A hot afternoon gave place to a stormy and rainy night in Rio De Janeiro, and Teatro Odisséia had to put some umbrellas outside of the house to protect the public from a summer storm in the city. But nothing that made the public go away, for this was the night for a BLAZE BAYLEY show, a part of the "Soundtrack Of My Life" Brazilian tour. The place was taken by a good amount of public, waiting anxiously for Blaze, but first, came a calm and warm acoustic show with Thomas Zwijsen, the guitarist that has been playing with Blaze for some years.
With an acoustic guitar in hand, and having the public singing (yes, the crowd was singing along as he played), he shows a lot of sympathy and good communication with people. His playing style reminds somewhat between the Classical music and the Spanish acoustic guitar form of play, with some virtuous accords in old IRON MAIDEN songs, as "Aces High", "Blood Brothers", and the hit "Fear of the Dark", all of them being followed by chants from the crowd, as well as screams. But he played as well a fine version for "Behind Blue Eyes", from the ancient English dinosaurs THE WHO.
A good warm up, indeed, but we want to hear your own songs next time Thomas.
Setlist:
1. Aces High
2. Fear of the Dark
3. Run to the Hills
4. Behind Blue Eyes (THE WHO cover)
5. Blood Brothers
The Thomas show just ended, and he took the electric guitar, and along with TAILGUNNERS members (Lennon Biscasse on bass, Lely Biscasse on guitars and Gustavo Franceschet on drums. Just hear the new album, "The Gloomy Night" and you'll know why they were chosen to be in the band for this tour), and BLAZE BAYLEY entered the stage, and the band unleashed the classic "Lord of the Flies", being followed by "The Launch", "Futureal" and "Judgement of Heaven". The entire show was a mix between old IRON MAIDEN songs from Blaze era, as well a lot of material from his career as BLAZE and BLAZE BAYLEY. And all of them are fines pieces of Metal, and are great justifications for some fans prefer Blaze on IRON MAIDEN than Bruce's return. But this is another talk, for another time.
Blaze, at the stage, shows as a great vocalist (he sings in the same way you can hear on CD, if isn't better than this), a great frontman (taking all the crowd attention for all the show), a great entertainer (he talks, makes jokes and put the crowd on fire at every moment, showing good mood on stage and out of it), and a great person (below you'll see the main reason for I am talking about this), along with a fine musicians (
Thomas and
Lely are fine guitarists and show a lot of sympathy on stage;
Lennon is a great bassist, as well he has a lot of energy, never being stopped in the same place for many time; and
Gustavo's drumming is too good to explain. You must see him!). And the crowd was in ecstasy, going crazy in every song played, with Blaze having anyone of us in his hands, singing great songs as
"Robot",
"Virus", but the greater moments were, with no shadow of doubts, when
"The Sign of the Cross" and
"The Clansman" were played. All in the house screamed "Freedom" with all strength possible (my throat is severely damage, but I don't mind, hahahaha).
"Man on the Edge" was preceded by a discuss of
Blaze about how he loves Brazil, and just before the last music, he said to the crowd: "this is the last song, and after this, I'll be there, in the bar, waiting for you", and played
"The Angel and the Gambler", where a duel of guitars between
Thomas and
Lely occurred. And as it ended, so was the show, and Blaze got down from the stage, went to the bar and signed CDs and magazines, took pics with the fans and talked to everyone, until the last fan. Some Metal bands could remember that all of them came from underground, and have the same action…
A great event, so, congratulations for Open the Road Agency and Teatro Odisséia for one greater event. And also special thanks to Daniel Croce for the photography.
Setlist:
1. Lord of the Flies
2. The Launch
3. Futureal
4. Judgement of Heaven
5. The Brave
6. Como Estais Amigos
7. Stare at the Sun
8. Lightning Strikes Twice
9. Robot
10. Virus
11. Sign of the Cross
12. Soundtrack of My Life
13. The King of Metal
14. The Clansman
15. Man on the Edge
16. The Angel and the Gambler
