Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Zagreb / Boogaloo / Croatia
Concert date: 20.03.2012
Attendance: 250
Ticket price: 80,00HRK
Blaze Bayley is a man who has carved out a successful solo career after singing on the Iron Maiden albums »The X Factor« (1995) and »Virtual XI« (1998). To this day he’s put out a fat stack of really high-quality albums, and he’s actually been growing and developing his style with every one of them. His albums »The Man Who Would Not Die« and »Promise and Terror« can fairly be called the peaks of his discography so far. On them Bayley shamelessly and boldly shows off an innate knack for mixing catchy, biting punch with big anthemic melodies, while always staying clearly in the tight focus of an authoritative commander, thanks to the unique, instantly recognizable timbre of his voice.
Blaze Bayley has just released his new studio album, »The King Of Metal«. It launched him onto a new concert trail, and the new tour brought him back to Slovenia, where he played two shows, in Maribor and Ljubljana. Even so, the devil wouldn’t let me rest until I’d caught his show in the Croatian capital too. I was especially curious how the crowd would react, and the Zagreb date was honestly the only one that fit into my jam-packed schedule, so I could hop over and sniff out what kind of vocal shape Blaze Bayley is in these days.
Blaze Bayley is one hell of a man. He holds all the strings in his own hands, and everything he puts out, he reaps the full reward for himself. But times are nowhere near as rosy and sun-drenched for musicians as they once were. So Bayley, too, finds it harder and harder to keep the best partners around him. Simple as that: there’s no money anymore. He disbanded the excellent group he made the previous two albums with, and recruited cheaper musicians for the new album as well as for the tour. They are * Matteo “Lehmann” Grazzini of the Italian thrash metal outfit Neurasthenia on bass, drummer Claudio Tirincanti, and guitarists Andrea Neri (Astarte Syriaca) and Thomas Zwijsen (Nylon Maiden – tribute to Iron Maiden).
Before Blaze Bayley hit the stage, the night was opened by two young, up-and-coming Croatian bands, Vis Maior and then Eat Your Brains. Both undeniably spiced up the evening with their repertoire. They’re built on the melodic elements of old-school metal, with raging lead vocals pitched way up high. Both bands proved they’re made up of technically well-schooled musicians with a decent amount of stage polish. Still, they could use a bit more road mileage. Eat Your Brains work a good dose of poking fun at themselves into their show, so it doesn’t even bother anyone that the guys are dressed on stage like afternoon joggers, whereas Vis Maior could build on a more venomous look, since with their stage appearance they’d fit in with rap musicians rather than heavy metal. Anyway, enough whining. Energetic enough, and definitely promising!
After a warm-up with the new Will To Win, Blaze Bayley won over all 250 delighted fans with his left pinkie, with Lord Of The Flies, an Iron Maiden standard of his setlists. From that moment until the end of the show, the crowd ate out of his hand. That’s why this gig, which lasted an hour and forty minutes, came across as a real, authentic energy bomb of total surrender to the heavy metal religion. After The Launch, the hugely popular Ghost In The Machine poured more oil on the fire, and Blaze, a hugely charismatic and convincing performer, literally went nuts in the club space. And the crowd went nuts with him. And yet after that run of songs he took a break for the first time to give a longer speech. We’re used to those from Blaze, but this time they came off as genuinely annoying. With his occasional pauses and stage chatter throughout the show, he was more wasting the audience’s time than entertaining them. Especially the ones who get that most of his blabbering is pure-blooded »snake oil« and just promo, aimed at squeezing yet another coin out of the crowd’s pockets. Hand on heart, Bayley could have played two more full songs in that time.
The backing band is nowhere near as convincing as the previous lineup of regular members, which we last caught on 01.05.2010 at his show in Ravne na Koroškem (club Kompleks). You can feel that the bonds between Blaze and the new guys aren’t chemically fused so effectively, and that of course shows in a less immersed, less convincing interpretation of both Bayley’s solo standards and the obligatory gems from the Iron Maiden catalog. Thanks to the crazy Croatian crowd, who literally carried Bayley and the band on their hands, the man steered this show safely home too, but like I said. He won the audience over with Iron Maiden classics, and that was plenty to get Boogaloo bursting at the seams, and the night glowed with amazing communication between crowd and band, and with surplus energy!
But up to this show, the fact that he wins over the masses with Iron Maiden songs at his gigs was never bothersome. Simply because of how convincingly his former backing band delivered, which the new one can’t possibly match. So Bayley is slowly following in the footsteps of Paul D’Anna, no matter how hard he tries to convince the audience otherwise in his speeches at shows. The only difference is that Paul constantly has his old Iron Maiden buddies between his teeth, whereas Bayley, with great gusto, loves to bring up his great friendship with Iron Maiden even today.
The sound was very solid throughout the show! Let me also point out that this time Balyey’s show wasn’t held in the actual Boogaloo hall, but on an improvised stage set up in the space (a kind of lobby) in front of the Boogaloo hall. Right where the bar is, to the left of the counter, in the spot where the coat check usually stands for visitors to all the bigger concerts held in the hall.
A nice experience, a decent performance, a decent delivery, great, almost fanatical atmosphere. That makes up for it. Above all, it was a win for everyone who hasn’t seen Bayley on stage yet and everyone who didn’t catch Iron Maiden live in the second half of the nineties with Bayley on vocals. The question is how Bayley will hold on to his hard-earned credibility going forward. With an average album like “The Kinfg Of Metal” and seasonal legionaries, very hard. Certainly not just by endlessly “hitching a ride” on the old Iron Maiden glory, since that’s a sign of pathos He’s put out too many good, let’s say even excellent, solo studio albums before this.
Setlist
1. Will to Win
2. Lord of the Flies
3. The Launch
4. Dimebag
5. Ghost in the Machine
6. The King of Metal
7. Silicon Messiah
8. The Rainbow Fades to Black
9. Fate
10. The Brave
11. The Black Country
12. Leap of Faith
13. Stare at the Sun
14. The Clansman
15. Man on the Edge
16. Futureal
—encore—
17. Virus
18. Faceless
Photo gallery
