They came, they sang and they won over the audience

Serenity – fzw, Dortmund; April 16th 2014

Some time last year I had done an interview with Midriff. I knew only a few of their songs, but I liked those so I had waited for a chance to see them live. It came when they went on tour with Serenity and played in Dortmund. I didn’t know much about Serenity and had not even checked out Beyond the Bridge, the other support act. Still, I was looking forward to this concert and it turned out to be a really nice evening.

When I arrived there seemed to be more photographers than fans around and I felt sorry for the bands. It can’t be fun to play in front of such a small audience. A few more people arrived before Midriff started, but it was still rather empty when they walked on stage. The trio took their places and powered through their set. It was pretty cool if much louder than I had expected. The drumming was precise, the riffs were hard and the rough singing voice fit all this very well. They didn’t do me the favor of playing one of their slower songs, but I still enjoyed watching them perform. They visibly had fun and were much into it. 🙂 At the end of the set they gave out little bottles of Jägermeister (their sponsor). Yet they didn’t need to bribe the audience. They had been cheering already. A nice start.

Setlist from Innsbruck (I think Dortmund was about the same):

Hard Way
Outcry
Pumping Iron
Broken Dreams
The Regime Falls
Before I Wake

Midriff pictures

I spent the short break they needed to reset the stage with the other photographers in the house chatting about our job and how it was back in the days before digital cameras. When Beyond the Bridge walked on stage we were back in business. 🙂 I honestly do not have a good recollection of what they played or any specific song. They were quite listenable, but I was very focussed on taking pictures, because they were interesting to watch. Their melodies were more complex than Midriffs and it seemed they had a harder time getting through to the audience, but they still managed to get them to participate. It might have had something to do with the fact that the female lead singer was a looker whose top made it hard not to stare at her boobs. She sang well too, but that wasn’t the first thing I noticed. Anyway, the band was entertaining and did their jobs well. Soon after their set they were out at the merchandise stand chatting – nice people. 🙂

Setlist:
I could not find it anywhere, sorry

Beyond The Bridge pictures

Finally the band the audience had really been waiting for entered the stage and with the first nots of music playing the people in front of the stage went nuts. They clearly loved their band and soon I understood why. They were absolutely amazing at connecting with the audience. Especially Georg, one of their two lead singers was always at the front, talking to people, shaking hands, making eye contact. It was really hard not to be drawn into this and rock along.

Serenity’s music was very listenable melodic metal. Nothing I would listen to much at home, but nice to hear and I just loved watching them power through the songs. Clementine, the other lead singer sounded amazing and I had much fun watching her hair fly as she banger her head. In fact the whole band seemed to have tons of fun, they were on the move a lot and played powerfully. There enthralling performance completely turned this concert from a nice one into a great one. I totally loved it.

Photographing them was just as much fun as with the other two bands. Especially their keyboarder seemed happy to see me walk over to his corner. 🙂 The concert had quite a few funny moments as well. At one point Georg talked to two guys in the audience because they were chatting and they immediately quipped they were debating which one of them would get to take him home. He asked why and if maybe it was because of his leather pants so the guys replied that it was his nice haircut (he is bald). Just hilarious.

Towards the end of the show, the band even took a request from the audience and they also didn’t fail two point out the two fans who had been following them for several concerts. Overall they were really energetic and put all they had into the show, even though the audience was small. We all thanked them with lots of cheers. When it ended, I was happy and just wished every band would give 110% like that.

Setlist

Intro (Game of Thrones main theme)
The Matricide
Coldness Kills
Velatum
Legacy of Tudors
The Chevalier
Fairytales
Journey’s End
Reduced to Nothingness
Royal Pain
Heavenly Mission
Wings of Madness

Encore:
Age of Glory
Serenade of Flames
Forever (request)

Serenity pictures

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