Yngwie Malmsteen
Blender Theatre
New York City, New York
October 26, 2008
Eric Paradis/Tony Pijar
I had never seen Yngwie live, but had a pre-conceived notion of what to expect based on what I had read previously. I wasn’t far off, and lore importantly I was pleasantly surprised and had loads of fun. The first time I heard of Yngwie was way back in 1982 from a long, lost rag from Los Angeles called Metal mania. Yngwie had just come over from Sweden courtesy of Metla Blade’s Mike Varney. He ended up in an average L.A. band called Steeler that had Ron Keel on vocals. The band sucked and after two months, Yngwie moved on and joined Graham Bonnet’s Alcatrazz. In 1984, he went solo and released a masterpiece with “Rising Force.”
Some 25 years later, Yngwie continues to be the consummate performer and musician. The show exhibited every metal cliché demonstrated since metal’s inception from the smoke bombs that were released at the precise moments, the never ending dry ice, the abundant, ear-splitting guitar solos accompanied by the most hilariously cool moves I’ve ever seen – the guitar swing around the neck, the launching of the instrument high into the air, etc, and you know what? It wasn’t cheesy; just great entertainment.
Ripper Owens is a great singer, but was relegated to an almost secondary role along with the other musicians while Yngwie rocked out. :Death Dealer”, from his latest CD “Perpetual Flame” started the evening off with a flurry of notes. From there, e got “Never Die”, “Damnation Game”, “Crown of Thorns”, “Far Beyond the Sun”, “Live to Fight”, “Magic City”, “You Don’t Remember” a riveting cover of Rainbow’s “Gates of Babylon”, and the immortal “Black Star” – the song that started Yngwie on his way!
.JPG)
