Blind Guardian was in a really good mood and they gave everything; especially front man Hansi seem to enjoy himself a lot, as did we. The crowd was cheering from the beginning to the end and Hansi was fishing a lot for compliments (his own words). Unfortunately they had to perform on a narrow stage, so they weren’t able to move around a lot. But the light show made up for this loss.

As we all know, Blind Guardian music is filled with choirs, orchestral stuff and a lot of different guitar melody lines. The choirs and orchestral arrangements were performed live by a keyboard player and fortunately not by a DAT tape. But sadly I wasn’t able to hear this, but more about that later in the critical part of the story. Making promo for their new CD one could expect a lot of songs from the new album, but this wasn’t the case.

Blind Guardian had a perfectly balanced set list composed of old and new material spread equally over all 7 albums(!) that they have made so far. After “Welcome To Dying” they played: “Nightfall”, “The Script For My Requiem”, “Under The Ice” (ANATO), “The Bard’s Song – In The Forrest and The Hobbit”, “Traveler In Time”, “The Soulforged” (ANATO); according to Hansi a new classic and I agree; “Majesty”, “Time Stands Still”, “Mordred’s Song”, “Punishment Divine” (ANATO) (hard on the drummer), sing along on “Valhalla” and “Images From The Other Side”. After a few “zugabes” (German for: “We want more’s”) BG returned with “”Lost In The Twilight Hall”, the acoustic singalong “A Past And Future Secret” and they finished with “A Journey Through The Dark”.

A lot of people left the floor at 23:30 but the lights still weren’t on yet; in addition fans were still screaming for more. And we got it in a second encore from the “Nightfall In Middle Earth” album, the fantastic “Mirror Mirror”. Thus ends a night in Rijsen where we had seen crowd surfing (wasn’t that illegal?) during “Majesty” and a very enthusiastic BG who gave all they had, but were plagued by several flaws (now here comes the critical part).

First of all, fire the sound man because it was terrible. As this was the last concert of BG in Holland they have probably played in bigger places than this and the sound man thought that the volume should stay the same on every concert. This was way too loud and completely unacceptable. Loud music is inherent to rock music, but when one can only hear a bass guitar the entire night, questions will be raised about the volume. The first ten minutes I stood in front of the speakers and it was unbearable. Near the PA the sound should be best but I could still only hear one big guitar wall (especially the bass). Even at the back the sound wasn’t optimal. The vocals were hard to hear, let alone the orchestral arrangements and choirs.

I could see everybody singing in a microphone but I couldn’t hear them. Even the nice melodic guitar lines and solo’s, which are crucial for the music that BG makes, could barely be heard. And I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that the volume was pushed up (again especially the bass) as the evening progressed. But this could well have been my ears that were getting numb by the punishment of the pounding bass guitar.

Consequently the best songs of the evening were both ballads, where you could hear that BG was still performing well. Therefore, let’s blame the fact that BG was playing very much out of tune on “The Hobbit” (they all were about half a note too low) on the sound man as well; probably bad feedback to the band. But this wasn’t all the misery. What’s the deal with this disco?

The middle part was completely surrounded by a waist high fence, but with the center being lower than the surrounding, the top of the fence was about neck high when seen from the middle. I’m not sure if the fire department would agree with this construction. (Imagine a fire and a panicking crowd in the middle that wants to get out QUICKLY).

Subsequently it was impossible to reach the front of the stage, because you would bump into this boundary every time again, no matter from which side you came. (Of course there was an entrance but we weren’t able to find it). And last but not least, when the concert was finished DJ Asshole started again. And Hansi….please lose some weight and drink less beer or was that a pillow under your T-shirt?

So after 1 ¾ hour the overall feeling was a good effort by BG, an enthusiastic crowd that was screaming and clapping along. But the music of BG requires a lower volume and a better balance between the different instruments. Instead I was deaf from a guitar wall at the end of the evening. Blind Guardian deserves a bigger audience than this; if Rhapsody can play in 013, BG can play there as well (personally I’m more into BG; their music is more complex and has more variation).

They’re live not as well trained as Iced Earth but they definitely have it in them. So please do this again in a bigger hall and with a professional sound man, play somewhat longer and some more material from the new album. And now everybody should go to the shop and by their magnificent new album “A Night At The Opera”.

(Review: Matthijn Vos
Pics: Josje Klouwens)