On stage: Savatage

 
- Savatage, Skew Siskin & Freedom Call
 
- Aug. 1999
 
- Cologne (D) -


 
- Savatage, Blaze & Vicious Rumours
 
- Feb. 2002
 
- Tilburg (NL) -


 
- Savatage
 
- July 2002
 
- Aschaffenburg (D) -


 
- Savatage
 
- Aug. 2002
 
- Bochum (D) -


 
- W.O.A.
 
- Aug. 2002
 
- Wacken (D) -

Savatage - August, 1st 2002 - Bochum (Germany), Zeche





 

  


  

When we arrived at the Zeche in Bochum Savatage was starting their soundcheck and so we decided to watch them. It wasn't a usual soundcheck, coz with their touring guitarist Jeff Waters (Annihilator) the band decided to rehearse some more songs and so they played Power Of The Night. Seems that the set list will be slightly changed tonight...

Again the German melodic rockers of Mob Rules were the opening act and again I missed them. This time because Savatage gave us the possibility to do a band shot before the show backstage. Usually it's almost impossible to get the whole band on a photo live and so the 'Mountain King' gave us the chance and we kept hanging around near the backstage area, coz we didn't want to risk to miss this opportunity.

When the Americans and their Canadian guest guitarist entered the stage more people were there to attend the show then I expected. When the fist notes of Commissar came out of the P.A. system about 650 fans were at the Zeche, a good result, coz tonight was the first night of the mighty Wacken Open-Air. Anyway, the fans came to have a good time and the sextet would do their best. I saw that at Chris Caffery's side a candle was lit and later they explained that a long time fan of the band has passed. This shows how much this band cares about their fans! The setlist was almost the same as on the Poets & Madmen tour earlier this year. If Damond Jiniya didn't convinced all fans on the last tour, so he did today. It seems that the whole band was in a better shape. With their Canadian guest they were even stronger, perhaps because Jeff Waters are way better then Jack Frost... Songs like Surrender, Chance, The Wake Of Magellan, Edge Of Thorns and Dead Winter Dead sound better then ever! When Jon Oliva introduced the band he played a few notes of the Canadian anthem while introducing Mr. Waters. The band was joking around on stage and it was obvious that they enjoyed it a lot!

With All That I Bleed they slowed down a little, just to go one with the highlight of the Poets & Madmen album, with Morphine Child! Than the guys took the fans on a travel back in time with 24 Hours Ago, Beyond The Doors Of The Dark and Sirens - incl. Strange Wings - before they turned to play some tracks from Streets. Surely they played Believe, a song which is a must before they played in their final part Gutter Ballet, When The Crowds Are Gone, Power Of The Night - great to hear again - and end with Hall Of The Mountain King. And too soon it was over. With guest guitarist Jeff Waters the band were in my opinion much better then with Al Pitrelli and Jack Frost, even if they did a good job, but an excellent guitarist like Jeff Waters seems to stimulate the band. Even for Chris Caffery it is a challenge to play with a guitarist like Jeff Waters. I can just hope that the band can keep this and that the next album will profit from this experiences. Wow, it was amazing!
  
  






Claudia Ehrhardt

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Savatage - July, 29th 2002 - Aschaffenburg (D), Colos-Saal





 

  


  

The Americans toured Europe earlier this year, now they are back for some festivals and so they added a few headlining shows in-between. And on this hot summer night about 400 fans made it to the small venue in Aschaffenburg and so the venue was packed. Due to the high temperature I decided to stay outside while the German band Mob Rules played. Sorry guys, I promise to see you at least at Wacken!

During the break everybody got in and found a place to watch the show. As an intro they used again Queen's Show Must Go On and then they kicked off the set with Commissar. Many were curious to see how Jeff Waters of Annihilator will fit in. Mr. Waters replaced Al Pitrelli for this shows, coz he had some obligations.

But from the first notes it was obvious that Jeff Waters fit into the band very well and they offered a really tight performance. The setlist was almost the same as on the tour and so it included old and new highlights like Morphine Child (one of my personal highlights of the night and of the album), Chance, Jesus Saves, Strange Wings and many more. Due to the heat everybody was sweating from the first moment. It must have been tough for the band on stage.... Jon Oliva had a lot of fun on stage, he was in a very good mood and made jokes during the whole set. Beside that the 'Mountain King' looked healthier this time.

Again Damond Jiniya could show his talent trough songs like Beyond The Doors Of The Dark where he gets very close to the 'Mountain King' vocally and Alone You Breath where he shows a more emotional side. During the new tracks Jeff Waters had the chance to play leads here and there, but as usual Chris Caffery played most of the leads. Chris Caffery is an extraordinary guitarist, even if still underrated by many music fans. The solid rhythm section of bassist Johnny Lee Middleton and drummer Jeff Plate built the playground for the guitarists and Jon Oliva at the keys. Again they had too many songs to chose from and so they played some medleys. It was extremely hot, but the band gave everything. After the show Jon Oliva said that he thought that some fans would pass out due to the heat, but likely nobody collapsed. And so the fans enjoyed the show and songs like When The Crowds Are Gone and Gutter Ballet. After two hours the band left the stage, everybody was sweated and done, but happy!

Finally I should mention that the crew did a good job and the light show was great. Thanks a lot and I guess now it's time to wait for the next album before they will return to the stages in Europe... Let's hope that it won't take years....
  
  






Claudia Ehrhardt

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Savatage, Blaze & Vicious Rumors
- February, 11th 2002 - Tilburg (Netherlands), 013 -





 

  


  

Opener on this tour were the American power metal quintet Vicious Rumors. The band of mainman Geoff Thorpe offered a kind of best of setlist incl. songs like March Or Die, Digital Dictator, Abandoned and On The Edge. A surprise was the line-up which included singer Brian O'Connor who returned as well as guitarist Ira Black and bassist Cornbread. A strong line-up which presented the songs in a very tight set with a lot enthusiasm. Well done!

After a short break the band of former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley entered the stage. Blaze himself and his band were always in motion and tried to keep in touch with the audience. Guitarist Steve Wray again showed that he is one of the best young guitarists from the UK, also his partner in crime on the six strings John Slater did an amazing job. No doubt why they got job offers after the tour with Helloween... During the 45 min. set the band presented two old Iron Maiden tracks (Man On The Edge and Futureal), some tracks from their debut Silicon Messiah (Ghost In The Machine and Silicon Messiah), but they were out here to promote their new release The 10th Dimension! Due to the limited time they played the title track as well as Kill And Destroy and Leap Of Faith. Live the songs of the debut got better reactions, but that's probably caused by the release shortly before the tour. Anyway, Blaze and his mates did a superb job!

After another break it was time for Savatage! Commissar was used as an intro and Jon Oliva entered the stage and the crowd went crazy! One by one the rest of the bunch walked on stage and they started with Surrender. This was the first time Savatage played headlining shows with the new line-up in Europe, remember last summer they played some festivals and opened for Judas Priest. Some fans were disappointed after their visit last summer and so they had to convinced them.... And they did!!! The Americans have way enough songs to play for hours and so they offered some medleys. Starting with a medley of title tracks incl. Handful Of Rain, Dead Winter Dead, The Wake Of Magellan and Edge of Thorns. The vocal duties were shared and so Damond and Jon partly sang. Obviously Damond got more into it and his stage presence got more intense. Even if their current release was out for almost an year it was time to promote Poets & Madmen again and so they played Man In The Mirror, Drive and Morphine Child. Last summer the new members seemed partly not to be part of the band unity, but now it looks like they play together for ages! Obviously Jack Frost enjoys playing, even if in Savatage he is limited to play almost the rhythm guitars. But he has his band Seven Witches (the new album Xiled To Infinity And One will be out on Feb. 25th 2002) as well as some projects to live life to the fullest guitar-wise. But still Chris Caffery is the one who's playing Criss Oliva's guitar parts and this won't change! Jon Oliva stated more then one time that Caffery is the one and only who will play his brothers parts and so we can just hope that Caffery won't leave one day, coz that would be the end of Savatage! Luckily there are no indications that Chris will leave and as long as he has the possibility to do other projects... Back to the show! The set also offers a few old tunes which were chosen by Jon and Damond and included Sirens, Strange Wings, Beyond The Doors Of The Dark and Agony & Ecstasy. Fans would have been disappointed, if the band wouldn't play Believe and Alone You Breath as well as Gutter Ballet which ends the show. A great show! And the fans wanted more! So Jon & co. came back to play Chance and Hall Of The Mountain King! No more encores, but no reason to be disappointed, coz every night Savatage played more than 2 hrs.! Thanks a lot for that fantastic show!!! And please don't let us wait too long for a new album! Even if Jon announced that it will be out after Christmas... He didn't mentioned the year... ;-)

Great package and value for money, but unfortunately other bands were touring at the same time and so some might missed this concert.... What a pity, coz this was definitely one of the best shows in 2002!
  
  






Claudia Ehrhardt

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Savatage, Freedom Call & Skew Siskin
- August, 20th 1999 - Cologne (Germany), Live Music Hall -





 

  


  

A couple of years ago several heavy metal concerts took place during the PopKomm convention. This year only one event beside the Bizarre Festival! But this show was something special... The only European show of Savatage in 1999! The show wasn't sold out, but just a few tickets were left and the venue was packed when Freedom Call started.

The German power metal band of Dan Zimmermann (Gamma Ray) and singer Chris Bay soon convinced the fans in the first rows. As a little surprise the band got joined on the keyboards by Gamma Ray's Dirk Schlächter. Freedom Call presented a decent set.

As special guest played Skew Siskin, but the fans didn't react very euphoric. Even if Nina C. Alice tried her best to rock the people. Skew Siskin had just about 30 minutes to present old songs and tunes from their latest release What The Hell (like Freedom Call), but the opener pulled the masses on their side.

The band following is still waiting for a new album, but it won't be out before the next millennium. Be patient! With their current output the band toured twice in Europe.... So the 'Mountain King' and Chris Caffery thought about playing more old tunes. On the bands message board the band asked the fans to name the songs they missed the last years.

At 21:45 the intro started.... What to expect? The band of the 'Mountain King' Jon Oliva promised a surprising show. The first surprise when the smoke fall down was Zak Steven's haircut! Luckily this don't effect this God-given voice!!!

This was a very special show, the band sounded very tight and the great light show and also the excellent sound supported the magic of the Americans. Even if their light tech had to fight some technical problems which also were the reason for the lots smoke. Jeff Plate on drums and Johnny Lee Middleton at the four strings built a solid base for the guitars. Especially Chris Caffery seemed to enjoy playing live again and his sometimes very aggressive guitar play and very emotional soli made it special. Al Pitrelli had to step back a little. It's an unwritten rule that Chris Caffery is playing the soli at the old stuff, coz he was the only one who played with Criss Oliva ever and he is carrying the heritage of his 'big brother' Criss Oliva. Songs like Holocaust, Warriors or Strange Wings haven't been played for quite a while. The New York / Florida-based band played many of their hymns, but still couldn't satisfy everyone. Again the six-pack presented unbelievable medley's of Summer Rain / Believe and Sirens / Gutter Ballet. The first encore was a big surprise... Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody! To cover this songs is a challenge and they made it! When Jon had the idea Zak was a little worried about his ability to sing a Freddie Mercury classic, but they made it! Last Illusion finished the first encore and in the last section they played Power Of The Night, Hourglass and Hall Of The Mountain King... After 2 ½ hours the band left and the fans went home sweated and happy that they had the chance to see this band again in a small venue. With the release of the coming album they can make it and perhaps next year they'll play arenas. After all those years of touring, they are now on the way to the top. This band would deserve it!
  
  






Claudia Ehrhardt

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