Saxon @ Bataclan, Paris May 12 2011

Contact: irockinparis((@))yahoo((dot))fr

Saxon @ Bataclan, Paris May 12 2011

SORRY: Impossible to connect to Blogger for a whole day and the review of WIRE @ La Machine has disappeared.

We don't go to Heavy Metal gigs (very often) anymore but we couldn't miss Saxon.
Lots of people tonight , much more than last time when they've played with Iced Earth, the balcony was closed.
The audience consisted of mainly male in their 40's -50's most of them bald or with grey hair and in full gear (denim jacket with patches and black tee-shirts) which is a bit sad as it shows that they don't appeal to new generations.
Surprisingly tickets were not very expensive ( 35 euros).
We won't talk about the two support bands, we didn't see the first one and the second one was laughable, they even managed to kill Ronnie James Dio another time by butchering "Holy Diver".

Saxon chose to start the gig with a new song "Hammer of the Gods" not the best choice to start with, but they will play many songs from the back catalogue.
Won't tell you that we like the new songs as they are what we call "Dumb Heavy Metal" which Saxon never was, Saxon has always been a Hard Rock band or a Heavy Rock band but recently it seems that they want to keep up with younger bands or appeal to youngsters by playing Heavy Metal and they do sound boring when so.
Saxon can't be beaten when they're playing the old shit, the end of the show was epic with "Princess of the Night" (Here on video), "Crusader", "747 Strangers...", "Strong arm of the Law", "Wheels of Steel".

setlist

So mixed emotions, some dull parts and some (very) good parts.

Merchandising

"Princess of the Night"