Alright, so, I posted some bits of info regarding Moscow show in my roulette thread, but I'm posting the most interesting tidbits here with my impressions overall.
I came early to the show, an hour and a half before the doors were opened, and I didn't intend to storm the first row or anything - last time I did that three years ago on the TMOT tour I somehow ended up at the edge of a moshpit (on Avantasia show, for real), so this time I decided I'll come early anyway but find a more comfortable position, get to the merch stand while they didn't sell out anything, drink a beer or two at the bar, this kind stuff. My friends who were attending this gig showed up at ~19:35 (the gig was to begin at 20:00) and they found a huge line at the entrance, they only got into the venue at ~20:25 and the show started five minutes after that. So I'm glad I arrived early and I've got a glimpse of Kiske as he sauntered past us in the bus. He looked at the window, smiled, threw the horns up and we all cheered.
Merch stand was fantastic this time (unlike the Steven Wilson show, where they had only one shirt with HCE album cover in front and only two shows in Russia on the back); four different T-shirts, lots of Avantasia vinyls, lots of special editions of their albums too - I saw gold edition of The Metal Opera, deluxe box with TWS / AOB, new album earbook, The Flying Opera 2CD+2DVD edition - quite a great selection overall and I would've picked something out of these if I hadn't have them all already.
Sometimes it's painful to be a fan of a certain band. I did grab a Ghostlights T-shirt though (and proudly wore it at work today
), and since they also some other albums by the singers participating in the show, I grabbed Dracula - Swing of Death and City of Heroes for quite a cheap price, about $7 or so.
So the show started at ~20:30 and immediately I was amazed how great the sound was. The 2012 TMOT tour show took place at the same venue, and the sound was alright at best. This time the only thing I couldn't hear in the mix were keyboards, but I stood on the opposite side of them so I guess that was to be expected. Guitar, bass, drums and most importantly, vocals were all audible and not very loud, so I didn't even wear my earplugs.
The beginning of the show was somewhat dull regarding the overall audience - three new songs and two from TMOT and obviously not the audience favourites. I loved both Ghostlights and Unchain the Light, and I like Invoke the Machine a lot, but The Watchmakers' Dream mostly fell flat. Before The Scarecrow, Tobi said that whenever they played the very first notes off this song on this tour, the crowd went nuts, and that's exactly what happened in Moscow.
I never saw The Scarecrow with Jorn live (on TMOT tour they played it with Ronnie), and naturally I went nuts too. Lucifer didn't draw such a big reaction as The Scarecrow - I guess people were unfamiliar with the new album - but I lost my shit on that heavy part where Jorn starts to sing. I think people actually backed off a few steps because I headbanging and singing and all that like a madman (well I did that during The Scarecrow too
). Jorn is a beast indeed, I can't believe how powerful his voice is live. That was the first time I saw him live and just wow.
I really liked how receptive the audience was (despite the lack of enthusiasm for some new songs), much better than three years ago. Everyone cheered and sang and screamed, and when Tobi went on to introduce Jorn between The Scarecrow and Lucifer the crowd were chanting "Tobi! Tobi!", Jorn fondly look at Tobias and said "hey, it seems you've got a lot of friends out there", the crowd laughed and switched to chanting "Lande! Lande!". As far as I could tell, Jorn looked a bit perplexed and happy at the same time.
I also really liked Herbie Langhans on the lead vocals - this should come as no surprise since I love Beyond the Bridge - but his voice really shined with power when he sang those few lines on The Wicked Symphony, and then he employed that deep voice mode on Draconian Love, which, as far as I can tell, was the audience favourite new song. The "hey hey hey" part was obviously a highlight, everyone screamed it at top of their lungs. As much as I disliked this tune at first (I didn't even learn the lyrics for the verses!), it's a perfect live song. Hopefully it stays in the setlist if they will play any more tours in the future. I think more songs could use Herbie as the lead vocalist. I think he should've sung Twisted Mind instead of Eric, for example.
I also finally got to hear Stargazers live! Last time Avantasia were in Moscow, they too came on stage late and they cut a few songs from the setlist (three or four). I don't exactly remember which songs they cut, but I distinctly remember one of them was Stargazers, because I was so looking forward to hear it and didn't get it. And now I got it, and with Jorn on board no less. Incredible experience, and the ending was just as mindblowing as on the studio version.
Tobias spent a lot of time talking and interacting with guest vocalists and audience between songs, and there were some funny moments too. Before Avantasia (the song), he took a few minutes to chat with Kiske regarding how he was glad Michael decided to sing on Metal Opera despite his reluctance to perform metal at that time, spent some time introducing the next song, saying it was so great and it was one of the first (I think the second) he heard Kiske perform for this project, hyping it up and finally introducing it... only to forget the words in the very first verse.
Some people from the audience, me included, started to sing, but Tobi just stood there and after a few seconds he said "Damn, I forgot the words!".
Well, it happens, and I'm surprised it didn't happen on Lost in Space - he seems to mix the first and second verses on this song quite often.
There were some small lyrics screwups that were quite unnoticeable ("You break me just to make me" instead of "I've borne from my devotion" on The Great Mystery), but these went fine except I probably looked like an idiot when I mouthed the right line and Tobi sang the wrong one, haha. Regarding other vocalists, Ronnie was Ronnie, great performance without obvious flaws; Kiske, Jorn, Amanda and Herbie kicked ass; Eric Martin was very hit or miss. I'm kind of biased because I don't like Eric Martin at all, be that Mr. Big or Avantasia, but on some songs he did well, like Dying for an Angel, and on some songs he sounded off as hell, like The Great Mystery. I know the song wasn't written by him and Tobi wanted to play it anyway, but I wish they swapped it for, say, Another Angel Down (or Devil in the Belfry) with Jorn, or something from Metal Opera with Kiske, or I dunno, States of Matter with Herbie or whatever. The Great Mystery ended up being somewhat a letdown of the evening, and I actually like the studio version a lot.
I also thought that having both Dying for an Angel in the end of main set and Lost in Space in the encore was very underwhelming - probably because I want more metal in my Avantasia concert - but the audience went crazy for both songs, so I guess I know nothing. The Story Ain't Over is a brilliant set closer though, even without Bob. Tobias nailed the song and it was one of the highlights for me.
They also started to play Sign of the Cross as the last song and after the bombastic intro Tobias started singing Heaven and Hell over that bass line. He said something along the lines "that's the secret of the songwriting... you take something from here, something from there... and the rest from Black Sabbath."
I don't know if they did it on the rest of the tour, I haven't watched any videos from the tour, but I found that hilarious.
So overall, fantastic show and should they come to Moscow again (Tobi promised they'll return if the next tour will happen, just like he did in 2012 and he was good on his promise that time), I'll be certain to see them again. One of the best live acts I had a pleasure to see.
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Topic: The official Avantasia and Edguy thread v Moonflower Society - Oct 21st (Read 210235 times)