Blaze: Tenth Dimension Tour
Kulturbolaget, Malmö, Sweden
Jan 17th, 2002
Review & Photos by Anders Sandvall
The
year 2002 kicks off with Blaze and headliner act Savatage. When it comes
to the band Blaze it is as much metal as can be. The start of the tour
was at KB in Malmö Sweden. The band Blaze started as support act to
Savatage for about one month through Europe. After that they went on
their own headliner tour.
BLAZE is: Jeff Singer (drums), John Slater/Steve Wray (guitar), Rob
Naylor (bass) and of course Mr. Blaze Bayley on vocals. The band Blaze
entered the stage and ran over the audience like a run away train
despite the fact that there was little space on the stage because
Savatage had a lot of equipment. The Blaze band was wild. All four in
the front moved around and slammed into each other. The guitarists John
and Steve impressed me very much. Both share lead guitar duties. Rob has
a great stage-personality in a cool way. The band Blaze has been tighter
as a group since the first tour they did after the first record SILICON
MESSIAH.
Blaze is just as crazy on stage as he used to be, jumping around and
is everywhere at the stage at the same time. He also encouraged the
audience to jump up and down. Blaze is also a big stage-personality and
he seems to be happy and enjoy being with his new bandmates. The whole
band seems to enjoy being on tour again.
The
concert was short, about an hour, because they were opening act to
Savatage. We heard three new songs from the new album: "Kill and
Destroy", "End Dream", and "Tenth Dimension".
This was real heavy metal as it should be. I liked the songs very much.
Blaze can't help playing some Iron Maiden songs. The same happened
tonight. He played "Futurereal" and "Man on the
Edge." The music is almost as good as it was from Iron Maiden. They
also played songs from the debut album GHOST IN THE MACHINE - "Born
as a Stranger" and the title track.
Blaze invited us to sing along with him in "Born as a
Stranger", "Man on the Edge", and "Tenth
Dimension". It was a spontaneous sing along in "Futurereal"
and "Ghost in the Machine." The sound was perfect, neither to
loud nor to high, everyone in the band was heard.
The audience was not so many this premiere night. 250 were in
attendance and there is space for 750.The audience was in from the start
when the band went on stage. I look forward to their next visit as
headliners. Then they can play longer and give us extra credit- songs
compared to this show .
I
got a little chat with Blaze. He told me that after this support-act
tour Blaze is going to headline. They also want to play at "The
Sweden Rock Festival" this summer in Sweden. The headliner tour
probably comes to Sweden in December this year. Blaze is a very nice
person, no bad manners at all. Every one who wants to talk to him or his
band is welcome. Blaze even went round among the audience. Not many rock
stars do so.
Setlist
Kill and destroy
End dream
Tenth dimension
Man on the edge
Ghost in the machine
Futurereal
Born as a Stranger
Silicon Messiah
Thanks to SPV and here in
Scandinavia Skive promotion.