able to play damn well..
Doug didn't exactly nail perfectly the start of the solo of Dallas 1 pm after the break at the middle of the song and my heart wnated to bleed but did a great job during all the show,always smiling,a very nice guy,he has most of his solos in the first part of the show while the central part has many songs where it's the time for Paul to shine if I remember correctly).
Paul is awesome,at least three,four times during the show Biff went near Paul embracing him and looking at the fans, almost saying.. see folk, we're the real Saxon.. and the start of Princess of the night with Biff saying how a great riffmaker Paul is has been awesome,Biff stops Paul one second after a couple of riffs of the song and the crowd already gone wild then starts the song for real in its entirety, well done boys.
Last note about Jorg Michael(I've already said that Biff's been great)
,a really solid performer,no doubt,though,on studio,and mainly in the bootlegs I believe Fritz fits better the music of Saxon,Fritz is more dynamic,incorporates timechages typical of certain hard rock music(his previous band and background) while Jorg is more a doublebass machine,incredible for the power metal but Saxon is not just that, just my thought.
Awesome show all around, when it started it seemed a little bit like Biff expected something from us,when he had a huge reaction and one that lasted till the end of the show I saw him really moved by sincere appreciation for the crowd's passion,united in metal I could say,adding brothers.. lol..
I'd have loved to hear a couple of other songs,but I can't really ask for more,it was an awesome first Saxon experience LIVE.
Hope you appreciated the report, now,however,to me,it's the time to use such a great material to release the ultimate live DVD and multicd live album.
If the band is going to film at least three,four shows with different setlists they can really give something special to their fans,it wouldn't make sense to release another dvd with the same setlist of the Wacken 2001 show,there are no Killing ground songs there,no Unleash the beast title track(or other tracks apart from Cut out the disease not even the best track for sure)
,no Broken heroes,no new songs,no Rock the nations,no Never surrender,no Backs to the wall.. and other new songs could be added in the next setlists(I'd love to have a different Unleash the beast song,something off Killing ground..).
There would be plenty of songs for a 3cd special priced Eagle has landed part 3 live album and 2disks DVD with more than 30 live songs.. that would be the ultimate Saxon package imo, but they have not to forget the most recent albums otherwise the fans will obviously ask just for the classics..
OK,this one is over..
Cheers
Stay heavy!
blackblood
The show was awesome,it's been one week ago in a club in a very little town called Cortemaggiore near a bigger town called Piacenza,Just for curiousity Filippo Inzaghi was born here(I'm a big AC Milan supporter).
The most interesting thing about the support act(Chinchilla) was the girl at the lights board,a pretty german girl(I guess),probably the girlfriend of one of the members of the Chinchilla(Hi, if you're reading guys),just kidding,they're a good and honest metal band,a couple of songs they played have really good melodies,the rest was quite typical power metal from germany the sound was so so during their set so it was quite difficult to review the band in such a short time,on a nice note the drummer was Klaus Sperling(or something) from Primal Fear,the bass player was really nice as were the other guys,cool guitar licks,thumbs up for the attitude,I should hear some studio stuff to be more accurate.
Saxon:awesome!I heard several bootlegs of the band and I know that it can happen to hear a night when Biff is not at his top and that can ruin a little bit the perfection of some songs,I feared that a little bit,well, not only it didn't happen the show was great and longer than we expected,or better I expected a long show after having read the other reviews and especially the setlists for the previous dates but a friend of mine kept on saying that the band had to go playing in Prague the next day and they had probably to cut some songs to start earlier to prepare the stage for the very long travel,fortunately my friend(not very good with the english)got it wrong,Saxon had to play in Pratteln(Suisse-CH)the next day so there was all the time to play the usual long set.
One of the many cool things about Saxon is they truly feel their crowds and if the crowd is into the show they're not going to end playing till they've given everything on stage,that's something I have a tremendous amound of respect for.
As to the setlist,being my first Saxon show and being a collector of setlists,and one with such a strong passion for certain particular songs-albums I wanted to hear many things,I got many of my wish,for the others I hope in the next shows.
I wanted to hear:
The major classics(Denim,Wheels,Princess..):
Dallas 1pm and 747 Strangers in the night(I know they're superclassics)
Eagle has landed and possibly Broken Heroes
at least one song out of almost all the album
something off the Unleash the beast album,possibly not just the titletrack
something off Killing Ground
I knew they'd play much of the new one(live the songs are better than on studio)
Well, the interesting thing about the Saxon setlist is that Biff decides live what to play,that's awesome cause it means the band can play 30 songs and not just 16(or less) tracks like the most of the other bands.
Now with my big pleasure I got the chance to put my hands on the setlist that Jorg Michael had on his drumkit:
This should have been the setlist:
Lionheart
Backs to the wall
Power and the glory
Motorcycle man
Beyond the grave
Flying on the edge
HM Thunder
Travellers
Broken // Eagle // Crimson
Man and Machine
Atlantis // Live by the sword
747
Jack Tars
Manowar // 20.000 ft.
Srong arm // Solid Ball
Dogs of war
Witchfinder
Crusader
Saxon that night played:
Return(taped intro)
Lionheart
Backs to the wall
Power and the glory
Never Surrender
Motorcycle man
Beyond the grave
Flying on the edge
HM Thunder
Are we travellers in time
Strong arm of the law
Man and Machine
Live by the sword-Unleash the best-reprise of Live by the sword
Eagle has landed
747
20.000 ft.
Witchfinder general
Dogs of war
Crusader
--------
Princess of the night
Solid Ball
Wheels of steel
---------------
Denim and leather
-----------------
Dallas 1 pm
-----------
And the bands played on
(probably not in the correct order apart from the last songs and the first 1,lol)
After Denim and Leather I really thought it was over and I'd have missed tremendously Dallas 1 pm,the break in the middle of the song and the atmosphere-mood of the song I dig it so much(same thing for 747).
On an interesting note you can see that Biff picked one song on this kind of lines in the official setlist in most cases(but for the last line when they played both Strong arm and Solid ball(though the smae friend of mine that understood Prague for Pratteln didn't remember they played Strong arm of the law.. and he wasn't drunk.. not at that moment..)
Broken // Eagle // Crimson
Atlantis // Live by the sword (Atlantis is Searching for Atlantis,a new song)
Manowar // 20.000 ft.
Strong arm // Solid Ball
This means in most cases if you've already heard Eagle has landed no Court of the crimson King or Broken heroes..
Interesting that they had in the setlist even Jack Tars and Man o war(which is the fave song of the new album of that friend o' mine)
As to the sound it was certainly good,better in the new tunes,less wild to play than stuff like Never Surrender or Backs to the wall..
As to the band members I've seen Michael with Stratovarius and other bands before but never that tired like at the end of this show,when he was almost disappeared in the backstage and Biff called him out announcing him And the bands played on Jorg used his last energies and one can see he was definitely tired but happy at the end of the song.
Nibbs live is an experience in the experience,the guy is on fire since song one till the last track and he's the most athletic bass player I've ever seen live, and he's even able to play damn well..
Doug didn't exactly nail perfectly the start of the solo of Dallas 1 pm after the break at the middle of the song and my heart wnated to bleed but did a great job during all the show,always smiling,a very nice guy,he has most of his solos in the first part of the show while the central part has many songs where it's the time for Paul to shine if I remember correctly).
Paul is awesome,at least three,four times during the show Biff went near Paul embracing him and looking at the fans, almost saying.. see folk, we're the real Saxon.. and the start of Princess of the night with Biff saying how a great riffmaker Paul is has been awesome,Biff stops Paul one second after a couple of riffs of the song and the crowd already gone wild then starts the song for real in its entirety, well done boys.
Last note about Jorg Michael(I've already said that Biff's been great)
,a really solid performer,no doubt,though,on studio,and mainly in the bootlegs I believe Fritz fits better the music of Saxon,Fritz is more dynamic,incorporates timechages typical of certain hard rock music(his previous band and background) while Jorg is more a doublebass machine,incredible for the power metal but Saxon is not just that, just my thought.
Awesome show all around, when it started it seemed a little bit like Biff expected something from us,when he had a huge reaction and one that lasted till the end of the show I saw him really moved by sincere appreciation for the crowd's passion,united in metal I could say,adding brothers.. lol..
I'd have loved to hear a couple of other songs,but I can't really ask for more,it was an awesome first Saxon experience LIVE.
Hope you appreciated the report, now,however,to me,it's the time to use such a great material to release the ultimate live DVD and multicd live album.
If the band is going to film at least three,four shows with different setlists they can really give something special to their fans,it wouldn't make sense to release another dvd with the same setlist of the Wacken 2001 show,there are no Killing ground songs there,no Unleash the beast title track(or other tracks apart from Cut out the disease not even the best track for sure)
,no Broken heroes,no new songs,no Rock the nations,no Never surrender,no Backs to the wall.. and other new songs could be added in the next setlists(I'd love to have a different Unleash the beast song,something off Killing ground..).
There would be plenty of songs for a 3cd special priced Eagle has landed part 3 live album and 2disks DVD with more than 30 live songs.. that would be the ultimate Saxon package imo, but they have not to forget the most recent albums otherwise the fans will obviously ask just for the classics..
OK,this one is over..
Cheers
Stay heavy!
blackblood
