Monday, May 13, 2024

Why we need fantasy: Some thoughts from a Blind Guardian concert, May 11, 2024 at the Worcester Palladium

I'm in there! Somewhere back left...

No one ever dares to speak
It's nothing else but fantasy
It's make believe,
Make believe
No one ever dares to speak
It's nothing else but fantasy
But One day it will all come to life

--Blind Guardian, Fly

How did you spend your Saturday night? I was in a hall you might know, called … VALHALLA!

Or maybe it was the Worcester Palladium. 

Either way, I was somewhere else. And that’s a good thing. 

We need fantasy in our lives.

Blind Guardian lead singer Hansi Kuersch screams at the end of “Valhalla,” No, we can’t live without gods! He and his bandmates put to powerful music what many of us who breathe deeply of this type of thing have come to know: 

We can’t live without fantasy. It is indispensable as air or water:

Songs I will sing of tribes and kings
The carrion bird and the hall of the slain
Nothing seems real
You soon will feel
The world we live in is another Skald’s
Dream in the shadows

--Skalds and Shadows

We’re all just telling stories. Reality is what we make of it. 

Blind Guardian knows this, and takes us to other places, fair and perilous lands where magic is real. Lands we once knew, but have forgotten. As we age our fantasies wither. We prioritize work and money, and embrace conformity and dull routine. 

Stranded in the real world
Left in the world
No place for daydreams
Serious life
I fall into
I fall into a dark hole
And I can't come out
Do you know if Merlin did exist
Or Frodo wore the ring
Did Corum kill the gods
Or where's the wonderland
Which young Alice had seen
Or was it just a dream
I knew the answers
Now they're lost for me


But fantasy calls, from the other side.

We might be lost, but Blind Guardian knows there is another world. Which can break down the walls around your heart. For a short time on Saturday at least.

Blind Guardian delivered on this stop on The God Machine tour. They were great. The setlist is below.

As always it’s a privilege to see a band of their magnitude in a place like The Palladium, which has a listed capacity of 2660. Blind Guardian plays to much larger crowds overseas.

Take a bow, dudes. 
Maybe you don’t need German power metal bands in your life. That’s OK, with a good book or a well-done movie you can get (some) of what Blind Guardian offers. Enchantment, to restore a disenchanted world.

What you don’t get in a book or a movie however is the power of being in a big group of like-minded people, all experiencing the same powerful call. Chanting, “Valhalla, Deliverance!” like Viking warriors of old.

Where was I Saturday night? The lands of Faerie, or Worcester? 

Both my friends.

Setlist

Imaginations from the Other Side
Blood of the Elves
Nightfall
The Script for My Requiem
Violent Shadows
Skalds and Shadows
Deliver us from Evil
Secrets of the American Gods
The Bard’s Song
Majesty
Traveler in Time
Sacred Worlds
Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)
Valhalla
Mirror Mirror

Here's a bit of "Nightfall" from my cell phone:



4 comments:

  1. I'm so jealous! The last (and only) time I saw them live was in 2010 for their At the Edge of Time tour. But what a show it was! Hansi is not just an amazing singer, but he also has great stage presence that practically pulls you into whatever world he's singing about. Blind Guardian is definitely in my top three metal bands, alongside Iron Maiden and Manilla Road.

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  2. Thanks Ian. Yeah, his banter is on another level and he's great at getting the crowd involved ... a showman!

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  3. Yeah, I'm jealous, too. They're just one of the best

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  4. The Wasp: Agreed... many put Blind Guardian at or very near the top of the power metal genre. Great performers no matter how you categorize them.

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