Location: Zagreb / Boogaloo / Croatia
Date: 3/20/2012
Blaze Bayley is the man who carved out a successful solo career after singing on Iron Maiden’s albums “The X Factor” (1995) and “Virtual XI” (1998). To this day he has put out a hefty bunch of really high-quality albums, and he’s actually kept growing and developing with every one of them. “The Man Who Would Not Die” and “Promise and Terror” can easily be called the two peaks of his discography so far. On them Bayley shamelessly and boldly shows off his innate knack for combining biting punch with big anthemic melodies, all the while staying firmly in the role of the authoritative commander, thanks to his unique and instantly recognizable vocal timbre.
Blaze Bayley has just released a new studio album called “The King Of Metal”. It launched him on a new tour, which 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 packed schedule, so I hopped over to sniff out what kind of vocal shape Blaze Bayley is in these days.
Blaze Bayley is one hell of a guy. He holds all the strings in his hands, and whatever he puts out there, he reaps the full rewards for himself. But times are far from as rosy and sun-soaked for musicians as they used to be. So Bayley, too, finds it harder and harder to keep the best partners at his side. Simple as that. There’s no money anymore. So he disbanded the excellent band he recorded his previous two albums with, and recruited cheaper musicians for the new album and 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).
The evening was opened, before Blaze Bayley, by two young, promising Croatian bands: Vis Maior, and after them Eat Your Brains. Both were undoubtedly a nice addition to the night with their material. Built on the melodic elements of old-school metal, with wrecking-ball lead vocals aimed at the high registers. Both bands proved they’re made up of technically excellent musicians with a good measure of stage chemistry. Still, they could use a bit more mileage on the road. Eat Your Brains, who work a healthy dose of poking fun at themselves into their show, don’t even mind that the guys look on stage like afternoon joggers out for a recreational run, while Vis Maior could build on a nastier look, since with their stage appearance they seemed to belong more with rap musicians than with heavy metal. Okay, enough griping. Energetic enough, and definitely promising!
After a warm-up with the new Will To Win, Blaze Bayley won over the 250 fans in attendance with his left pinky, using the Iron Maiden staple of his set list, Lord Of The Flies. From that moment until the end of the show, the crowd was blindly eating out of his hand. That’s why this hour-and-forty-minute gig came off as a real, authentic energy bomb of total devotion to the heavy metal religion. After The Launch, the hugely popular Ghost In The Machine poured more oil on the fire, and Blaze, a seriously charismatic and convincing stage performer, literally went wild in the club space. And the crowd went with him. And yet after that bundle of songs he took a break for the first time for a longer speech. We’re used to those with Blaze, but this time they were really annoying. With his occasional pauses and stage banter during the show, he was taking up the audience’s time more than entertaining them. Especially those who realize that most of his yapping is pure, undiluted sweet talk and just promo aimed at squeezing another buck or two out of the crowd’s pockets. Honestly, 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 witnessed on May 1, 2010, at his show in Ravne na Koroškem (club Kompleks). You can feel that the bonds between Blaze and the new members don’t have the same chemistry, and that of course shows in a less lived-in and less convincing interpretation of both Bayley’s solo staples and the obligatory gems from the Iron Maiden catalog. Thanks to the wild Croatian crowd, who literally carried Bayley and his crew on their hands, the man steered this gig safely home too, but as I said. He won the audience over with Iron Maiden classics, and that was quite enough for Boogaloo to burst at the seams and for the night to glow with exceptional communication between crowd and band and a surplus of energy!
But until this gig, the fact that he wins over crowds by playing Iron Maiden songs at his shows was never a bother. Simply because of the great performing conviction of his former backing band, which the new one can’t possibly match. So Bayley is slowly following in the footsteps of Paul D’Anno, no matter how hard he tries to convince the audience otherwise in his speeches at shows. The difference is only that Paul constantly badmouths his old Iron Maiden buddies, while Bayley loves to gush with great enthusiasm about his big friendship with Iron Maiden even today.
The sound was very solid throughout the show! I should also point out that this time the Bayley show wasn’t held in the actual hall of the Boogaloo club, but on an improvised stage set up in the space (a sort of lobby) in front of the Boogaloo hall. That’s where the bar is, to the left up to the counter, in the spot where the coat check is normally set up for visitors to all the bigger shows held in the hall.
A nice experience, a decent performance, a decent show, great, almost fanatical atmosphere. That makes up for it. Above all, everyone who had never seen Bayley on stage got their money’s worth, as did everyone who missed Iron Maiden at a gig 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 King Of Metal” and seasonal hired guns, that’s very hard. Just by endlessly riding the coattails of the old Iron Maiden glory, certainly not, since that’s a sign of the pathetic. He’s put out too many good, let’s rather say excellent, solo studio albums before this.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
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
