АРИЯ (ARIA)
Bürgerhaus Sindlingen - Frankfurt Am Main, Germany
April 7 2012

Aria is one of the most popular rock and metal bands from Russia and I'm a very big fan of them!
A couple of years ago, I went to Moscow to see Aria play live. There was a festival called the Ariafest, and that was a dream come true. It was at Moscow's Olympic Stadium, so seeing them at a small venue in Germany was a big contrast.

The band plays extensively all over Russia and some C.I.S. countries, but they're seldomly seen in Western Europe.
In the spring of 2012 they finally scheduled a German Tour, and I couldn't resist to go to a couple of shows, in Frankfurt and Stuttgart!

As we arrived at the Burgerhaus Sindlingen, we noticed that most people on the line were Russians, there were only a handful of Germans. There's really a big promotion work to be made, I'm sure Aria could be very successful in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe!

There was no opening band and I think it would have been a good idea to have one. If a local metal band would have supported the show, Aria would have gained many new fans in Germany.

It even would have been a good idea to play with Rage or U.D.O.. After all, Udo Dirkschneider recorded a version of the song Штиль (calm) with Aria, and Victor Smolski from Rage played with Kipelov, Aria's former singer.

The stage was fully customized with a huge backdrop of the cover of the new album, Феникс (Phoenix).

They started with the song Чёрный квадрат (Black Square) and I just couldn't believe that they were here in front of us!
The lights were very good for a middle-sized theatre, and the sound was excellent. The stage was large, so they had plenty of space to move around.

Bass player Vitaly Dubinin and guitar player Sergey Popov can't stand still on stage, while Vladimir Holstinin is more discrete.

The audience was quite calm, there were only a handful of headbangers, but everyone sang loud and knew the lyrics of almost every song.

There's a new member in the band, Mikhail Zhitnyakov on vocals.
It's very difficult to replace the singer in a band with such a long career, but I think they found the right guy.

I love the two previous singers, Arthur Berkut and Valery Kipelov, and I think Mikhail Zhitnyakov is doing a great job when it comes to sing the old songs, from both previous singers.
He still seems a bit reserved on stage, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time until he becomes a frontman of the big league!

Aria performed for two hours and played a total of 16 songs. The setlist was well balanced between the classics and the new songs. But they have so many good tunes that it's impossible to please everybody...

I think there were many ballads, and furthermore they didn't play two of their best ones: Возьми мое сердце (Take My Heart) and Ангельская пыль (Angel Dust).
Or maybe more fast songs like Крещение огнем (Baptism Of Fire) or Прощай, Норфолк (Farewell Norfolk), perhaps instead of the drum solo.
But I ain't going to complain, every song was very enjoyable!

When the concert came to an end, I thought that time went by so fast. It's been two hours, but it felt like only one...
It was a very delightful show... and I was also ready for the next one!
Next stop: Stuttgart!
Click here for a live report from Aria live in Stuttgart.

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Setlist Aria – Bürgerhaus Sindlingen – Frankfurt, Germany – April 7 2012

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