Axel celebrated his 25th Anniversary last year with an all-star concert event featuring guests from throughout his esteemed career.
From his early days in Steeler, to his early solo career with Jeff Scott Soto, through to today, continuing on with Johnny Gioeli.
The concert takes a cool snapshot of that entire span in chronological order.
Unfortunately it starts with the worst segment of the night, the Steeler reunion, all mainly due to the rough and largely unlikable vocalist Peter Burtz.
Thankfully we go from the basement to the penthouse after just 4 tracks, when Rob Rock jumps onboard for Nasty Reputation, the title track of the album he fronted.
Then it’s on to Jeff Scott Soto, who slays the crowd as usual with Warrior and Fool Fool.
The current ARP band is then ushered to the stage to deliver some Axel goodness. 3 of the next 5 tunes are over 9 minutes in length and one is 7. It’s Axel at his epic best, with Johnny singing his heart out. Strong As A Rock and Long Way To Go are both high energy delights and a 9 minute Hey Hey Now Now is the very definition of epic.
30 minutes of crossover tracks and live favourites follow until a few more covers appear – Montrose’s Rock The Nation is short, sharp and to the point; Ronnie Atkins joins in for Black Night; Tush features John Lawton and a 14 minute Mistreated features Doogie White, Tony Carey and Johnny Gioeli.
Graham Bonnet, Michael Voss, Doogie White tear down Since You’ve Been Gone, with Long Live Rock n Roll and completely over the top Smoke On The Water close out this truly epic event.
3CDs or DVDs might not be enough for flag waving ARP fan club members, but for the general populace, it’s more than enough and a fitting high quality way to pay tribute to one of Germany’s finest ever guitarists and metal legends.
Truly one for the fans here.
