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Dio 03 May 2000
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Dio 03 May 2000
This was
the first time I went to see Dio. I never was fond of his kind of music: too
dark, too cliché-hard rock, with all those Middle Age stuff, like monsters and
fairies. But I’ve had read some nice reviews on the Net, especially that he
sang lots of Rainbow things. So, why not? First I bought Magica. One has to know
his stuff, don’t we? I’ve listened to it about 5 times in my car. And as
I’ve said before: very dark, lots of clichés. But I have to confess that it
grew on me after a while; there were some things that I started liking. I bought
some tickets via Internet and away we were. We: my usual concert friend Johan
and I. The gig was in Borgerhout, near Antwerp; we could easily see why people
name it “Borgerocco’ with all those allochtonous living there. What can I tell about ‘Shadowkeep’ the support? Well it was loud, bad, falsetto screaming, more bad, not singing, worse… in fact the worst support band I have ever seen (and normally a Deep Purple support is bad [except for Gotthard], but those guys – and a female guitarist, with beautiful hair- they did beat them all! And I was not the only one complaining. After 40 very long minutes I could re-enter the hall, it was over!
It took the
roadies quite a long time to set the stage up. But at last, at 21:35 it began! Immediately
my first problem rose: I don’t know any of his songs, nor the titles. Luckily
Ronny James announced most of them, except for this first one: Sunset Superman. His voice
was great and full of energy. Smiling all the time, shaking hands with those on
the front. Nice guitar solo. But the bass player, isn’t he too young to be Jimmy
Bain? Later we found out his first name was Chuck. Well, Chuck was a real
showman, full with energy. Some one in the audience had made a banner which
Ronnie was quite fond off: “nice one!” Invisible: he is at one moment singing right in front of me (I
was on first row, left, about 50 cm away from those big and very loud speakers!)
again a fight to shake his hand (I succeeded, yes! ;-) Gypsy: again he made a remark about the banner. Pity the
guitar player kept all evening on his spot on the right of the stage, except for
an exceptional case. I liked this song. The first one in the show I really
liked. The other songs? I don’t know; but I was not bored. This early in the
show we had a drumsolo. Man that guy hits them hard! A nice one with lots of
rhythm and strobe effects. It lasted a furious 4 minutes. Next was
one that drew great response from the crowd: Stand
Up And Shout Another good song I liked. One small piece of Blackmoresque
guitar playing – maybe 3 seconds, but definitely sounding like the Master.
Again Dio’s voice stroke my attention. The raving crowd was chanting “Dio
Dio Dio…!” “Another
one you have not heard in a while:” One Night In The
City.
I started liking the show, it would probably have been better if I knew
all his songs, but I have enough work with Purple and Rainbow (and Rory
Gallagher and Uriah Heep, but those not so fanatical). This song reminded me a
bit of Whitesnake (bwuaaark), maybe because of the title? I wondered what that
keyboard player was doing on stage? Except for his manners, one did not notice
him. In fact as he was just in front of me, he was working on me nerves with his
show-off gestures. All The Fools sailed away. A nice song, but too loud, stage was
becoming a real wall of sound, and I think that song could miss that. Again that
“Dio”-chanting. “We have
a new CD out. Here it is, from beginning to the end!” Magica! I did not jot the names of the songs down during this
part of the show, cos there was no break during them, it sounded all like one.
At one scary moment Ronnie James was singing above a red spotlight. The guy in
front of him must have now a superb picture of him. Dio and the bass player were
having quite a ball on stage, smiling at each other; they really did have fun.
Though the guitarist was sighing from time to time, that could have been the
heath on the smoking stage. At first I thought the smoke was a gimmick by the
band, but it was caused by cigarettes. The music was getting too loud; I had
difficulties to hear Ronnie without disturbances. At one
moment Dio is giving the keyboard player the infamous “Blackmore-look”. The
reason for this I don’t know, but they didn’t seem to get along fine. The
guitarist was trying to do a soft piece, but that did not seem to work, followed
by a bass – and guitar solo. Yes, he is a fast player, but I was thinking: who
cares? The
beginning of “Challis” reminds
me a lot of ‘Cat Scratch Fever” by Ted Nugent, and I was not the only one
who thought so. You know that Dio can walk under the guitar-arm of the guitar
player? Well he did. “Loosing my Insanity” I liked too, a bit à la
Blackmore’s Night, but heavier, and live it was a bit too heavy, though still
a good one. Maybe the best song on the CD? Dio
gestured that it is too hot on stage. After this
main part of the evening, the –almost – complete Magica CD (excl “Turn to
Stone” and the themes). The crowd went nuts again with Holy
Diver Again I
could shake Dio’s hand. At 22:56 it
was over. Though I am not familiar with his music I had a good time. Almost 2
minutes later they returned to the stage, with another drummer, people told me
it was the former Dio drummer. (It was not!) Rainbow
in the Dark Another one most of the audience knew (except for me).
Suddenly, much to Dio’s surprise, another singer stood on stage, with a –
cheap Aldi - beer can in his hand. Again I did not know who he was, though I saw
him recently on the tele: Bruce Dickinson! (The drummer was his). They continued
the song together, which drew great response from the crowd. As a final
encore they did Last in Line.
Hey!
Nothing from Rainbow!? This was the main reason why I came to this show! Ronnie
showed the banner he liked to the audience, signed it and returned it to the
proud owner. A bit later
they did return, playing Man On The Silver
Mountain. What can I
say? That I prefer the Rainbow-version is a slight understatement, but it was
not bad, though disappointing short. Bruce hopped by, sitting on some ones back. For the
next one Bruce joined Ronny again: Long Live Rock and
Roll. This lasted a bit longer, with
Bruce singing completely out of tune, doing oohs and aahs (he was drunk anyway).
The whole place exploded! A short bass-solo and then back to MOTSM.
Now –
23:19- it was over. “You are
a bunch of greedy bastards!” Mob Rules. The crowd
went insane again. At 23:25 it was really over. I compared
notes with the nice and friendly girl behind me (the one who told me that the
nut was Bruce Dickinson). She took notes to write them in her diary. We both
were interested in each others song
titles. Neither of us knew them well. Johan and I
were talking about the gig with some friends of ours, we know from the Belgian
Deep Purple fanclub. We all found it a good gig; it could have been better if I
had known his stuff already. But I had a good time. And that is what counts,
doesn’t it? As usual I asked one of the roadies if I could have the printed set list, taped to the floor. And as most of the times that was no problem. At least I have now the correct titles, and I went looking for that girl again, who was glad to see me with that sheet.
There was
one thing that I was disappointed in: all the encores were written on that sheet
of paper, including the one after ‘you are a bunch of greedy…” That was
the minor point of the evening I think.
Next
appointment: Antwerp 30 September for Deep Purple, third row! |
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