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Iced Earth


Event: Iced Earth
Written by: Gobobbles
Published: 25.04.2004


SORRY NO PICTURES SO I'LL TRY TO BE DESCRIPTIVE

Well where to start, from the beginning I guess would be the best spot. Evergrey took the stage first performing as many of there popular songs as they could fit into the short 45 minutes alotted them to perform. They led off with "Blinded" which kicked everyone's ass and finished with "The Great Deceiver" which also kicked everyone's ass, but to be honest this was the first time I had seen Evergrey live and I was unimpressed other than those two songs. Don't get me wrong I really love their studio work, but live they left something to be desired. I don't blame the musisians for this problem I blame the sound crew, because with the sound was where the problem lied (way too much bass.)

Next up was Children of Bodom. The crowd was chanting "Bodom, Bodom" before the band even took the stage so the atmosphere made their performance that much better. Now I am not a big fan of Children of Bodom, but I really liked there show. With not being a fan I couldn't tell you most of the songs they played, but I do know they finished with "Everytime I Die" and it blew me away.

Now we come to it, the best performance I have ever seen (live and dvd included.) Iced Earth took the stage and opened with "Declaration Day" and nailed it flawlessly. The next song was "Burning Times" (the song I thought they would play first) this is the one that had me nervous. The whole week I was worrying about how Tim "The Ripper" Owens would perform the "non-Glorious Burden" songs and all my worries vanished when he began his version of "Burning Times." When I say "his version" I don't mean he completely blows off the way Barlow sang the songs, but Owens has a different voice and it does sound different, but definatly not bad. They played songs from all of their albums except Burnt Offerings (you'll have to ask Jon Schaffer about that.) I was hoping they would either play Dante's Inferno or The Something Wicked Trilogy and by them not playing anything off of Offerings you can guess which one they played. After the Trilogy they did their fake ending and walked off the stage thanking Milwaukee, etc. Everyone started up the chant "Iced Earth, Iced Earth" and after about three minutes four stage hands carrying two white banners (one per pair of stage hands) walked out onto the stage and put a banner one on each side of the drum set. I can't speak for everyone, but I had no idea what the banners were. About a minute later the band came back out, Schaffer was wearing a Confederate Civil War uniform and Santolla (lead guitar) was wearing a Union uniform. This was when the banners were turned to reveal an American flag on Santolla's side of the stage and a Confederate flag on Schaffer's side, the guitarists were also each wielding the repective flag on their guitars. When the stage hands were off the stage Schaffer started up "The Devil to Pay" (the first song in the Gettysburg Trilogy) and the entire crowd knew they were in for something special. They played the entire Gettysburg Trilogy to perfection, but that still wasn't it they finished it all off with the song Iced Earth and left everyone feeling awestruck and without hearing. Iced Earth's set was roughly three hours!!!!

-DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW, WORTH ANY PRICE OF ADMISSION





Guest article disclaimer:
This is a guest article, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.



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