Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 07:48 PM by Giorgos Tsekas
I honestly cannot recall when it was the last time I watched Rage perform live in Thessaloniki. Was it 1999? Or 2000? I honestly got no idea. All I remember is that Wizard was still open and I had a glorious time that night! Years have passed since then, Rage became Refuge… wait, no… well, I’m a bit confused. Anyway, what matters is that 15 years later, Peavy and his new gang returned to our city (on Friday they performed in Athens) to perform at the 20th year anniversary of “Black in Mind” hosted by a friendly and musically close to Metal Invader site, called “rockoverdose.gr”, which celebrated its 5 years of existence the same night. As natural, any hesitations springing by the well of doubts caused by the new line up were quickly erased and the anticipation for the appearance of the Germans became more intense day by day, as Saturday approached. Before referring to Rage’s performance, I’ll need the assistance of Vassilis, a friend of mine, for sharing his experience watching both of the support acts, since I wasn’t present and it would be unfair to ignore their performances in the event’s report.
“Shortly after 21:00 Enemy of Reality hit the stage of the Eightball Club, whose setlist was based on their release “Rejected Gods.”. Of course none of the band’s members was lacking something, but we have to admit that their frontwoman Eliana stood clearly out, with her magnificent operatic voice. It’s a solid group that resembles (and basically is) a meticulous and neat act, though the style of the compositions felt a little bit out of their concert’s waters. Maybe we should blame ourselves for not being educated with such acts and sounds, which can be proven by the mixed impressions the band made to the venue’s crowd. Objectively speaking, it was a good appetizer for the night, which started melodically and highly technical. Later on, we listened to Emerald Sun, who are probably bang their heads against the wall for not recording in Germany during ‘89-’95. Having seen them several times the Thessalonians do not disappoint you and even though they sound like a cheerful twist of Power Metal, which is considered outdated nowadays, Emerald Sun managed to make it sound “dangerous” and fun again. Contagious energy, passion and intensity in one of the best performances, at least the ones I’ve personally attended. Ok, “Metal Dome” is cheesy but I liked it and concert-wise it sounded even better. Probably this was the highlight of their appearance along with “We Won’t Fall” and “Screamers in the Storm.”
Five minutes past 23:00, Peavy and the brand new Rage lineup climbed on stage and took us by surprise! Ten songs in a row from “Black in Mind” and life was slowly fading form our eyes… Mister Wagner was in great shape and sounded like his voice came out from my stereo player. The sound was crystal clear and the crowd was excited and sung along all the time. The setlist was dreamy! “Black In Mind”, “The Crawling Chaos”, “Alive But Dead”, “Sent By
The Devil”, “Shadow Out Of Time”, “In A Nameless Time”, “Forever”, “Until I Die”, “The Price Of War”, “All This Time”!!! The last one acted as a moment to catch our breaths. The rest of the gig was good but not on the same levels as before, since the choices in the setlist were poor. Apart from the “End of All Days” and “Soundchaser”, “Higher Than The Sky” (the last two were part of the encore set), the rest of the songs didn’t match the magnificence of the first ten tracks heads this night. Was it that hard to listen to something from “Perfect Man”, “Secrets in a Weird World”, “Reflections of a Shadow”, “Trapped!” or “The Missing Link”? Well, at this point I should stop complaining and admit that the new lineup has brought fresh air to the group that for 2 and a half hours dominated the stage and the crowd. Of course, with “Higher Than The Sky”, the classic game in which the crowd sings along endlessly the refrain and the band plays “Sweet Home Alabama” or “Holy Diver” in between was on, though both the fans and the band seemed to enjoy every minute.
Instead of a closing sentence, I hope to see Refuge on stage soon, with their setlist being as crowd pleaser as it can be!
