Edguy and Kamelot in St. Paul, MN – Review
Awesome! That is how I would describe the October 20th, Edguy and Kamelot show at Station 4 in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.
Station 4 is a small downtown St. Paul bar that features a lot of live music. The long, narrow bar is adjacent to an equally long, narrow section of the building where it looks like they just removed the 1st floor level and let rockers descend to the basement level. With the stage on one end, plumbing visible on the ceiling and metal support beams running down the center of the concert area, it definitely has a dark ambiance good for hard core metal. Throw in a humidity factor that lead to it condensing and raining inside the building, and well, you get the picture.
Edguy is a German lunch pale, have a good time, power metal group. They’ve had limited exposure in the U.S., but are working to change that. Somewhere on the Iron Maiden branch of the rock family tree, their sound continues to evolve. Many U.S. fans would liken the band to Helloween. Tobias Sammet fronts the quintet and showed as much energy as a single person could put forth on the confining Station 4 stage. From fist pumps to leg kicks that would rival David Lee Roth, Tobias was out to show the 3-400 fans a good time, working some competitive crowd chants and leaning against one of the load bearing poles that sits right in front of the middle of the stage, over the mass of people. Since they were opening, they shredded through a short set list working in “Catch of the Century” and “Sacrifice” from the Rocket Ride CD. Also included was the tongue in cheek rocker “Lavatory Love Machine”. They closed with the more melodic rocker “King of Fools”. These guys have a good time and it shows.
Kamelot, originating from Tampa, was the closer for the evening. They’re a symphonic power metal group that is big on goth imagery. Roy Khan, of Norway, provides crisp, soaring vocals over their songs, giving them an even grander sound. Khan was experiencing some health issues for the show, but plowed ahead enchanting the crowd along with a light show perfect in size for the venue. Did I mention they have a smokin’ hot female on backing vocals and sharing some of the leads? How can you go wrong with an audience predominantly of teen metal-head boys? You can’t. While not as energetic as EdGuy and a bit of a more serious demeanor to the show. Khan lightened up during the second part of the act and exchanged some jokes with the crowd. They were having fun too, but it didn’t dampen the power of their music which included “The Haunting” and the popular “March of Mephisto” (complete with leggy blind-folded goth chicks drumming the march on snares).
I’d definitely recommend checking out Edguy and Kamelot on their MySpace sites or in concert if they come to your area.
This post was written by guest blogger Mike Fulscher. Mike is one of our RockFest friends. Thanks Mike!
[tags]Edguy, Kamelot[/tags]
