Helloween
Gamma Ray
BB King’s Club
New York City, New York
September 21, 2008
Tony Pijar
The ‘Hellish Tour’ hit Times Square and was greeted with a sold out showing. It’s about time a classy, Euro-metal show hit Broadway! Gamma Ray came out of the gates firing on all sixes with “Into the Storm”, which is four of the best minutes of galloping metal you’ll ever hear. “Heaven can Wait” and the excellent “New World Order” followed swiftly. “Fight” from “Majestic” is an all time favorite of mine, and it sounded so good live! Hansen’s stellar guitar playing is no surprise, but his unbelievably powerful voice was. “Empress”, “Heavy Metal Universe, and “Ride the Sky” were prime slices of blitzkrieg metal!
Helloween, too, did the business. Andi Deris commanded the stage sporting a neat leather jacket that had evil pumpkins spray-painted over the back and sleeves – funny, but cool! “Halloween” was the perfect number with which to open, and the set list comprised of several older favorites. Michale Weikath is truly a masterful guitarist and new guitarist Sascha Gerstner is hot on his heels as it relates to talent. They sparred with each other all night long while Deris jackrabbited across the stage. Fans of the old stuff were beside themselves when the band aired “A march of Time”, “A Tale that wasn’t Right”, “Eagle Fly Free”, and Dr. Stein.” Set closers, “Future World” and the intense “I want out” ended the evening with a flurry of fret-burning notes from Weikath and Gerstner. A hilarious and over the top moment was when the band threw out blow-up Halloween pumpkins to the crowd – simplistic, genius and fun.
Who knows when we’ll see another Euro power metal show that exuded such class and sheer intensity?
