Dragonforce " live " review - 20th May 2007

" You say the F word, You're going to JAIL, dude "
Sam cakap kat ZP masa show tu, biasak la, mesti dorang dah kena briefing pasal law & order kan? hehehe.
Lagi
" Come on lets hear it for Vadim on f****** Keyboards!!"
" Did I say f***? Oppsss "
Herman Li to himself hehehe.

" Watch out for the f****** barrier man "
" I agree I've been told dude "
ZP lak tercakap hehehe.

On stage banter dorang best giler. Drummer je low profile, lain semua kecoh.
Anyway, report wa.


Dragonforce " Inhuman Rampage World Tour 2007 "
Sunday May 20th 2007
Downtown East D'Marquee, Singapore
Tiket taruk time kul 7pm, tapi biasa ek, aku masuk pun lambat kul 7.50pm. Q panjang giler. Q hardcore fans DF, kul 6 dah macam gini, kat belakang tu dah U-Turn woo Q dia.

Ramai rupanye fans DF, selalu cam gini la, bila ada benda2 gig gini baru aku tahu kat sini ada market untuk bands/lagu2 jenis gini, cuma normal days, kita tak perasan.

That guy wearing the X Japan tshirt got taste ye.
Dragonforce & X Japan - Match made in South Of Heaven hehehe.
Anyway, Security best, tanya pasal nampak aku bawak bag, bring camera? No sir!!. Memang wa tak bootleg video pun hehe.
Dah tu tunggu DF, salah satu lagu main kat speakers ialah Different World - Maiden, ada taste la.
Then kul 8.15 gitu terus lampu padam, and lagu Slayer " Raining Blood " start, ni memang intro DF la.
Then its showtime.


Setlist dia -
Intro - "Raining Blood" Slayer
1. Revolution Deathsquad
2. Fury Of The Storm
3. Operation Ground And Pound
4. Black Fire
5. Trail Of Broken Hearts
6. Vadim Solo
7. Soldiers Of The Wasteland
8. Storming The Burning Fields
9. My Spirit Will Go On
Encore - Bass / Jokes
10. Through The Fire And Flames
11. Valley Of The Damned

Total time 98mins hehehe.
I want to say I am dissapointed because they didn't play Black Winter Night. Sob. I was waiting for it the whole night. That song was played for the Australian / NZ tour just before coming here. Anyway, we did get Black Fire.


The show has this unusual sound, because maybe the sound man/mixing desk is way back. The band also seems to have problems for the first few songs, with lots of signallings done to the crew to solve the sound problem. ZP the singer did even said that since there were barricade problems at the front of the stage with eager fans pushing forward, DF wants to do some soundchecks while the security was handling the fencing issue.

Seems once in a while, ZP needs to take a breather during the solo breaks and he will go to Herman's side to rest.

Like I said earlier, the banter among the band members especially between Sam Totman ( guitar ) and ZP was marvellous. Seems they really enjoy being on stage. Although one negative thing for me is that with the show having no age restriction, some of the language use may not be so appropriate to the youngsters in the crowd. Anyway, the other side of the coin tells me that Heavy Rock/Metal fans are the greatest and the best, and should have no problem filtering the influences and able to accomodate that in different environments. ewah! hehehe.



Layan Herman Li. Pasal dia diri stage bahagian sebelah aku, so banyak la gambo dia hehehe.

I did snap a number of photos when the security guys were not near, the ones on this blog are the less ugly ones hehe. To get near to stage and see the action, I have to go a bit to the wings, its impossible to be at center of the stage, its so packed, dozens of human layers deep and with lots of body movements.

Layan Sam Totman lak.

I am not a huge fan of Dragonforce actually, I discovered and check them out when I realised Iron Maiden choose them as openers some years back, and I thought they must be good to be chosen by Maiden. Although I have all their albums, and enjoy their songs but they dont make me go all out to memorise all the lyrics etc, but seeing them, I think my favourite members must be Sam Totman and the bassist Fred Leclercq.
I think I should check out this band more after this heheehe.


Trail Of Broken Hearts, the slow song for the evening. ZP has this cool old fashioned microphone for him to use on this song.

ZP said " I want to see all Singapore smokers light up their lighters "
Sorry dude, cant participate on that ekekeke.


Anyway, during Operation Ground And Pound, the band do criticise the fans for not knowing all the words LOL!. " Terrible " was one of the comments by them. But I do think they are pleasantly surprised at the response to the gig. DF is unknown here and its nice to see they actually have a following. I have seen the Indonesian Senayan photos of the DF show on Saturday, and that one had awesome response. Indonesians have good taste in music I guess.


Occasionally Vadim ( reminds me of AC/DC style of dressing ) will roam around while leaving his keyboard stands behind.
His keyboards solo begins with the Theme from Godfather, and do include snippets of the Simpsons ( just like that Dream Theater guy ).


Fred. Sometimes I got lucky, I like this photo a lot. ( go inside basket and carry myself, snigger ).


Fred with the Steve Harris stance, & nearer to camera, ZP drenching the crowd with bottled water, and he did throw the water bottles to the crowd, caps removed first, of course.
( Sapa ingat YANTZEN masa reunion Rusty Blade kat tempat sama 2002?? Yang dia lempar botol mineral water, belum bukak tudung, lepas tu satu mamat tengah khayal cakap kat henpon, kena kat kepala? rabak siak Yantzen!!! tapi memang kelakar ah, once kita smua yang diri situ realise mamat tu is ok!!


Herman Li ( further away from Vadim ), doing his licking hehehe. Panjang giler sey rambut Herman Li, sampai kat pinggang dah rambut dia. Macam mana sey dia basuh...
Dekni ni Hong Kong nye orang tau asal dia.


For Trivia lovers or completionist ( does this word exist? LOL! ), after Fred played his bass melodies and the band returned for the encore, Herman was like still in the gents, and seems the joke was he was locked in the toilet, but Fred took over Herman's guitar and start to play on it, and act out Herman's style. I didnt have any nice pix of it, just the one below, but for me its a stand out KODAK moment ( similar to when Deep Purple played here some time back and Roger Glover and Steve Morse exchange their instruments on one of the songs ).


More pics from the rest of the show..

Fred again

ZP again

finishing soon..

finishing very soon...( Mr Clairvoyant Records guy, please bring in Helloween next, I know Iron Maiden is impossible )

near the finishing line already..

The End. A great show. The ticket is reasoanably priced ( the advantage of being an early bird ticket buyer ). Air-con environment, and I like D'Marquee for its great airconditioning, free standing and getting so close to stage.
Last but not least, the view from the rear after the show.
Kalo diri sini, tak nampak la, jauh sangat, so kena menyelit gi depan jugak, tapi koner la.



p.s - Tour Shirt dia satu je, abis tu muka Dragonforce nye orang, leceh ah pakai tshirt ada muka orang, so aku tak beli...mahal jugak $30. Tapi belakang dia ada tour dates la. Style belakang dia. Indonesia nye gig tshirt lawa, aku nengok gambar kat internet.

p.p.s - Everytime aku gi Downtown East, asyik tukar2 je, atau aku yang jarang amat pegi sana. Yang melayu2 nye stalls makanan halal renovate dah grand ek, aku beli roti john, banyak jugak la $3 lepas show makan ngan kawan2. Ok la kenyang..

Next show apa ek? siot wa dah tua, nak kena reduce hiburan...reduce....!! eekekeke.