Wed 15 Oct – Kamelot, Edguy

I'd heard many great things about Kamelot live, and that, combined with my liking of them, convinced me to go to this show. The venue (B.B. Kings) seems a bit small for a metal show, and the sound wasn't too great for some of the night. But still, overall I had a great night. But the other fans were pretty crappy (or just the ones near me). On one side of me were two guys headbanging to a nightwish song before the show started, and near them were two young girls headbanging really badly, and singing along to Kamelot and dancing to them as if they were the Jonas Brothers (not to mention that their 50-something year old dad was forced to go...). I know Kamelot aren't too heavy, but what's with all the falses?

Now onto the show. Arctic Flame (a local band) opened up, and were ok. Nothing too special, but they fit (they played power metal). The sound was really bad for these guys though.

But Edguy was amazing! I sort of expected a great show, considering the fun nature of their music, but damn this was more fun than I expected. They sounded pretty good, and they all seemed to be really into it (especially Tobias Sammet) and enjoying themselves, and Tobias did a great job of interacting with the crowd, which made the show that much more fun. Their set was short for "special guests", but it was a very good set nonetheless.

1.Mysteria
2.Sacrifice
3.Lavatory Love Machine
4.Tears of a Mandrake
5.Superheroes
6.Vain Glory Opera
7.King of Fools

I really enjoyed Edguy and would very gladly go to another show of theirs. Tobias said that they plan to come to New York again in September, so I'll try to make it.

Next up was the headliner, Kamelot. Long story short, they played everything perfectly and Khan sounded great. They all seemed to enjoy it (except for the female guest vocalist, who seemed like she had no clue of what was going on). Khan was pretty entertaining as a frontman, but it was almost impossible to upstage Tobias. Still, he was fun, the crowd loved it, and they played a great show. But the drums were WAY too high in the mix. And Kamelot seems to need a second guitarist, because the solos sound a bit odd without anything behind them. But that's a a minor complaint. The setlist was great (although rather predictable). Since this was my first Kamelot show, I didn't mind at all.

Intro (not Solitaire)
1.Rule the World
2.When the Lights are Down
3.Soul Society
4.The Pendulous Fall
5.Center of the Universe
6.Abandoned
7.Descent of the Archangel
8.Instrumental/Drum Solo
9.The Human Stain
10.The Haunting (Somewhere In Time)
11.Eden Echo
12.Keyboard Solo
13.Forever
Encore:
14.Ghost Opera
15.Epilogue
16.Karma
17.March of Mephisto

Also, Khan's reaction was priceless when someone shouted "KAMELTOE!". It was nice to see such a serious-sounding band have a good time. Definitely worth seeing again, but I hope they upgrade to the Nokia Theater, which is a much better metal venue (where Iced Earth and Into Eternity were the next night--review coming soon).