Post by Acekicken on Aug 17, 2005 12:56:33 GMT -5
Sebastian Bach
It’s been something like thirteen years since I last saw Sebastian playing live in Finland with his old buddies Skid Row. I therefore had a lot of expectations for this gig. Sebastian and the boys opened with “Slave To The Grind” and followed it up with “Big Guns”, which, for lack of better term, was simply amazing. A vast portion of their set consisted of tunes from first two Skid Row albums and I think they made the right decision. The rest of the song selection was a mixture of songs from third Skid Row album subHUMAN RACE, and some from Bach’s solo debyt BRING EM' BACK ALIVE. They also played a significant amount of tunes from their still unreleased new album, in including “American Metal Head” and “Take You Down With Me”. I don't think their new material is the same calibre as the old stuff but it sounded very heavy and promising. A surprise performer called Sofia, who is a young Swedish singer/songwriter who did a cover version of Skid Row’s “Wasted Time”, came on stage and sang it together with Sebastian. That worked out quite well. Sebastian Bach's voice was great as ever (I guess all that singing in musicals is paying off) and he hit the high notes whenever he wanted and was in perfect control. It is rare to see a band with a "screaming" vocalist match the screaming done in the studio during a live performance. It was also strange to see Metal Mike (Testament, Halford) playing in Seb’s band but he really did a fine job on the guitar. Actually this was his third performance in last three years in Swedenrock festival. The rest of the band (Bobby Jaromzek, Steve Di’Giorgio, Johnny Chromatic) was really solid and on the mark. Some of the more "mellow" songs were performed more harshly but it was still sounding great. Overall this was one of the best and strongest performances in this year festival!
****
Setlist :
Slave To The Grind
Big Guns
Frozen
American Metal Head
Piece of Me
Rock and Roll
Here I Am
Wasted Time
Livin on a Chain Gang
18 and Life
Monkey Business
Riot Act
The Threat
I Remember You
Take you down with me
Youth Gone Wild
