The night before Helloween was opening for Iron Maiden at the Bercy, in Paris. The Helloween / Rage tour was supposed to stop by the Elysée Montmartre, but Iron Maiden decided to schedule their show on the same day. Finally Helloween became Maiden’s opening band and Rage played at the Caves Lechapelais at a Metal Party around midnight.

Anyway, Helloween only played a short (but great) set list opening for Maiden. As you know Helloween is one of my favourite bands, and I did not want to miss them as a headliner on their “Rabbit Don’t Come Easy” Tour. So after a short night sleep we were heading to the Hof Ter Lo with my friend Christelle.

Rage was the opening band. They did a very nice show, but most the audience was here for Helloween.

They surprised everybody when they started with “Starlight” and “Murderer”, both songs from the first album “Walls Of Jericho”. They continued with “Keeper Of the Seven Keys”. This 14 minute long song hadn’t been played for years, so you can imagine how the audience responded. And at the end of that one, when we thought they couldn’t surprise us anymore, they played “Future World” and “Eagle Fly Free”. Just unbelievable, 5 songs, 35 minutes, only classics from the early days. I have to say that it was quite a nostalgic tour, they didn’t seem to care to promote the new album. They only played three songs from “Rabbit Don’t Come Easy”. Quite strange for Helloween, as in previous tours they used to play more songs from their latest records. Anyway, we were seeing a very classic Helloween set and we’re not going to complain.

The set contained two ballads, “If I Could Fly” from the album “The Dark Ride” and “Forever And One” from the album “The Time Of The Oath”. The strange thing is that these songs were not played on their tours. As far as I know, “Forever and One” was never played on the “Time of The Oath” Tour, a tour where they played almost all the songs from that album. Exactly the same happened with “The Dark Ride”, they played almost the entire album on that tour, but not “If I could Fly”. Quite strange, and even more strange, these songs have video clips. Helloween choose to promote these songs on videos, but only on tour years later… There is a video clip from the song “Just A Little Sign” on the “Rabbit Don’t Came Easy”, and guess what…Yeah, they didn’t play that one! Hey, It’s Helloween, they do it their own way.

Sascha and Stefan Schwarzmann were new on the band, after the departure of Roland Grapow and Uli Kusch. There are big differences between the old and the new musicians, but I have to tell that on that tour Sascha and Weike didn’t seem so close on that tour. That has changed since then, on the following tours Sascha has been good integrated into the band. Stefan left the band after that tour, but I found his playing very good.

After two new songs came “How Many Tears”. They ended the concert with that tune. Icredible, a full show opened and closed with songs from the first album. A complete Classic Helloween show, not really promoting the new album, but a great evening anyway.

We went back home just after the show, and the next morning, I was really tired at the University, but so happy of my Heavy Metal Week end! Twice Helloween, twice rage, once Iron Maiden, a trip to Belgium, and a Metal Party in between. Rock n’Roll!!!

Set List Helloween, Hof ter Lo, Antwerpen, Belgium, November 23 rd 2003. “Rabbit Don’t Come Easy” Tour

01. Starlight
02. Murderer
03. Keeper Of The Seven Keys
04. Future World
05. Eagle Fly Free
06. Hey Lord!
07. Forever And One
08. Open Your Life
09. Dr Stein
10. If I Could Fly
11. Power
12. Back Against The Wall
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13. Sun 4 The World
14. How Many Tears

Links:

Helloween Official Website
Stefan Schwarzmann Website