IRON MAIDEN LIVE IN SYDNEY

Sydney Entertainment Centre
February 24, 2011

With approximately half the audience still filling local bars or crowding the merch stalls, Rise to Remain opened tonight’s show, the second of Iron Maiden’s warm-up performances ahead of their Soundwave Festival appearances. Looking every bit like his father’s son, Austin Dickinson led his young troupe through some energetic if fairly standard metalcore. As much as they’ve played the past two years, Rise to Remain still has some way to go to really develop their own identity and looked a little self-conscious on the vast Entertainment Centre stage playing to almost no one. Nevertheless, they fared much better than Maiden’s openers on the last Australian tour (Steve Harris’ daughter Lauren and the awful emo band Behind Crimson Eyes).


Midway through Iron Maiden’s set, Bruce Dickinson acknowledged that tonight’s audience – unlike the massive sell out tour two years ago – was mostly the band’s old faithful, the die-hards who didn’t come along just to hear the "hits". Which was just as well for them. Fully half the set was drawn from the band’s post-2000 comeback era, none of which had ever been played to an Australian audience before. But that didn’t seem to matter, and it was great to see that a good majority of the crowd were able to sing along with the five Final Frontier tracks that were aired, four of which made up the first five songs of the set. Of those, the opening salvo of "The Final Frontier" and "El Dorado" got the warmest response as Maiden burst onto the stage but when the introductory riffing of "2 Minutes to Midnight" was unleashed, a massive roar like 9000 people going "ROOOAARRRRR!!!" almost drowned out the band.

"The Talisman" seemed like an odd choice to follow that, but as perhaps one of their most technically demanding songs I could understand it being played so early. This one seemed to split the crowd a bit, but the band of course pulled it off. "Coming Home" was an early highlight, and "Dance of Death" is a much better song live. One of the biggest reactions, however, was reserved for "The Wicker Man", a clear sing- along favourite being played in Sydney for the first time with the crowd almost lifting the roof off and the band reponding by pulling out every stop.

Unlike the previous tour, Dickinson only got into costume once, for the always ball-tearing "The Trooper" during which he must have run at least a mile waving two Union Jacks. Yet again, as usual, he proved himself to be metal’s – indeed, one of the entire rock world’s – consummate frontman. He engaged everyone in the crowd, pointing out sections for special attention, offered his "Scream for me, Sydney!" rally cry several times (not as often as last time though, thankfully) and always has something poignant, interesting or funny to say. He made jokes about Shane Warne as he tossed a pink bra into the crowd from where it had (apparently) come. He talked about playing in Singapore and in Indonesia, in front of Islamic "metal brothers" who don’t care about race or religion when they’re rocking out to Maiden and in a gesture that caused one of the biggest cheers of the night, dedicated "Blood Brothers" to our cousins suffering from the earthquake disaster in New Zealand. And he never stopped moving. Nor did guitarist Janick Gers, whose crazy dance steps and rubbery contortionist moves when he slips into his own zone are as much of a spectacle as the singer’s exuberant athleticism.

For their part, the rest of the band were hardly boring to watch either, for without a lot of extravagant props and flashy stage effects, Iron Maiden relied on their music and natural showmanship to keep the crowd engaged as the back half of the show was filled out with more familiar songs like "Fear of the Dark" and "Iron Maiden" that was, of course, the cue for a giant red-eyed alien Eddie to prowl the stage and engage in a guitar duel with Dave Murray.

"The Number of the Beast", "Hallowed be Thy Name" and "Running Free" were reserved for the encore, the second of which not only got the greatest cheer of the night but left me both with no voice and a very clear understanding of why I and thousands of others love this band so much. Iron Maiden were truly outstanding tonight and if anyone went away disappointed that they didn’t play "Run to the Hills" then they should kill themselves.



The Final Frontier
El Dorado
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Talisman
Coming Home
Dance of Death
The Trooper
The Wicker Man
Blood Brothers
When the Wild Wind Blows
The Evil That Men Do
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden

--

The Number of the Beast
Hallowed be Thy Name
Running Free

OPETH: In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall

Released: October 2010
There was a point about halfway through the first disc of this immense DVD when I suddenly realised that the flag draped over the barrier at the front of the stage wasn't the Swedish flag but the Norwegian one. Either some Norwegian wanted to show the world he was there or some well-meaning British fan had brought the wrong flag to the gig. It's only a minor thing really, but rather distracting. And it may be a telling point about this near-three hour long live performance from one of the world's best bands that I could get distracted from it so easily. Because unlike groups like Tool and Pink Floyd who adorn their shows with visuals, lightshows and other effects to draw attention away from the fact that the band itself is pretty much just standing there, Opeth use only a big screen with some static images on it.

As magnificent a band Opeth is, and as flawless as this live version of Blackwater Park is also, the fact is that if you removed the visual part of this DVD you would miss nothing. Mikael Åkerfeldt doesn't speak a word to the sold-out Albert Hall crowd for the entire 71 minutes of the first disc, and barely acknowledges them at all. As a live act, Opeth really isn't the most dynamically interactive band. On the flipside, they are, as mentioned, brilliant and more capable of allowing the music to speak for itself than almost any other.

This special 20th anniversary performance was filmed and recorded at London's iconic Royal Albert Hall and features not only a meticulous live recreation of the Blackwater Park album but a second, even longer set that includes a song from each of their other albums, presented in chronological order. Unsurprisingly, every single track is spot-on, perfectly recreated in the live forum as it would be in the studio, so in essence this is virtually a best-of collection. Åkerfeldt becomes rather gregarious on this second disc, talking the crowd through the history of the band and even the genesis of some of the tracks, and Frederik Akesson finally gets some screen time, unlike on the first disc where the camera cuts away from him every time he starts soloing. As a visual spectacle however, it's no different from the first, and at an hour and three quarters it is probably a bit of a long haul even for the most rabid Opeth nut.

If anything though, In Live Concert... is the supreme example of how great Opeth is and how they got to be that way. The playing time above doesn't include the 40 minute interview and 45 minute tour documentary, only the actual concert itself. It might be tough to sit through all in one sitting, but it's certainly something that needs to be seen.

Disc One:

1. The Leper Affinity
2.Bleak
3.Harvest
4.The Drapery Falls
5.Dirge for November
6.The Funeral Portrait
7.Patterns in the Ivy
8.Blackwater Park
9.Interview with Mikael Åkerfeldt

Disc Two:

1.Forest of October

2.Advent

3.April Ethereal

4.The Moor

5.Wreath

6.Hope Leaves

7.Harlequin Forest

8.The Lotus Eater

9.Documentary: On tour with Opeth

 
Rating: 95%

FIVE STAR PRISON CELL Live in Katoomba

Hotel Gearin, Katoomba
May 6, 2010

"Frankenbok never did this shit!" Adam Glynn joked as Five Star Prison Cell's set was interrupted for the second time by technical issues. After just two songs, Mark Holain's guitar busted a string and at the end of the third bassist Cam McDonald's wireless gave out. Some wag had yelled at support band Red Bee that they were a hard act to follow and in front of a small but hardy (and vocal) Katoomba crowd, it looked for a moment like Melbourne's technical metal monster was going to rue making this trip.

But you don't get to the top of Australia's metal pile easily, and like a consummate professional Glynn kept the crowd entertained with wisecracks and jokes at his bandmates' expense while they got their shit together. Then they just blasted the place into submission with a combination of showmanship, brutality and technical wizardry that has likely never been matched inside this building. In the end, the mishaps and the need to win over a new crowd so late on a weeknight helped Five Star Prison Cell turn on an even better show than usual. Glynn in particular was in fine form with a constant stream of jibes and light-hearted banter coupled with his astounding range of vocalisations: grunt, screams, bellows, roars and the occasional croon. The rest of the band was a blur of energy, especially McDonald who almost wore a circular groove into the stage.


Much of Slaves of Virgo was highlighted tonight, but it was also a showcase for some incredible new songs. "Modus Operandi" left my jaw hanging open in amazement and "Lamia" was almost terrifying in its technical precision and sheer heaviness. It wasn't only me who was impressed as not just one encore but two were demanded; Five Star finally ended the show with "Do the World a Favour" and no doubt made a new roomful of fans.

A roomful of fans is something that Red Bee already had when they played earlier. These local lads pretty much own this room whenever they appear here, and with good reason. Fronted by the towering and affable Dan Silk and armed with a bunch of catchy, groove-heavy songs, Red Bee are an engaging and energetic live band. Like FSPC, they were showing off some new tunes tonight but their parochial fans ate them up as if they were old favourites. The Bee clearly enjoy playing live and generated almost a party atmosphere at the Gearin, with Silk's brother Jim dragging a pot plant into the centre of the stage at one point to join in the fun.

Being a prominent local act, they were urged on to two encores and probably would have done more if there hadn't been another band on after them and if the show wasn't already running an hour late. Gigs always seem to run overtime at Gearin's, but apparently no one cares.

New local doom band Myraeth opened the night on a rather more sombre note than what would come later. Less than a year old, they've only been playing live a couple of months but they have considerable experience in other bands (two members are ex-Lycanthia) and it showed. While their doom-death style wasn't to everyone's taste tonight and their current take on the genre is pretty formulaic, they play it well and their set seemed to be over rather quickly even though they got a full forty minutes. Myraeth is a nice new addition to an under-populated niche.

An all-round good quality night of metal mayhem on the mountain. Hopefully there will be more!

AUSTRALIAN METAL AWARDS

The Forum, Moore Park


Saturday night The Forum in Sydney rolled out the red carpet for the biggest names in Australian metal music. Tuxedo'd luminaries and their glamorous partners courted the cameras as they took their places inside at tables they had paid $450 a ticket for, and a who's who of celebrities kept the crowd entertained with music and comedy.

Like fuck. Sure there was music, and certainly comedy (at the same time, in fact), but instead of the nightmare that would make Cliff Burton turn in his grave and Dimebag return from his and rip shit up, the Australian Metal Awards was mainly a bunch of hard-drinking male metalheads and a pleasingly high percentage of hot metal chicks (including a couple of pseudo-lipstick lesbians who seemed to have made it their mission to flirt with absolutely everyone) watching some bands while every now and then some guy grabbed a microphone and yelled a bunch of stuff no one could understand that was, in fact, the announcement of the night's prize winners. The rumoured appearance of Phil Anselmo never occurred, but Ugly Phil O'Neill turned up for a while and even watched one of the acts. The focus was meant to be the awards themselves, but to be honest the attraction for most was the first (and only) performance by Sadistik Exekution in 10 years. There was a lot of bands in between however, so that meant a lot of drinking at the nearby pub for a lot of people who only came to see the headliners; but that's not to say there wasn't quite a crowd watching the festivities.

The Awards were the labour of love for Matt Willis and Natalie Meisenhelter, who persisted with the idea in spite of all kinds of cynicism and criticism and while technical difficulties on the evening itself forced some last minute changes of plan, things seemed to go rather well from my end of the beer can. Having the award presentation in the roped-off VIP section on the top floor didn't really work though, as no one on the levels below could see or hear what was going on -- it just sounded like a dude yelling things. Also, with Andrew Haug from Triple J, Ugly Phil from MMM, the owner of Utopia and Riot!'s Chris Maric there at different times of the night, I would have thought they could have been utilised as guest presenters. An idea for next year, perhaps?

Bane of Isildur and Eyefear were on early; too early for this reviewer unfortunately, but I did arrive in time to see Geelong's Death Audio. These guys have done some bigger shows around Melbourne over the last year including a few supports with The Red Shore. They're confident and have a pretty talented bass player but while their version of generic metalcore is solidly played and performed it is, to be fair, also solidly generic. Literally dozens of bands are playing this style now and as good as they are, Death Audio don't do anything with it. After them was Five Star Prison Cell, a band I love to watch but can't listen to for longer than a song or two because their time-signature free, 100-riffs-in-two-minutes, zero-melody mathcore spazz-metal attack always threatens to make my brain explode. So I headed outside and caught up with a few people including the singer for one of my favourite ever bands who was already quite pissed indeed.

The next band on the bill were the night's big winners. Despite not even having a record out yet and no real profile outside of Sydney, the death metal band Ouroboros picked up three awards including Best Bassist, Best Drummer and Best Unsigned Band. So they certainly had a lot to prove tonight, especially to everyone who kept saying "What? This guy's better than Dave Haley?" (Haley himself probably doesn't care all that much). Whether such comments are fair or not is really a matter of opinion; Ouroboros are quite good, they have a lot of presence and some decent if not-quite-original songs (one of them sounded quite a lot like Mortal Sin's "Mayhemic Destruction"), but they have still have some way to go before they're headlining their own shows at the Gaelic. After them came Asecretdeath, whose screamo/post-metal/noisecore hybrid didn't seem to gel well at all with many and it seemed that quite a few punters ducked back to the Fox and Lion for a while before the place got filled up with trendies and hipsters.

Chaos Divine followed, the awesome Perth progressive quintet who picked up no less than five awards tonight. It was doubtful if too many people in the room had even heard of these guys before this show but quite a lot of them went away talking about them. And they weren't saying bad things. Rock, death metal and melodic progressive stylings, Chaos Divine blend it like the best of them and should be one of Australia's biggest metal bands before too much longer.

Finally, after a long, long break, the band that almost everyone was there to see -- younger fans who'd never seen them play, older fans who wanted to see them again and curious others who wanted to find out what the fuss was about -- finally came on. If Chaos Divine were the sublime, then Sadistik Exekution were the ridiculous. It may have been ten years since they've played last, but they haven't changed a bit, except that perhaps Rok gets crazier with age. Dave Slave has always billed himself as the mental one of the band (and that's saying a lot), but Rok was off the fucking planet tonight, crawling around on his knees and slapping himself constantly in the head while making spastic noises, ranting and raving, swearing and generally behaving in a totally unhinged fashion. Musically of course, they were as terrible as a band that proudly announces themselves as "the most fucked band in the world" could be, although there were some surprisingly coherent moments like the doomy opener. But they were hilarious. I could hardly stop laughing from the moment they began. Rok was so berzerk that it was difficult to pay attention to what the others were doing and it almost seemed as if the band was having the same trouble sometimes.

Reaction from punters was intriguing. "I can't believe I paid $45 to see this shit!" said one friend. "This is the worst band I've ever seen!" said another, then left. "Does he ever say anything else?" I was asked by one young metaller when Sad Ex had played yet another song where all the lyrics sounded like "Death! Fukk! Metal! Kill! Fukk! Death!" I only smiled. At the end, they played "The Magus" and finally seemed to actually click as a band instead of just four guys making a fuckload of noise. Rok went crazy and Kriss Hades slashed his guitar strings and then smashed the instrument to pieces. It was nuts. Outside afterwards, people didn't seem to know whether they had just seen a very strange band or a very strange circus when really, it was kinda both.

Some of the winners and a few of the bands left people aghast, but aside from the technical hitches the night seemed to be something of a success. Hopefully some of the cynics and critics can shut up now and help out in 2010. With the mountain of killer Australian metal releases that have come out in 2009, there should be more than just a few winners next year.

• Best Metal Fan/Web/Magazine: http://www.metalobsession.net/
• Most Popular Merchandise: Psycroptic
• Best Album Cover: Psycroptic - (Ob)servant
• Best Band Name: Psycroptic
• Best Film Clip: Psycroptic - "Initiate"
• Best Producer/Recording Engineer: Jarrod Hearman (Sing Sing Studios) - Chaos Divine, Avalon
• Best Drummer: Dave Horgan - Ouroboros
• Best Bass Player: Michael Conti - Ouroboros
• Best Keyboards Player: Chris Stevenson - The Eternal
• Best Regional Band: Alchemist
• Best Youth Band: Asphyxia
• Best Export: Psycroptic
• Best Live Band: Psycroptic
• Best Guitarist: Jimmy Lardner-Brown, Killrazer
• Best Vocalist: Dave Anderton, Chaos Divine
• Best New Band: Death Audio
• Song of the Year: Chaos Divine - "Refuse the Sickness"
• Best Unsigned Band: Ouroboros
• Best Album: Chaos Divine - Avalon
• Best Overall Band: Chaos Divine

SLAYER AND MEGADETH LIVE IN SYDNEY

Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
October 8, 2009

With two of the greatest thrash bands of all time playing together here for the first time, it was pretty unsurprising that not only was this show sold out weeks ago but the line to get in stretched right around to the back of the venue and halfway down Driver Ave. So it was impossible to catch opening act Double Dragon, who got a twenty-minute warm up set, and in fact Megadeth had already begun by the time I made it inside.

The sound wasn't the greatest it could have been, but Megadeth didn't let this impede them as they ripped through a bunch of their best-known songs, having kicked off with "Set the World Afire" that somewhat appropriately set the place ablaze. Each new incarnation of Megadeth seems to reignite the band, and after pulling the strings with Jag Panzer for a decade, new guitarist Chris Broderick was setting about showing how he fit into the machine. The closing trade-offs of "Hangar 18" were a perfect way to do so and the crowd were treated to a tight set of favourites with only "Head Crusher" making the cut from new album Endgame. Indeed, that was the only concession to post-2000 material made for the whole set, as Dave Mustaine led his men through a choice set of cuts from the classics (oh, and Cryptic Writings), keeping both the energy levels and the shred factor high. Mustaine's voice wasn't always up to the task, but he's never been much of a singer and the rest of the band made up for it with a dynamic and engaging performance. "Tornado of Souls" and "Head Crusher" were killer and for the encore they worked "The Mechanix" into a medley with "Holy Wars" for a rousing climax to the set.

Slayer took the stage after a minimal changeover and were as omnious-looking as always. For some reason they opened with the title track to the new album, a song that's only been out for about a week and one that almost no one yet knew. Even had they known it, the mix was so uneven and awful that it didn't matter. A band of this stature playing in a room like this should not sound so diabolical: the guitars were unevenly matched, with Kerry King blowing Jeff Hanneman offstage, Tom Araya's vocals were buried and Dave Lombardo was louder than everyone. Once the glue that held Slayer together, tonight the drummer was part of what made them come unstuck. He was all over the place like the mix itself. And really, Slayer seemed to be just going through the motions. It was obviously more than enough for their fans, possibly the most fanatical in metal, but their uninspiring and uninspired newer songs only got in the way of the classic catalogue, and even they seemed half-arsed. By "Dead Skin Mask" they were starting to warm up like the jets of fire shooting from the lighting gantry but the set was two-thirds done by then. Something wasn't sitting well with the Slayer lads tonight, but leaving off the scream in "Angel of Death" could well have been a precursor to Araya's laryngitis vocal blow-out in Melbourne the next day when he could barely sing at all.

The Slayer nuts won't agree, of course, but Megadeth won the night.

Megadeth setlist:

1. Set the World Afire
2. Wake Up Dead
3. Hangar 18
4. Skin o' My Teeth
5. She-wolf
6. In My Darkest Hour
7. Devil's Island
8. Tornado of Souls
9. Head Crusher
10. Rattlehead
11. Symphony of Destruction
12. Peace Sells
13. Holy Wars/The Mechanix (encore)

Slayer setlist:

1. World Painted Blood
2. War Ensemble
3. Jihad
4. Born of Fire
5. Psycopathy Red
6. Mandatory Suicide
7. Chemical Warfare
8. Ghosts of War
9. Hate Worldwide
10. Disciple
11. Dead Skin Mask
12. Hell Awaits
13. Angel of Death
14. South of Heaven
15. Raining Blood

DREADNAUGHT LIVE IN SYDNEY

Dreadnaught, Switchblade, Be'lakor, Darker Half, From Winter's Grace
August 8, 2009
Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt


When veteran campaigners Dreadnaught announced a Sydney date with a bunch of staunch up n' comers, it was time to once again come out of gig-going hibernation and try to find a parking space in Leichhardt on a Saturday evening to catch a show that held the promise of awesomeness. By the time I arrived, From Winter's Grace had already played and the room was full and vibing greatly to the melodic strains of Darker Half. Tonight was the first time I'd seen them since their early days when they really weren't very good so the change I noticed was stark, if not unexpected considering only one guy is left in the band from back then. While it was new guitarist Brad Dickson's first show with them tonight, the rest of Darker Half have spent much of the year touring and becoming a lean, mean metal machine in the process. Their slick trad/power sound struck the right chord with the crowd which was quite large and eager considering how early it still was.

Melbourne's Be'lakor have been getting all kinds of wraps for their dark noise and tonight was the proof as to why. These days the term "melodic death metal" conjures up images of Swedish metal-gone-lame acts like Soilwork and In Flames and their myriad of clones, but these guys who were scarcely out of nappies when The Red in the Sky is Ours came out go back to its roots and produce a dark, heavy and crushing style like early Dark Tranquillity crossed with the progressive meanderings of Opeth's Morningrise period. Be'lakor might not have moved around as much as the Darker Half lads, but they held the audience just the same with a tight set of great songs with real death metal vocals and not this raspy scream that masquerades as same so much lately. They really are something to check out.

Much like Darker Half, Switchblade has seen some line-ups come and go but it hasn't slowed them down. While Dreadnaught were the deserved headliners, it was no surprise this band drew the biggest crowd. These guys are arguably Sydney's most popular metal act at the moment, and I have never seen them play a bad show. This evening was no exception. On the back of several other high profile shows and a killer new album, Switchblade cut a swathe through the Bald Faced Stag crowd with a high-energy assault of aggressive groove and twin-guitar modern metal that highlighted the choicest cuts off both their albums. Andrew Najdek and Anthony Delvecchio make a formidable guitar partnering and Mat Picco nails everything behind the kit.

Dreadnaught has been under-appreciated in this city for too long, so the brilliant undercard meant they had a really decent crowd when they unleashed "Tattooed Tears". A few people may have left by then, but more fool them. With former bassist Squiz making a special appearance on behalf of an injured Ando tonight, the Naughties tore through their latest album in its entirety, omitting only the acoustic tracks and replacing them with a trilogy of earlier songs with the same level of venom as their newies. Just like the band to precede them, Dreadnaught are always awesome and explosive live, Greg Trull the angry, tortured front man, Richie and Damon trading melody lines and carving out catchy rock-inflected riffs while up the back drummer Racca rolls out the beats effortlessly. By the end of the set they had the crowd wanting more, and only finished up because Squiz "didn't know anymore songs" but they had rounded out the night with a devastating performance that may well have gotten though to the Sydney fans at last.

Dreadnaught set list:

• Tattooed Tears
• The Push
• Save Your Life
• Collapse
• More Than One Way
• Agony/Ecstasy
• Dead in the Dirt
• 10x the Pain
• Twist the Knife
• The Game
• The Gobbler
• Buried

PINK LIVE IN SYDNEY

If I only had one word to describe this show then I'm not sure I'd be able to find it. Spectacular? Amazing? Tremendous? None of those seem superlative enough by themselves. I'm quite sure I've never seen a concert like it, and after 28 years of concert-going and having seen everyone worth seeing from U2, Pink Floyd and the Stones to some crappy little indie band at a pub in Waterloo, that's saying a lot. In fact, this could have been the best show I've ever seen. I'm not quite sure what I expected. Pink's always struck me as an artist with real integrity and talent far beyond the usual plastic pop divas (like the one-hit rn'b "sensation" I got dragged along to see one night who nervously lip-synched three songs and slunk away like an embarassed school girl), but I certainly didn't expect this. As much as I love Napalm Death and Iron Maiden, I've never seen Barney Greenway or Bruce Dickinson sing while hanging upside down from a trapeze four storeys in the air, and probably never will. This feat alone puts Pink a long way out in front of just about any performer ever (there is, of course, an argument that those guys don't need to pull such stunts, which is true, but watching someone do it is still very, very cool).

More than half the crowd were women, which is starkly different from the 2/3 male audiences I'm used to seeing at metal shows, and ran the gamut from middle-aged mums to little girls to 18-25s wearing rub-on tattoos and short blond wigs. Warming them up for the main event was Sydney band Faker. Their New Wave-ish sub-XTC guitar pop is catchy enough to keep a good portion of the crowd entertained for a while, and they did seem to get a surprisingly long set; at least, it appeared to be quite long. I'm not sure whether Nathan Hudson is English or if he just uses an English accent as part of his band's Britpop schtick but if it is just an act then someone should punch him in the face. The keyboard/guitar player dude ponced around so much I thought he was going to whip out a keytar by the end of it; a couple of catchy tunes aside, Faker are a bit like a crappy New Order cover band, but shittier.

Not too long afterwards, with "Highway to Hell" cranking out over the screams from the crowd, the lady a stupendous amount of Australians are still clammering to see burst out of a trapdoor in the middle of the room. With her six-piece band kicking off into "Bad Influence", Pink whizzed through the air on a harness to a main stage decked out like the titular funhouse of her current album, festooned with carnival lights and with a big slide each side of her drummer. It would be easy for me to say this was an overhyped, all-show-and-no-go debacle, but it would also be very wrong. Only the most jaded curmudgeon could not have been entertained by this extravaganza. Pink is the real deal: pint-sized but larger than life, tough and tender, and there's an air of genuine honesty in whatever she does. Instead of just a randomly-ordered parade of hits, the Funhouse show is more like a musical in five acts. After the tough rock chick opening stanza, she shifted into a more seductive mode, writhing around on a couch to an almost industrialized version of "I Touch Myself" before getting all bold and brassy again with "So What".

Then the dancers and backing singers were gone as Ms Moore did "Family Portrait" accompanied only by the piano before she made herself even more vulnerable by attempting to play a guitar for "I Don't Believe You," making fun of her complete lack of ability and stopping a couple of times to ask her guitarist if she was "doing it right". A startling and thunderous version of "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" ramped up the party atmosphere once again, during which all stops were pulled. With no more of a waver in her voice than if she were dancing around down below, Pink dangled and swung upside-down from a trapeze four storeys above the stage. Yep, Gene Simmons might fly up to the rafters, but he stands on a little platform once he's up there. Pink was being held head-down by her ankles, and singing better than dozens of her contemporaries do when they're standing still. The aerial tricks continued into the encore too when she finished off a rock version of "Get the Party Started" by bungee-jumping and closed the show by sailing above the audience dripping wet and wrapped in a huge pink ribbon.

This truly was a spectacular show. I'm not about to go out and carve "P!nk" into my flesh, start putting her music on repeat in the car or anything like that, but for a grisled old metalhead who went along to be with the wife and to see what all the fuss was about, I came away thinking I'd just seen one of the best shows ever. And that's pretty much what a concert should do.

Set list:

• Highway to Hell (intro)
• Bad Influence
• Just Like a Pill
• Who Knew
• Ave Mary A
• Don't Let Me Get Me
• I Touch Myself
• Please Don't Leave Me
• U + UR Hand
• Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)
• So What
• Family Portrait
• I Don't Believe You
• Crystal Ball
• Trouble
• Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You
• Sober
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• Funhouse
• Crazy
• Get the Party Started
• Glitter in the Air

PS: I should have mentioned this, but her band was killer. I tried to find out who they were but wasn't able to. The drummer was great and the lead guitarist is a monster.

DEATH ANGEL & ARMORED SAINT LIVE IN SYDNEY

It was definitely a night for the old school as two true veterans of the American metal scene hit Sydney for the first time in their careers.

Paindivision opened the night with a short set of high-energy rocking metal, the debut for their new young vocalist who had only three days to prepare for the job. Even with what is now almost a completely new line-up, the Sydney quintet was solid as always, a strong warm-up for what was to come with “Flames of the Reaper” getting an appreciable cheer from the growing crowd.

With barely enough time for anyone to grab a beer or take a piss, Armored Saint walked out and ripped straight into "Reign of Fire" to a mighty roar and the pace barely dropped from that moment. Finding something to follow up one of their best songs wasn't hard. "March of the Saint" rolled out next, then came "Tribal Dance". Jeff Duncan and Phil Sandoval scooped out generous helpings of Armored Saint's rock-flavoured metal riffing with favourites like “Long Before I Die” and even "Lesson Well Learned" from the first EP getting an airing. John Bush has long been esteemed around these parts as one of the best true singers in metal and he certainly didn't tarnish that reputation tonight. After watching him climb onto the bass bin a couple of times I was almost expecting him to repeat the somersault he took into the crowd when he was out here with Anthrax in '96.

Armored Saint's 40-minute set seemed to fly by in less than half that as they fired off their constant stream of classic metal belters. As I waited for the encore, somebody yelled in my ear that they'd been told Death Angel had blown the Saint off stage the night before. That meant that either Armored Saint had not been on their game or Death Angel was something incredible. Armored Saint then capped off their night with "Can U Deliver", showing us again that they certainly could. They were going to be a hard act to follow.

It turned out that Death Angel was something incredible. In the interview I'd done with him a month or so before, Mark Osegueda had emphasised that his group was very much a live band, and tonight was the proof. This was up there with the best live performances I've ever seen. "Lord of Hate" began and the place just went nuts, the band pumped to be Down Under after so many years and the crowd pumped that they were here. Death Angel’s set was just one long assault of thrash-infused metal goodness. Osegueda proved himself a perfect front man, exhorting the crowd into action and telling us again and again how important it was for he and the band to be in the country. He was almost a blur for most of the night, and the rest of Death Angel were also barely still.

“Voracious Souls” tore some new orifices and a few songs later the guys unloaded an unholy triumvirate that dominated the evening. “Seemingly Endless Time” was simply amazing, far better in the live situation than on Act III and then came the two best songs from The Art of Dying, “Thrown to the Wolves” and “Devil Incarnate”, back to back. “Sonic Beatdown” lived up to its name and yet Death Angel still had more to deliver. They never faltered. Ted Aguilar and Rob Cavestany tore out tasty leads on top of riff after infectious riff and Andy Galeon kept everything tight in the engine room. After waiting for the room to virtually beg them to return, Death Angel closed the night with “Kill as One”, thus ending one of the best nights of classic metal this city has seen in many a long day.

This was a show that should not have been missed from two bands that helped to write the book and still have what it takes.

Death Angel setlist:

• Lord of Hate
• Evil Priest
• Buried Alive
• Voracious Souls
• Dethroned
• Carnival Justice
• Seemingly Endless Time
• Thrown to the Wolves
• Devil Incarnate
• Sonic Beatdown
• Soulless
• Bored
• 3rd Floor
• Kill as One

ICED EARTH: Alive in Athens: The DVD

Released: 2006

Iced Earth's 1999 double-live album Alive in Athens is this generation's Live After Death, one of the best live heavy metal albums of all time. The accompanying DVD statement, finally issued seven years after the triple CD and multi-LP box set, is a disappointingly flat and amateurish concert film. I'm pretty sure it's not what Jon Schaffer would have wanted to give to his fans, which is probably why Century Media waited until the band had moved to another label before they released it. And considering how much effort Schaffer puts into everything his band releases, it's pretty obvious that he had no say in Alive in Athens: The DVD. The booklet is just a reprise of the one from the CD and the footage is decidedly ordinary.

On the plus side, the audio is excellent, but if you've already got the CD or quintuple-vinyl version of this you'd already know that. As such, the DVD doesn't add much to the experience. If anything, it probably detracts from it, because when you watch a concert as long as this on TV, you really want something more than static camera angles, poor framing and unimaginative editing. Many criticised Iron Maiden's Rock in Rio DVD because of the myriad of quick edits, and while it's true that at times it was a bit of a headspin, their two and a half hour set never got boring.

By halfway through Alive in Athens, you'd swear you were watching the single most boring live band in history. Sure, 80% of Iced Earth's songs are based around the same riff, but I've never been bored by their albums. So either they are incredibly tedious live, or this DVD makes them out to be that way through amateurish production. Maybe it's a bit of both, as I've never been to an Iced Earth gig, but snappier editing would have made this far more enjoyable regardless.

I stuck with this for about two-thirds of the way, because I wanted to write a decent review, because I like Iced Earth and because I wanted this to get better. But it never did. By the end of "Dante's Inferno" I was considerably underwhelmed and by the end of "My Own Savior" I was stifling yawns. Live DVD albums aren't supposed to put people to sleep.

Alive in Athens: The DVD is doomed almost right from the start. The static camera angles cut off part of the stage so that even in the long shots, you rarely see Larry Tarnowski. The close-ups focus on Matt Barlow and Schaffer even when Tarnowski is soloing his tits off, as if whoever was directing didn't know which guy was the lead guitarist and the whole production is presented with virtually no inspiration whatsoever. When a band like Dungeon can make a lively and entertaining live concert DVD with virtually no budget at all, it's staggering to think how awful Alive in Athens turned out considering the budget a the band like Iced Earth probably had to work with. Even if you are a rabid fan (and IE has plenty of those), you should avoid this.

1. Intro
2. Burning Times
3. Vengeance is Mine
4. Dark Saga
5. Last Laugh
6. Cast in Stone
7. Last December
8. Pure Evil
9. Desert Rain
10. Dante's Inferno
11. The Hunter
12. Melancholy (Holy Martyr)
13. Angel's Holocaust
14. Stormrider
15. The Path I Choose
16. Watching Over Me
17. Diary
18. Blessed Are You
19. When the Night Falls
20. My Own Savior
21. Travel in Stygian
22. Violate
23. Stand Alone
24. Brainwashed
25. Disciples of the Lie
26. I Died For You
27. Prophecy
28. Birth of the Wicked
29. The Coming Curse
30. Epilog

Rating: 54%

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

SAXON: The Eagle Has Landed III

Released: 2006

It could be that because I was trying to listen to this album at 1 o'clock in the morning that I struggled to find anything to really recommend it. Or it could be that, despite the length of time they've been around and the standing amongst metalheads this band has long enjoyed, Saxon has never really lived up to that status. A combination of recordings lifted from 11 performances over two years, this mammoth, dinosaur of an album plods along for over an hour before hitting any of the glorious moments that you'd have every right to expect from a band that still headlines major festivals after nearly 30 years on the road.

On disc one of The Eagle Has Landed III, Saxon sounds very much like a band of tired old campaigners, wearily flying the flag as they wait for the end to come. There is probably no better example of this here than "Frozen Rainbow", a hoary old chestnut from 1979 that's delivered with all the exuberance of a dirge. Biff Byford sings as if he's reading the lyrics off a sheet while standing in a bank queue and no one else seems all that interested either. Most of the rest of the ancient Northern English beer barn metal on the first CD is also less than spectacular, and I still can't decide if that's because Saxon simply can't get excited about them anymore or if they were just rubbish in the first place. Or both.

Mercifully, the second CD is made up largely of tracks from 2004's Lionheart album and a selection from other more recent works. On these heavier and more modern-sounding cuts, TEHL3 finally shifts into higher gear. Indeed, on tunes like "Man & Machine" and particularly "Dragon's Lair" where they simply rip, Saxon seems totally energised and play like they're really enjoying themselves. It almost makes up for having to suffer through the first half of the album.

The Eagle Has Landed III is really like listening to two different bands, and what's most interesting is that the early stuff on which the Saxon name was built is utter crap compared to what they're doing now.

CD 1

1. This Town Rocks
2. Backs to the Wall
3. Redline
4. Stand Up and Be Counted
5. Never Surrender
6. Frozen Rainbow
7. Suzie Hold On
8. Play it Loud
9. Warrior
10. See the Lights Shining
11. To Hell and Back Again
12. Stallions of the Highway
13. Wheels of Steel
14. And the Band Played On
15. Crusader

CD 2

1. The Retrun
2. Lionheart
3. Man and Machine
4. Beyond the Grave
5. Searching for Atlantis
6. To Live by the Sword
7. Unleash the Beast
8. To Live by the Sword Pt 2
9. Flying on the Edge
10. Jack Tars
11. English Man o War
12. Court of the Crimson King
13. Broken Heroes
14. Dragon's Lair
15. Rock Is Our Life
16. Travellers in Time
17. Solid Ball of Rock

Rating: 58%

IRON MAIDEN LIVE IN SYDNEY

ACER ARENA, February 9, 2008

Iron Maiden's first Australian tour since 1992 was perhaps one of the most anticipated events for a large part of the local metal community since it was announced in September. 14,000 tickets for the first Sydney show had sold out within five minutes of the official release date and it looked like at least half of those people were crowded in to the Homebush Bay Brewery before the gig, singing along to any song that was even remotely heavy metal.

Inside Acer Arena, Steve Harris' little girl Lauren was opening the show. I'm not sure if many people saw her set as I can't find anyone who did; I certainly didn't catch it.

Of all the bands that could have followed, apparently Iron Maiden chose Behind Crimson Eyes. In other countries, where Maiden has gone out with acts like Funeral for a Friend, this may have worked. But Australian metal audiences are ridiculously parochial, and BCE quickly learned that an Iron Maiden show was no place for them to be. Despite the fact that they are awful, Behind Crimson Eyes gained a modicum of respect from me just for trying. As a totally inappropriate choice of opening band, to their credit they tried to make it work - sometimes way too desperately - and their cover of "Ace of Spades" was diabolical. They received possibly the worst reception from any crowd I've ever seen but somehow they battled through it. It was major level ownage, but maybe Behind Crimson Eyes will take something away from it. No longer calling themselves a metal band might be a good place to start.

After that the anticipation was simply incredible, and when the stage lights went down to the tune of UFO's "Doctor Doctor" there was an enormous roar that almost drowned out the intro. Then with a blast of flame and a high-kicking leap from Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden was on stage, ripping into "Aces High" and for the next two hours the capacity crowd at Acer Arena was treated to one of the most dynamic live bands in the world. In front of their gigantic movable backdrop and classic ancient Egypt set, Iron Maiden played through their best known songs and the whole room sang along.

On stage, Iron Maiden is amazing, a spectacular, well-oiled machine. Even without all the trappings they would be an incredible band to watch. Liveliest of all is Bruce Dickinson, who is never still for a moment and the focus of the band's entire show. While the others criss cross the stage and Janick Gers carries on with his wild acrobatics, Dickinson is singing, running, leaping, flag-waving and even changing costumes throughout. The set list was a non-stop parade of classics, faintly echoing the running order of Live After Death, the DVD of which has just been released (and shot to No.1 according to Dickinson) but with a few others thrown in to the mix. This is of course meant that the sublime "Revelations" got an airing, one of my favourite songs of all and done brilliantly. The immense "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was also rolled out once again, at long last. It was one of the highlights of the World Slavery Tour and it was again tonight, with a massive backdrop of a rotting ship looming above the band and smoke filling the arena. Before it began however, one of those transcendental concert moments happened: as the band paused for Dickinson to do his introduction, the entire crowd began to spontaneously chant, clap and stomp, completely unbidden. For a long moment, it seemed even the mighty Iron Maiden was overawed and Dickinson, for once, was completely speechless. It's rare when something the crowd does can be the high moment of a show, but this was one of those times.

"Heaven Can Wait" was another high point when a huge group of competition winners got to join the band on stage, and it was great to hear "Wasted Years" get a run too, along with "Moonchild" that opened the encore.

If there was one criticism, it lies with the mix, which was remarkably uneven throughout the show, but most noticably during "Powerslave" where the guitars were incredibly muddy and virtially non-existent for much of the first verse. My only other beef was with Eddie, whose cameo during "Iron Maiden" seemed terribly lame. That could be just a minor nit-pick however, because otherwise the whole performance was pretty much flawless. The band looked like they were truly enjoying themselves, and it would have been hard not to have been revved by Acer's vast crowd tonight, who were clearly relishing every moment.

Bruce said at least twice that Iron Maiden will return to Australia again soon, and after the reception they got tonight it would be hard to argue against it. They may have left it a long time to come back, but they tonight they almost made it worthwhile.

Full set:

• Transylvania (recorded intro)
• Churchill's speech/Aces High
• 2 Minutes to Midnight
• Revelations
• The Trooper
• Wasted Years
• Can I Play With Madness?
• Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Powerslave
• The Number of the Beast
• Heaven Can Wait
• Run to the Hills
• Fear of the Dark
• Iron Maiden
• Moonchld
• The Clairvoyant
• Hallowed be Thy Name