Fresh from their impressive display at Hammerfest, Los Angeles quintet WHITE WIZZARD were again in fine form as they ripped through a set of first class IRON MAIDEN influenced heavy metal. Yes, even the legendary Steve Harris would be proud of songs like ‘Over The Top’ and the epic masterpiece ‘Iron Goddess of Vengeance’. Unfortunately, the sound mix tonight was nowhere near as good as the band had at Hammerfest, but still, the crowd quickly warmed to WHITE WIZZARD. This is certainly a band with a lot of talent, and one to keep an eye on in the future.

After EDGUY’s support set with DRAGONFORCE at Rock City in January 2006, frontman Tobias Sammet promised the crowd that the band would return to the city for a headline show. 4 years later, that headline show finally arrived, and a sold out audience at the Rescue Rooms welcome the band back to the land of Robin Hood.

The Rescue Rooms is an extremely intimate venue for a band of EDGUY’s stature. In Europe, they’re used to playing to crowds ten times the size of this one, but for some reason, tonight seemed to have a special atmosphere, and the effervescent Tobias seemed to love the crowd interaction at such close range.

A large section of the European press didn’t take too kindly to EDGUY’s latest release ‘Tinnitus Sanctus’, but judging by the reaction of the crowd to the three songs played from the record tonight, the opinions of the fans doesn’t match the opinion of the press. The quick fire double shot of ‘Dead or Rock’ and ‘Speedhoven’ whirled the set into action, before classics like ‘Tears of a Mandrake’ and ‘Lavatory Love Machine’ had everybody singing along.

One thing you can’t help but enjoy at an EDGUY show is the quirky sense of humour the band has, chiefly provided by that man Tobias. Tonight, he introduced the brilliant ‘Vain Glory Opera’ as a EUROPE rip off (referring to ‘The Final Countdown’ of course), and then heartfelt ballad ‘Save Me’ was introduced as ‘Shave Me’, with reference to guitarist Dirk Sauer’s pubic hair. Aside from the humour element, EDGUY are a great heavy metal band, and songs like the 9 minute epic ‘The Piper Never Dies’ and the majestic ‘Sacrifice’ show the band are capable of producing more serious metal classics.

After a quick run through a verse of IRON MAIDEN’s ‘The Trooper’, the set came to a climax with the EDGUY national anthem, ‘King of Fools’. This was a suitably brilliant end, to what was a brilliant metal show. Roll on Bloodstock 2010 when EDGUY are sure to woo the British metalheads once again!

WHITE WIZZARD Setlist: Over The Top / Out Of Control / Iron Goddess of Vengeance / White Wizzard / High Speed GTO / 40 Deuces

EDGUY Setlist: Dead or Rock / Speedhoven / Tears of a Mandrake / Lavatory Love Machine / Vain Glory Opera / The Piper Never Dies / Ministry of Saints / Superheroes / Save Me / Fucking With Fire / Sacrifice / Babylon / King of Fools

Ratings:

Photography by Alexander Shaw

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