The motive to watch Geoff Tate live is always strong. Especially, if you are going to enjoy two records that left their mark on heavy metal music and are loved by the people. “Rage For Order” and “Empire” are two of the records that, each for different reasons, will go down in history as monuments.
I will ask Emerald Sun to forgive me for not covering their support appearance. The incredible traffic on Saturday night in Thessaloniki due to the “brilliant” idea of the city’s authorities to organize a night Marathon, caused a distance of ten minutes to take almost an hour to cover. A thousand apologies to the guys once again! The above reason was probably the reason that Geoff Tate and his band started their performance at 22.00.
We knew what this appearance would entail from the beginning. It remained to make sure that the charismatic singer would make us feel the chills of emotion that we were waiting for. And yes, he managed to do that with his first screams on “Walk In The Shadows”. The demanding songs of “Rage For Order” were performed excellently by him and quite well by the musicians who surrounded him. I say pretty well because I didn’t expect these talented guys to be able to pull off the sound and the feeling of Wilton and De Garmo. The effort was made to perform as faithfully as possible to the album and it succeeded. It’s important to notice that “Surgical Strike” was dedicated to the victims of the war in Ukraine.
After a twenty minute break, “Empire” got the same warm welcome as “Rage For Order”, both from Tate and from the crowd which unfortunately was around four hundred people only. Notable was Tate’s use of saxophone on “The Thin Line” as always, something that the audience seemed to like a lot.
Tate’s distinctive, theatrical and in excellent condition voice really moved everyone and the audience experienced some great moments, even after the end of the insurmountable “Anybody Listening?” which closed the main set and this because they were followed by “Last Time In Paris”, a special performance of “Take Hold Of The Flame” without its introduction and at a faster tempo and “Queen Of The Reich” which closed the show with an ecstatic audience.
It was a really great performance by Geoff Tate that leaves promises for a next appearance in our country!
Dimitris Kazantzis
Photos: Dimitris Kazantzis/Elias Aravides
Setlist: Walk In The Shadows, I Dream In Infra Red, The Whisper, Gonna Get Close To You, The Killing Words, Surgical Strike, Neue Regel, Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion), London, Screaming In Digital, I Will Remember, Best I Can, The Thin Line, Jet City Woman, Della Brown, Another Rainy Night (Without You), Empire, Resistance, Silent Lucidity, Hand On Heart, One And Only, Anybody Listening?, Last Time In Paris, Take Hold Of The Flame, Queen Of The Reich
