Edguy

Edguy
Date: 09/29/09
Place: Key Club, West Hollywood CA
Review By ~ Aniruddh (Andrew) Bansal

Edguy kicked off their set among huge shouts of 'Edguy! Edguy!' at around 11 o' clock. It was a long wait for sure, but it was more than worth it!

They opened with a song off of the latest album Tinnitus Sanctus, Dead or Rock. It was a fun way to start the show, a rock-n-roll kind of song. It was a little different from the usual Edguy songs and I am glad that they added it in the set! Another new song Speedhoven followed this one. This was more like the Edguy we are used to. The vocalist Tobias Sammet was on fire and got the crowd going. I really enjoyed the last couple of minutes of this song. The guitar parts sounded amazing! These were really good opening songs but it was after these that the show started hotting up as Edguy brought out some of their staples. The first of these was Tears Of A Mandrake. Tobias and his band mates were jumping up high on this one, and the crowd did the same too. The chorus was being sung by almost everyone present at the Key Club.

The most fun filled Edguy song Lavatory Love Machine came next. But before they got into playing it, Tobias asked everyone to shout as loud as they could, and did a left side vs right side competition with the crowd, which did succeed in getting us even more pumped. This song is always fun to hear in a live show. Before playing the next song Tobias said 'this next song was originally written by the band Europe but we stole it and made our own version of it to make money'. He was quite funny with his announcements, comments and rants tonight. The song he was talking about was Vain Glory Opera. Another one where it was fun for everyone to jump, sing and have a good time.

Felix Bohnke's drum solo was next. The crowd were slow to react to it at first, but he managed to get them cheering and shouting by the end of it. His performance was good tonight. He played the different kinds of songs, with and without double bass, with the same accuracy and speed. He led the band into a couple more new songs Ministry of Saints and Pride Of Creation. These songs didn't get as good a reaction as the staples, understandably, but they were performed very well. The latter half of Pride of Creation was fun to head bang to. After these it was time for a slower song Save Me. It was a good opportunity for us to catch our breath!

Then came the best part of the set. They played Superheroes next, probably the most popular song of theirs. The crowd went crazy on this one. Our singing was as loud as it could get. During this song Tobias was jumping around, cheering the crowd along and doing everything that he does best. His stage presence truly stood out, particularly in this song. If you've seen their live DVD's or videos, you'll know what I'm talking about. It was with this song and after, that the band started having a lot of fun with the crowd. They played a couple of teasers, the first verse of Trooper which made us go totally wild for a minute, a little bit of Sweet Home Alabama and a very short bit of Raining Blood. It was nice to see that the band was having fun on the stage and giving the crowd a great time, not just going through the motions. They closed out the main set with the song Babylon which was a head-banging fest for the crowd, me included.

They came back out for the encore and it was a pleasant surprise. They played a Bon Jovi cover! The song was Runaway, and I have to admit I enjoyed every minute of it. It rolled back the years and made me remember the times when I was a Bon Jovi fan in my high school days. At the start of this song, Tobias even brought out a miniature piano on stage to play the intro. I thought it was going to be another teaser, but to my surprise it was the whole song and I loved it! They thanked the crowd for coming out and supporting the band on the last show of their tour, and continued with Sacrifice before closing the set with King Of Fools, which I thought was a fitting song to end the show with.

Apart from whatever I've already said about the band's performance, I would like to say that this band knows how to put on a thoroughly entertaining show. Tobias is one of the most entertaining front men that you would see. His jokes and rants were funny and got everyone in the crowd involved in the show and have an awesome time. He repeated one of the jokes from last year's show with Kamelot at the same venue, and most probably the same crowd, but it was still funny! The bassist Tobias 'Eggi' Exxel was great with his performance as well as crowd interaction, smiling and making eye contact with almost everyone. Jens Ludwig, who is the creative force in the band along with Sammet, did his bit too. I didn't get to see the other guitarist Dirk Sauer too closely as he remained on the other side of the stage for the whole show, but he sure sounded good. As I already said, the drummer Felix was flawless.

The crowd were really great and everyone present at the show seemed to be participating. Although, the attendance could have been slightly better. But then Edguy are one of those bands who are pretty famous in their own country and continent, but not so much here in the States. Having said that, I do hope that they come back soon so that we can have another great night of power metal!

Here's the full set list:

1. Dead Or Rock
2. Speedhoven
3. Tears Of A Mandrake
4. Lavatory Love Machine
5. Vain Glory Opera
6. Drum Solo
7. Ministry Of Saints
8. The Pride Of Creation
9. Save Me
10. Superheroes
11. The Trooper (teaser)
12. Sweet Home Alabama (teaser)
13. Raining Blood (very short teaser)
14. Babylon

Encore:
15. Runaway (Bon Jovi cover)
16. Sacrifice
17. King Of Fools