BLUND GUARDIAN
Elysée Montmartre - Paris, France
September 28, 2010

Blind Guardian was on tour again, and their stop in Paris was, as usual, at the Elysée Montmartre. The place was not sold out this time.

The band changed the intro song. For more than 10 years they used War Of Wrath and Into The Storm almost every night. This time Sacred Worlds was the opening song.

After 5 minutes I knew that this wasn't going to be the concert o the year, but let's talk about the positive side first.

Hansi Kürsch sang great night. Sometimes he has problems with his voice on stage, other times he's just amazing. Fortunately it was one of those nights when he sings like a god!

Marcus Siepen is the showman of the band, always pulling faces and headbanging, yet playing great.

I don't understand why Oliver Holzwarth is not considered as a permanent member of the band. He has played with Blind Guardian since 1997! I don't know if you realize, but he has played bass guitar in Blind Guardian for almost as long time as Hansi did!

Blind Guardian said they wanted to remain a 4-piece band. Well, in that case Hansi should take back his bass. The also should stop using keyboards in every song because Michael Schüren has also been on keyboards since 1997, and he's not just a guest, he plays every song.

The truth is that Blind Guardian line-up is a 6-piece band so they just should admit it.

This was my first Blind Guardian concert with drummer Frederik Ehmke. The man is great, fast, clean and inventive.

Guitar player André Olbrich was as usual like a statue. The guy doesn't move, he stays by his side, concentrated, but plays some great fast and technical solos.

There was a cool stage-set, with a giant screen behind the musicians. Nowadays many bands have those kind of screens, but in such a small venue like the Elysée Montmartre that's quite rare. It gave a little theatrical dimension to the gig.

Unfortunately, there were not many spotlights, so the lightshow was OK but could have been better.

The band played for an hour and 45 minutes, and Blind Guardian's setlist included great classics and new songs.

Sounds good, right? Well let me tell you why this wasn't the concert of the year!

First, the sound. It was absolutely awful. The bass guitar was too loud. The song A Past And Future Secret was a complete unintelligible mess. Fly was also unrecognizable and songs like Punishment Divine or This Will Never End were very noisy.

Second, Hansi. He sang great, but he has less and less stage presence. He's never been a great frontman, but that night I thought I was seeing a guy that got out of the office and joined his friends on stage.

He made us laugh with his speeches a few times, but he's not the kind of spontaneous guy you want to scream for at a concert. He should see Twisted Sister, Edguy or Maiden more often so he can take some good examples!

Finally, the flow of the show.
They played for 1 hour 45 minutes. 30 minutes were absolutely incredible and memorable. 15 minutes were OK. But during 1 hour my mood changed from "almost bored" to "really really bored".
You'll find the setlist at the bottom of this page, but to me the setlist was:
01. (Very long) Intro
02. Welcome To Dying (they're at least on stage)
03. Nightfall (The audience starts to wake up)
04. Time Stands Still At The Iron Hill (great moment)
05. Traveler in Time (abolutely apotheosic)
06. Valhalla (Great, but last song)
07. A Past & Future Secret (scream louder than the bass if you can!)
08. Mirror Mirror (First encore, great version)
09. The Bard's Song (second encore, mechanical and unspontaneous version)
10. Imaginations From The Other Side (aftershow song)

Blind Guardian is a band I really love and I'm a huge fan from the day I discovered them, with their albums Batallions Of Fear.
Until Nightfall in Middle Earth I consider their albums as masterpieces. I don't like much the new material, but well, seems like I'm not the only one... few people in the audience sang the recent songs.

Anyway, I hate to say it, but Blind Guardian is not a very good live act anymore.

The first two times I saw them they blew my mind. All the following have been disaponting, and the worst one was in 2007.

But maybe I just got to the wrong concert, and probably you'll see an amazing Blind Guardian concert soon. I wish you do.

As for me, I'll continue listening to their magnificent old records, and hope that one day I'll see another good show from them.





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Setlist Blind Guardian – Elysée Montmartre - Paris, France – September 28, 2010

01. Intro
02. Sacred Worlds
03. Welcome To Dying
04. Nightfall
05. Fly
06. Time Stands Still At The Iron Hill
07. Traveler in Time
08. Valhalla
09. A Past & Future Secret
10. This Will Never End
11. A Voice In The Dark
12. Mirror Mirror
————————————
13. Punishment Divine
14. The Bard's Song
15. Wheel Of Time
16. Imaginations From The Other Side

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