Author: Urban Bolta
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Munich / Backstage Werk / Germany
Concert date: September 30, 2014
Attendance: 1300
Ticket price: €34.00 (on the day of the show)
If a convoy of four-wheeled sheet metal streamed from Slovenia toward Germany on the last Tuesday of September, mostly because of the Champions League match between Germany’s Schalke and our Maribor, it wasn’t only the purple-clad fans who made the trip to the land of the ever-booming economy. At least three of us from the land beneath Triglav had reserved that Tuesday evening for a concert experience in the heart of the Bavarian capital. By the time we arrived at the »scene of the crime,« Backstage Werk was already breathing with full social lungs, hosting the »Space Police: Defenders of the Crown« tour, which brought three representatives of German heavy and power metal under one roof. The real reason Rockline is there too!
Shortly after eight o’clock, the evening was kicked off by Starchild, a brand-new German heavy metal outfit that made itself known this year with the release of its self-titled debut (review here). As a fresh project, Starchild can’t yet afford a solo tour of their homeland, but they were just the right fit as the opening act ahead of bands like Unisonic and Edguy, since they carry the same metal DNA, a treat for every fan of the German heavy metal school. No wonder, with bassist Jens Becker (Grave Digger) and drummer Michael Ehre (Gamma Ray) forming the rhythm section. Still, the band’s central figure lies elsewhere. The conductor’s baton on stage was in the hands of Sandro Giampietro, vocalist, occasional guitarist and undisputed stage engine, who held the band’s torch high through a set just half an hour long. Young Dennis Hormes’s melodic guitar lines, paired with harmonious multi-part choruses, made up the pure-blooded framework of a new, classic-sounding German heavy metal collective, and one that leaves you wondering whether we’ll ever catch it live again. Starchild closed with their self-titled track, and the crowd’s loud response was proof enough that Giampietro and company are kicking in the right direction.
Second up to introduce themselves to the Bavarian crowd were Unisonic, a quintet that’s already well known despite only a few years of mileage in metal circles. Unisonic are made up of old tomcats of the German heavy rock scene, so folks took them to heart as soon as their self-titled debut dropped two years ago. But the caravan rolled on, and Unisonic forged a new hot scepter this year with their second album »Light of Down« (review here). After a taped intro the band members spread out across the stage, and at nine in the evening, with Backstage already packed, a real explosion rippled through the front rows when the first songbird, Michael Kiske, stepped out, whose vocals became immortal in the second half of the eighties as part of the cult Helloween classics. Unisonic work in the realm of melodic hard rock and heavy metal with the occasional burst of double bass drum pedal, and that energetic combination hit right from the opener For The Kingdom. During a break the thousand-strong crowd started chanting »Kiske, Kiske«, which only fired up the frontman, who showed off a soaring vocal register in the chorus of Exceptional. Unisonic came across as a well-oiled concert machine that, despite its professional approach, is no stranger to goofing around: mid-set the ever-smiling guitarist Kai Hansen stuck out a foot to trip Kiske, but Kiske didn’t fall for it. It’s precisely the Hansen / Many Meyer guitar tandem (I’d already watched the latter in that very club a few months earlier as guitarist of the legendary Krokus) that delivers the high-octane instrumental passages with cleverly placed, catchy choruses, the peaks of Unisonic’s songwriting. It’s also great that after just two albums, the quintet’s repertoire is already almost entirely original material, among which they slotted the Helloween hit I Want Out before the finish. Fifth gear, no handbrake, so unlike today’s dull Helloween renditions it hit the nail on the head and was the perfect mental switch-off before the evening’s peak. The peak? For many, Unisonic already was one!
The biggest time slot of the night went to the tour headliners Edguy, likable German power metallers who have always been considered oddballs in the metal world. This year Edguy released a new album, »Space Police: Defenders of the Crown« (review here), a return to their classic sound and their best work in over a decade, and on the promo tour they’re ravaging Europe this fall. Their stop closest to us was right here in Munich.
Edguy opened with fresh material from the current album and quickly proved themselves a superbly tight unit. The sonic freshness (albeit over a bed of keyboards) and the lively vocals from the front line with Tobias Sammet in the middle, along with the grabby chorus of the album’s title track Space Police, easily had the whole jam-packed club singing along. After a brief glance back at the previous decade with Out of Vogue (»Rocket Ride«, 2006), it was on! Frontman Sammet, known for working the crowd, started pulling jokes out of his sleeve between songs and entertaining everyone in his mother tongue. Nothing wrong with a bit of chatter, as long as it doesn’t go past the point of reason. Toward the end of the show the banter started dragging on and on, and Sammet stole a song or two’s worth of the shared time, which is apparently standard practice at solo Edguy shows. Given his still very solid vocal form, proven by the sky-high scream coming out of Babylon, that time theft is (for now) still unnecessary. But never mind, the showman approach is one of the trademarks of this quintet from central Germany, and it lands mostly with the fairer sex, who make up a bigger share of the crowd at Edguy gigs than at most other metal events. Tobias Sammet is a stage animal with a polished, charismatic approach in which no move is made by chance. His innate hosting talent overshadowed the other members, so apart from Bohnke’s drum solo, none of the remaining instrumental trio got enough room to maneuver and prove themselves.
Crowd favorites included Superheroes, Vain Glory Opera and the ever-sensual Land of the Miracle. Though Edguy cultivate a simple, even naive lyrical sincerity, their songs, paired with the band’s tongue-in-cheek approach, grab listeners in the claws of melodic catchiness right off the bat. The peak of this at-times almost operetta-like approach came with the cover of Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus, when a hundred fists in the air spontaneously followed the chorus. As usual, Edguy saved the best for last! The adrenaline fever rose to the max when they shook Backstage with Tears of a Mandreake, followed in the encore by Lavatory Love Machine and King of Fools. Judging by the happy faces in all four directions, Edguy’s cheerful, feel-good party won over the well-heeled German crowd, and by their own promise they’ll be back in the Bavarian capital soon. Believe it or not, in more than two decades of playing this was only their first solo show in Munich. Before that they’d only played this city of two million as support for rock giants (Aerosmith, Scorpions, Deep Purple…).
Setlist
EDGUY:
1. Love Tyger
2. Space Police
3. Out of Vogue
4. Superheroes
5. Defenders of the Crown
6. Vain Glory Opera
7. Drum Solo (Imperial March (Darth Vader Theme))
8. Ministry of Saints
9. Rock Me Amadeus (Falco cover)
10. Babylon
11. Land of the Miracle
12. Tears of a Mandrake
—encore—
13. Lavatory Love Machine
14. King of Fools
UNISONIC:
1. Venite 2.0 (intro)
2. For the Kingdom
3. Exceptional
4. Star Rider
5. Your Time Has Come
6. When the Deed Is Done
7. King for a Day
8. Throne of the Dawn
9. I Want Out
10. Unisonic
STARCHILD:
1. It’s My Race
2. Runner
3. Eyes of History
4. Still My Planet
5. Reaching the Land
6. Starchild Theme (intro)
7. Starchild
Photo gallery
