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Events and Reports - Blaze Bayley - Live with Decadenze, Concept Of Time and Syth at Ivory Blacks in Glasgow - 24th May 2009
Blaze Bayley's life has been a turbulent one over the past few years, shat on by record labels and left high and dry by band members, his career had gone off the rails only to be yanked back on track by the scruff of the neck with the current beast of an album The Man Who Would Not Die.
Hot on the heel of last years comeback tour which included a packed show at Glasgow's King Tut's venue came the appropriately titled Tour That Would Not Die which included several Scottish shows in its marathon 25 dates up and down the UK. It's always pleasing to see a band with real commitment that are looking to build a grass roots following by travelling on the less worn path.
We had been informed that the support came from 2 local bands Syth and Concept of Time. Concept were supposed to be on first but we turned up to find that Syth had been shunted down the bill for no real reason.
A lesser band would have thrown a hissy fit at this situation but the Syth boys took it in their stride and used every second of their half an hour stage time to show their commitment to True Heavy Metal in front of a partisan crowd.
The band sound is a mix of all those elements that make Heavy Metal so wonderful and the band combine them so well that it's a damming indictment of the UK scene that they are not more widely recognised.
Opening with new song Out of The Night the band were on top form as usual, the mix was slightly bass heavy but didn't detract from the sound too much. Plus Al's bass lines can't fail to impress, so having them at the forefront isn't such a bad thing. Although I did feel a bit sorry for drummer Mark as he due to the compact size of the Ivory Blacks stage he was situated on a kit on the far left of the stage obscured in darkness.
Older fan favourites Warzone and Into The Light followed. The latter features one of the most uplifting solo sections I've heard in Metal track in years, and had many of the audience singing along to the guitar lines.
The band then gave us their version of the Thin Lizzy classic Massacre, vocalist Niall "Legend" Russell took a back seat to give guitarist Baz Fitzsimons his chance to shine on the mike. Next of was another track from their forthcoming album The Reckoning called Ghosts Of The Past. It's Syth's first ballad and to be honest it doesn't completely grab me until it kicks in around the two and a half minute mark were it explodes into life with some quite frankly astounding soloing from Baz and impassioned singing from Legend (Feel free to check out the bands performance of this track on the following Youtube link)
Last up was the epic Battle Rages, first time I heard this track I was very, very drunk and was convinced it lasted for around 20 mind-blowing minutes. It turns out that I was slightly off with my first estimate but its still a sizable beast and almost contains more hooks and clever instrumental sections than is strictly healthy for one song. Plus any chance for Legend to lead the crowd in a time honoured "Woah-Ohh" chant is never a bad thing.
If the first band turned in a fine show the same can't really be said for the second. I've seen Concept of Time more often than I would care to remember and on each and every occasion the band has failed to captivate me.
I struggle to find anything to relate to in their slightly prog-tinged, keyboard-heavy Metal. Their songs have interesting sections but nothing that keeps me captivated for any great length of time. In saying that some of the crowd seemed to enjoy it, so perhaps I'm just missing something.
Next up was that most dreaded of occurrences, the unexpected support band!
I will admit to being slightly inebriated by this point as I had been drinking steadily since around 1pm due to the end of the Scottish Football season. So it took me a moment or two notice the banners being erected stage were not for Mr Bayley but for a band called Decadenze.
It turned out these guys were a fairly young group whose sound is heavily indebted to bands like Velvet Revolver and the like. Not my cup of tea at (or pint of beer) at all and their set completely passed me by. I do remember enjoying a couple of solo sections and thinking "Don't those nice lads all have such lovely sculptured hair-cuts" but that's about it.
By the time Blaze and his band mates hit the stage, the crowd, like me were reaching the very height of our drunken enthusiasm and Blaze didn't waste any time in whipping us into an even bigger frenzy. Hitting the stage with the title track from the latest album they played to the eager throng as if their life depended on it.
Rather disappointingly the size of the crowd seemed to be down slightly on last years Glasgow gig. Although this can be partially explained by the multiple Scottish dates meaning not as many people travelled from outside the city.
In saying that it was one of those gigs where it seemed like every single audience member gave their all and cheered their lungs out for the band. It's extremely obvious that Blaze feels honoured to be on stage playing the music he loves and clearly gives all that he can in every show.
It's an amazing experience, when you see someone performing with their heart on their sleeve and with this being my 3rd Blaze gig its clear he would never consider playing any other way.
The set list drew heavily from the latest release but that's no bad thing at all as almost every track on the album is superb. The next two tracks Blackmailer and Smile Back at Death in particular got the crowd singing along as if they had been listening to them for years.
After the opening salvo from the latest album came one of my favourite Blaze tracks The Launch from the Silicon Messiah album. This is a song designed for the live arena as its breakneck pace and memorable "Godspeed to you" chorus make in insanely good fun to experience live and loud.
Next was the first of two Blaze era Maiden tracks, Lord of The Files. Later in the set we got a song I had been waiting to hear him play live for several years, The Clansman!
So how do you reckon the Braveheart inspired epic went down in front of a Scottish crowd?
If you thought A - Not bad or B - No one really cared, then just give up and stop reading now. However, if you thought that the correct answer was C - The place went fucking mental, then pat yourself on the back and cry "FREEDOM" as loud as you can.
As much as I love Blaze's solo stuff this was the highlight of the night, the crowd erupted with joy as soon as Blaze introduced the song and were jumping and jigging all over the place by the time the it kicked in. Alas there was no room in the set for one of my all time favourite Maiden songs Man On The Edge but this more than made up for it.
At this point I should point out how much Blaze's live shows have improved as a result of what seems to be a rock solid line up. The Bermudez brothers David (on bass) and Nicolas (on guitar) backed up by Jay Walsh (on guitar) and drummer Lawrence Paterson are a tight, fluid unit who will hopefully be backing up Blaze for years to come.
One downside about Ivory Backs is the not only is the stage small it's also very low down which means the band are not always visible if you happen get stuck behind some tall fellow (Such as me, sorry to anyone behind me) but Blaze circumnavigated this by spending quite a bit of time stood atop the barrier at the front of the stage playing the tiny club like an arena.
The band cherry picked highlights from the first 3 Blaze albums including Born As A Stranger, Tenth Dimension, Kill and Destroy and Ghost In The Machine. Before ending on the blistering Robot from The Man Who Would Not Die. I would urge anyone who doesn't own the album to buy it even just for this song. It's bloody fantastic.
It's seemed like the gig was over in a matter on minutes as it flew buy at a breakneck pace. The band and audience seemed shattered but elated at the end and I'm sure it won't be long before Scotland sees Blaze and Co returning again. My only hope is that they finally bust out of the small clubs and break into the bigger venues that they surely deserve.
Blaze Bayley Set List
1. The Man Who Would Not Die
2. Blackmailer
3. Smile Back At Death
4. The Launch
5. Lord Of The Flies
6. Born As A Stranger
7. Tenth Dimension
8. Identity
9. Kill And Destroy
10. Ten Seconds
11. Alive
12. Ghost In The Machine
13. The Clansman
14. Samurai
15. Voices From The Past
16. Robot
(Cheers to Wojtek of www.noizzeater.com for help with the set list)
| | Written by Stuart
Friday, June 12, 2009 |
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