SAXON LIVE IN SYDNEY

The Forum, May 7 2008

Saxon, LORD and Black Majesty all on the same bill. Could there be a more metal gig anywhere in Australia tonight? Certainly not in the Hordern Pavilion across the road, where Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for My Valentine and Atreyu were playing to a full house of pretend metal fans. The crowd might have been miniscule at the Forum by comparison, but the metal was bigger than a fucking big metal thing.

Black Majesty hit the stage early and to very few people but they didn't let that stop them ripping out a nice set as if there was 1000 people watching. Cranked as they were, the volume was too much for the sparsely populated room and that meant there wasn't a lot of clarity in their sound, a problem that continued throughout the night although the denser crowd later on did soak up some of the bleeding. Nevertheless, Black Majesty would have been disappointed that only people familiar with their songs would have been able to make anything of them because if you did manage to stand in the right location they were quite good. They've really come a long way as a live band and they no doubt stamped themselves into the memories of anyone who got there early enough to catch them. Gio's vocals were pretty spot on and I couldn't help but be somewhat mesmerised by the bass guitar with all the lights and stuff all over it.

Like Black Majesty, LORD had to endure a bad mix and a smallish crowd but also like them they didn't care. Virtually all of the old Dungeon material was excised from the set tonight as they concentrated on key tracks from both LORD albums instead and they seemed none the worse for it, even showcasing at least one new song that went down as well as any of the favourites. This is one band that can take any show they play and turn it into a celebration of their own with a glowing display of energy and fun and tonight was no exception with "Lost in the Light" capping off a solid set only slightly marred by Lord Tim's less than amazing guitar sound on the night he retired his long-time axe for good.

For a good percentage of the by-now reasonable crowd it may well have been enough just for Saxon to be on stage in Sydney for the first time ever. And while you could find dozens of bands half their age who act like they're doing us a favour by coming halfway around the world to play, Saxon work for every cheer they get. Instead of wearying them, age is treating these old Yorkshire campaigners like a good bottle of wine. At 57 Biff Byford is more than twice as old as Tim Yatras from LORD but remains in as fine a voice as at any time in his career and the rest of the band are just as great. While across the street A7X were most likely spitting their mishmash of pseudo-metal with plenty of angst and oh-so-serious pretentions, here Saxon was holding sway with nothing more than good old fashioned heavy metal songs about rocking out and kicking arse with no need for theatrics or histrionics. And they were loud, really, really loud, blasting out with an immense volume that hardly affected their sound the way it did for the supports. Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt threw around catchy riffs and plenty of trade-offs like the severly under-rated guitar team that they are and Nibbs Carter made sure he was keeping everyone entertained. The set was a sprinkling of classics and Inner Sanctum stuff, kicking off with "Atila the Hun" and rocking through good oldies like "Motorcycle Man", "Strong Arm of the Law" and "Witchfinder General". "Let Me Feel Your Power" also got an airing and the main part of the show was finished off by the ridiculously infectious "I've Got to Rock (to Stay Alive)". It would have been awesome had Angry Anderson turned up to help out with this one, but alas that wasn't to be.

I had to skip the encore so as to avoid being stranded in the city until 4am for a train home, which is a bit of a shame because Saxon seemed like they were just getting started. The crowd may not have been what it should have been for this legendary band's first appearance on these shores (and their first tour outside of Europe in six years), but the people who did turn up saw three great metal acts playing it the way it should be done.

Set list:

1. Atila the Hun
2. Dogs of War
3. Let Me Feel Your Power
4. To Hell and Back Again
5. Motorcycle Man
6. Metalhead
7. Power and the Glory
8. Solid Ball of Rock
9. Witchfinder General
10. Guitar Solo
11. Strong Arm of the Law
12. Princess of the Night
13. I've Got to Rock (to Stay Alive)

Encore:

1. State of Grace
2. 20,000 Feet
3. Denim and Leather
4. Ashes to Ashes
5. Crusader