Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Velden am Wörthersee (Vrba na Koroškem) / Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Austria
Concert date: 25.04.2017
Attendance: 70
On 25.04.2017, Mr. Blaze Bayley played the famous musical temple of Austrian Carinthia known as Bluesiana Rock Cafe for the second time in his career. The venerable former voice of Iron Maiden is someone this report’s author has been running into at gigs in one way or another for twenty-two years in a row now. On this return visit to Bluesiana, Blaze presented his recently released album »Endure And Survive«, which is actually the second part of the announced sci-fi trilogy »Infinite Entanglement«.
Before Blaze Bayley’s set, the stage was warmed up by Italians Secret Rule, from Rome. The quartet, fronted by singer Angela Di Vicenzo and rounded out by Andy Menario (guitar), Michele Raspanti (bass) and Andrea Miazzetto (drums), didn’t manage to squeeze any noticeable amount of feedback energy out of the crowd. Still, these heavy metallers came across as a superbly tight, compact unit that does its job with professional routine, meaning confidently and very cohesively. The only thing that bugged me was the sound: the drums were way too loud, so Angela was a bit harder to hear, and the guitar solos, from a polished and fired-up lineup, didn’t really get their moment either. The band develops the classic form of heavy metal, played at hellish speed, while at the same time, in the spirit of the Italian take on metal, Secret Rule also deliver a distinct dose of highly polished melodiousness and musicality. Pomp, in other words! Solid, but no earth-shattering “never-before-heard” moments.
The day before the Ljubljana show, Blaze Bayley and his regular crew of backing musicians — Chris Appleton (guitar), Martin McNee (drums) and Karl Schramm (bass), who otherwise “do business” as three quarters of the band Absolva — turned in a superb gig, even though the event once again “suffered” from a smaller turnout than we’d have liked. In his usual style of “incorrigible language doctor,” Blaze addressed the crowd soon after hitting the stage, telling them not to be surprised that fewer people had shown up this time, because he’d personally only allowed his most extreme and fervent followers to come, and had banned everyone else from attending.
Regardless, Bayley and his superbly in-tune, well-oiled band of musicians played a great show. As expected. He was in especially good spirits that night, and with his famous banter with the crowd, which is part of his mandatory, long-established live repertoire and really an essential building block you won’t find missing from any of his shows, he delivered another superb performance. Not only was he in excellent vocal form that evening, but the whole band kept goofing around nonstop and poking fun at themselves too. One of those highlights came with the extended version of the Wolfsbane classic Man Hunt, played as an encore, where a “cheeky” Blaze Bayley, in a cheerful mood we’re not used to seeing from the eternally grim Englishman, couldn’t even hold back long bursts of laughter any more.
That evening the quartet played a set that, somewhat surprisingly, was dominated by songs from the last two albums, i.e. the presentation of the first and second parts of the trilogy in the making. From the older material, meaning the stuff from the era when he was still fronting under the name Blaze, we got to enjoy the classics Silicon Messiah, Stare at the Sun and Alive, while the crowd was treated to just three Iron Maiden classics from his time singing for them, which you can count on one hand: Futureal, Clansman and Man on the Edge. As always. What you see is what you get. A great show, accompanied by a bunch of inventive stories between songs. In that famous vocal style and under the command of the contagious charisma this musician has always delivered with all his heart. At the end, Bayley nailed it down that he’ll definitely be back in Velden am Wörthersee with the third and final part of the trilogy, due out next year.
Setlist
1. Endure And Survive
2. Escape Veolocity
3. Futureal
4. Blood
5. Silicon Messiah
6. Alive
7. Eating Lies
8. Samurai
9. Human
10. Fight Back
11. The Clansman
12. Calling You Home
13. Stare at the Sun
14. Man On the Edge
15. Dark Energy 256
—encore—
16. Man Hunt
17. A Thounsand Years
Photo Gallery
